Imogene Hardy Stewart passed on December 8, 2015. She was born in Joplin,
Missouri on September 8, 1928, but Wagoner, OK was the home of her youth and
her beloved Seymour, TX is where she retired with her true love Major Stewart.
They met in Wagoner during World War II and shared 69 years of marriage.

If you don't mind, I want to tell you about my younger mother. I know each of us
think our Mom is the best, but really, my Mom was exceptional. She published at
12, wrote poetry, fiction, nonfiction and newspaper articles forever. She was
beautiful and modeled; she did photo ops for a Queen Elizabeth look-a-like
contest in the 50's. She sang with Wanda Jackson and backed up Jimmy Dean on
TV in OKC. She could Rumba and played softball. She worked at Tinker Air Force
base in the OSI (Office of Special Investigations) to help Dad through college and
then got her Masters in English. (She drove to school from Grove, Oklahoma to
Tahlequah while still working.) She was both a high school English and journalism
teacher. She completed every project she started, many, many projects.

She loved camping, skiing, couldn't swim, and flying. She had no fear. Well, she
hated an MRI.

And she was a young mom. A girl and a boy. She spoiled her daughter Pat and
absolutely adored her son Mike. She even inducted him as a Bluebird into my
Camp Fire group before it became co-ed in 1975. This worked well for Mike; he
had three daughters. Mom was simply giddy when she was with the girls in
Texas. When in California, she treasured seeing my step-daughter blossom from
country kid into a mother herself. She wanted each granddaughter to know that
they were FAMILY and loved. She dedicated volume two of her poems
"Afterthoughts" to "my beautiful granddaughters, Kelly, Kristin, Sarah and Maya".

Love was not finite to Mom. There was always more love. I never heard Mom say
one negative thing about anyone, although she and my Dad's dad argued about
making coffee. She adored her parents George and Elizabeth and treasured her 9
brothers and sisters. She never really left them and wanted to keep her big family
together. My generation is blessed with memories of gatherings of all the aunts
and uncles and cousins. She tried to add to that family as nieces and nephews
were born with visits, cards, and coin. Mom wanted the young ones to have
some feeling of belonging to the Hardy family in good times and bad.

For years after Mom and Dad moved to Seymour, my Mom and I emailed each
other every day, short sentences usually about recipes and family events. On
weekends, we would talk on the phone. She loved Seymour, her Red Hats, the
Senior Citizen lunches, her neighbors, Game Night, their little church, the Tractor
sale, the writing club, The Banner, singing and playing dominoes with old and new
friends. Her tales made me giggle: when a tornado was close to the Tractor sale,
Mom proudly emailed that the pies had been saved … Mom and Dad would
always leave church quickly so that they might get a good seat at the DQ before
the Baptists got there. They loved the DQ.

But what I am most proud of is that my mother was such a dreamer. She wanted
to be a gypsy and travel the states in an Air Stream. She wanted to be Dad's co-
pilot and write romance novels. She liked to try something new. She joined a
national gold panning association, started a fishing magazine, was a member a
several poetry and journal societies, and tried a few small businesses. She
learned to use a computer and the internet after being retired. No limits on
learning. She was a romantic.

Now in my seventies, I appreciate the gifts my mother gave to me, but the
greatest is one she gave me as a child. Starting in early grade school, I would read
a slip of paper she had taped to our bathroom mirror. Before she passed on 12-8-
15, I thanked her for this great gift and recited it back to her:

Private interment for Major and Imogene Stewart will be held at Pioneer Cemetery in
Wagoner, Oklahoma.