Darlene Turk Hensley was born April 21, 1938, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Herman Leslie Turk and Juanita Ally Shepherd Turk. She had no middle name, a fact that somehow suited the directness with which she lived much of her life.

Darlene grew up in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, in a white frame house with a big porch and 36 papershell pecan trees behind it. The pecan orchard was one of the favorite places of her childhood. She played hide-and-seek, croquet and house with her dolls, rode her bicycle, and grew up with a collie named Flip. She treasured small things that connected her to her family: her father's pocket watch, her mother's rainbow crystals, and a small Santa that hung on her Christmas tree.

One of her favorite memories was riding with her father to the Sinclair Oil Refinery when he went to pick up his paycheck. He called it going to get the "bacon."

Darlene was bright, ambitious and proud of what she could accomplish. She rode the streetcar from Sand Springs to Central High School in Tulsa, where she won spelling bees, sang in a talent show, and advanced academically so quickly that by her final year she had only one course left to complete. At just 16 years old, the principal gave her the opportunity to work full time as his assistant and hoped she would stay on after graduation.

Instead, Darlene reluctantly but proudly accepted another opportunity when the assistant principal was chosen to become principal of the newly opening McLain High School and offered Darlene a position there. As Darlene explained it, the new job "paid a little more money."

Education and achievement remained important to her. She attended Lindenwood College in St. Charles, Missouri, where she earned excellent grades and was inducted into the Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society as a freshman. Her scholarship required her to work in the dining hall, and she remembered college as a formative experience: living away from home, dorm life, school dances, trips to St. Louis, and the traditions of what was then the oldest women's college west of the Mississippi. She also remembered the customs of the era, when young women wore hats and gloves - and sometimes raincoats over shorts.

Darlene's professional life reflected the same combination of intelligence, organization and confidence she had shown from an early age. She went to work for MK&O bus lines and rose through the company to become director of charter services. MK&O operated charter buses for groups traveling throughout the country, and Darlene sometimes joined the trips, often bringing Darrell along. She could provide a running commentary on the places they passed, effectively becoming tour director and sightseeing expert.

That experience may have helped create one of her most enduring habits. Years later, riding in a car with Darlene often meant hearing the tap of her fingernail against the window as she pointed out a building, business, street, neighborhood or piece of Tulsa history that she believed you ought to know about - whether you had asked or not.

When MK&O was sold, Darlene finished her working career with The Bama Companies, one of the nation's largest privately held industrial bakers. She was responsible for employee benefits administration and came to know people throughout the company. She was well respected by the Marshall family, the company's founders, and by the many employees whose lives and benefits passed through her capable hands.

Darlene was deeply proud of Tulsa. She knew its neighborhoods, businesses, families and history and remained attached to the city throughout her life. When asked later why it mattered so much to her to be back in Tulsa, she spoke about the people she had known and called friends. Many of those friends had gone before her, but to Darlene, Tulsa remained home because of the lives, relationships and memories embedded there.

Friendship was central to her life. She and Darrell found the house in which they would live for more than 60 years almost by accident, just a few houses down from friends who had recently moved into the neighborhood. Over the decades, the house became far more than a place to live. Its rooms, its yards, the things they planted, and the neighbors and friends who came and went through their lives became, together, the gardens of their life.

Darlene enjoyed crossword puzzles, bingo and scratch-off lottery tickets. She was observant, curious and rarely at a loss for something to tell you about the place you were passing, the person who once lived there, or the business that used to stand on the corner.

Darlene and Darrell's life together began quickly. A friend introduced them, and six weeks after their first date they were married on November 7, 1958, in Sand Springs, Oklahoma. Their marriage would last almost 68 years. Together they built the life that became the center of Darlene's world.

Their greatest accomplishment was their family. Darlene and Darrell raised their daughter, Dawn Hensley Huckaby, and the values they placed in her became part of the generations that followed. Darlene took great pride in seeing those qualities carried forward by Dawn and Steve, by her grandchildren, and now by her great-grandchildren. In them, the best of what Darlene and Darrell created together continues.

Darlene is survived by her daughter, Dawn Hensley Huckaby and her husband, Steve; her grandson Tyler Huckaby and his wife, Emily, and their sons Oliver and Wyndham; her granddaughter Hannah Huckaby Lopiparo and her husband, Joseph, and their daughter Jessie; along with extended family and the friends and neighbors whose lives became part of hers.

She was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Darrell Mighnon Hensley.

Darlene died less than two months after Darrell. Those who loved her could not help but feel that, in some very real way, she died of a broken heart. Her mind was no longer as sharp as it had been during the many years she and Darrell shared, and after he was gone her world became much smaller and simpler. She gravitated toward familiar routines - sweeping the front and back porches two or three times a day, sitting outside, and watching the birds in the yard they had tended together for so many years. During those final weeks, helpful neighbors and longtime friends quietly supported and looked after her, helping her remain in the familiar surroundings she loved. It was as though, without Darrell, she had little interest in reaching beyond the quiet comforts of the home and life they had made together.

Darlene's life was not defined by one accomplishment or one role. She was a gifted student, a capable professional, a loyal friend, a proud Tulsan, a wife and mother, a grandmother and great-grandmother, and the person beside Darrell for nearly seven decades.

For more than 60 years, that house and those yards held the life Darlene and Darrell built together: family, neighbors, friendships, work, laughter, ordinary days and the passage of generations. Near the end, when much else had become difficult to hold onto, Darlene still swept those porches and watched the birds.

There was something fitting in that - a life that had once ranged across the country settling gently back into the home and garden at the center of it all.

Visitation with family present will be on Friday, September 4, 2026 from 9:00 am till 10:00 am at Moore Southlawn, 9350 E. 51st Street, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74145.

Graveside services will be held on Friday, September 4, 2026 at 10:00 am at Memorial Park Cemetery, 5111 S. Memorial Drive, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74145.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to Porta Caeli House, 2440 N. Harvard Ave, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74115 in memory of Darlene.