Catherine Louise Meares

Catherine Meares passed from this life on October 31, 2024 at the age of 88. She was born in Tulsa, OK, April 2, 1936, to Marshall Wager Franks and Virginia Ruth (Moss) Franks. It was a year of record heat and her mother would lay her on a blanket on the living room floor with a damp tea towel draped across her under a fan to keep her cool. She grew up the oldest of two girls. They lived in Westville, Oklahoma where their parents owned and operated a small grocery store, and where they owned a goat and a few chickens. At the outbreak of WWII, she would tell stories of the traveling salesman who would bring them chewing gum that they did, in fact, put on the bed post at night because it was rationed and a real treat. Within a year of the onset of the war, their father left to work in the shipyards on the west coast and they moved back to Tulsa while their mother worked in the aircraft industry, a true Rosie the Riveter. They shared a small two-bedroom apartment with another young mother working at the same plant and her two children. She was active in Girl Scouts earning every badge available in Home Economics and Business and enjoyed summers at Camp Scott. Raised at Faith Tabernacle where her father was song leader and her mother taught Sunday School, they were there every time the door opened. Her parents enjoyed hosting ice cream socials in their back yard and they traveled many summers out to California to see relatives. Cathy's speed in typing and shorthand in her high school business classes gained her high marks at regional Secondary School Business Education competitions. She also took piano lessons while in high school, and it was while she was accompanying a young men's quartet that she met her high school sweetheart, Jerry Smith. He would often hang around to take her home at the end of her shift as a store clerk at the downtown Clarks Department Store. They graduated together, part of Tulsa Central High School's celebrated 50th graduating class in 1954. She went on to attend the University of Tulsa, studying Organ, Business and Home Economics. But following her freshman year, she left college to marry Jerry. During their 22 years of marriage, they raised four children. During that time she was active as PTA President, a Girl Scout chapter leader, volunteered with Sunday School activities at Central Assembly of God, and it was not uncommon for 20 or more children from the neighborhood to be playing in the backyard of their home near 15th and Owasso. She stayed busy driving her children to piano, tennis, voice, scouting, youth activities and painting classes. She was a master at stretching the family budget to feed the family of six. One particular concoction to reuse leftovers was not a family favorite and they would often grimace when the answer to "what's for dinner?" was her overly cheerful "Something Good!" Cathy was an accomplished seamstress, and often stayed up into the wee hours before Easter and other holidays making matching outfits for their three daughters. She also avidly knitted and crocheted. So when Sears and Roebuck stores posted a job for knitting instructors, she took her first job outside of the home. Eventually the store chain expanded their craft department, and she was sent to their headquarters to be trained as the department head. She enrolled in Tole Painting classes at the Little Red Tole House in Tulsa, studying under the nationally published Priscilla Hauser. But she kept her secretarial skills honed. She moved into the position of Practice Administrator for the beloved Tulsa pediatrician, David Underwood, MD., in Utica Square. After closing his practice at his death, she transitioned into increasingly demanding positions as administrative assistants for the executives of Sloan Drilling, Quadrex, IMC Exploration, and as Administrative Manager for Nordam in Tulsa. It was at a dance that a friend urged her to attend that she met James E. Meares from Muskogee. They married in 1985 and enjoyed 27 years of ballroom dancing, entertaining family, and traveling extensively. His woodworking prowess niched well with her painting skills and together they produced many wonderful gifts for friends and family. She loved dressing in period costume as they took James's restored vintage autos out for shows and parades. But she really hit her stride in 1988 when she acquired her realtors license. Selling first for Prudential and then for Keller Williams, she was a strategic creative marketer and was consistently recognized as a high producer. She remained friends for years with many of her homeowners. In her retirement years, she came full circle, back to her love of knitting, teaching classes once again at Hobby Lobby. With a knitting bag often strapped to her walker, she told her friends at Burgundy Place, "I guess I'm just a knit-wit!". Among the loved ones who preceded her in death and welcoming her to her new home were her parents, grandson Ryan Wilmoth, husband James Meares, niece Cindy Merholtz, and many aunts and uncles to whom she remained close. Surviving are her sister Sue Sims of Tulsa, four children, daughter Beth Brown (Ken) and son David Smith (Nancy), both of Norman, OK, daughter Angie Wilmoth of Midwest City, and daughter Melanie Smith of Harlingen, TX; grand children Ben Cox (Liz) and Simon Cox (Abby) of Norman, Parker Wilmoth, Beau Brown (Abby) and Nathan Smith of Oklahoma City, and Seth Smith of Edmond; and five great-grandchildren of Norman, and Oklahoma City, OK. She will be remembered for her strength, determination and tenacity, her love of her pets, her garden and her violets. Her love of crafting will continue on as much of her extensively accumulated inventory of yarn has been donated to local groups who crochet and knit hats for cancer victims and new infants, and scarves and hats for the homeless. And each winter when the first frosts form and the clouds gather, we will still hear her enthusiastic voice proclaim "Maybe it will snow!" Arrangements are under the direction of Moore Funeral Home, Tulsa. Viewing will be Tuesday, November 5, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with Visitation from 6-8 p.m. Memorial Services are planned for 10 a.m., Wednesday, November 6, at Memorial Park Cemetery Chapel, 5111 S Memorial Dr, Tulsa. A private graveside service will follow. In lieu of flowers, the family has designated contributions be made in her memory to Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, online at http://www.info-komen.org/goto/Cathy_Meares or by check sent to PO Box 801889, Dallas, TX 75380 indicating the Cathy Meares Memorial Fund.

Catherine Louise Meares

April 2, 1936 - October 31, 2024