Pearl Blankenship

Pearl Audrey Blankenship was born November 5, 1925 to Bertie Loranzo Dow and Emily Missouri (Hyde) Shirley in Beggs, Oklahoma and passed from this life November 23, 2010 at the age of 85.

Pearl loved to fish as long there was someone there to bait the hook with worms. She would not touch a worm if her life depended on it. She loved to work with tools and build and tear down things. She loved to dance. The family remembers her and dad going out to dance. When he children were young dad played music on his violin, guitar or other instruments. He and Pearl loved to sing. She always looked forward to the time when she could sing. Outside of the home, Pearl worked at Hillcrest Medical Center in Tulsa as a surgical technician where she sent surgical instruments to be cleaned and then would reinstall them in the right kits for surgery. She liked her job and the people she worked with.

Preceded in death by her parents; her sisters, Jewel Lowery, and Ruby James; her brothers, Ruben, Earl and Austin Shirley; her grandchildren, Timothy Douglas Hendrix, Houston Owen and Arthur Wayne Pridemore; Pearl is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Melissa Leah and John David Hendrix of Oklahoma; her son, Kenneth Wayne Blankenship of Moscow, Tennessee; her sisters, Lois Adams, of Oklahoma and Ruth Garrett of Whitefish, Montana; her brother, Joe Shirley of Simmesport, Louisiana;, her grandchildren, Katurah Ann Christiansen of Vernal, Utah, Audrey Eveylen Graham of Wyandotte, Oklahoma, Sarah Ann Conner of Sandy, Utah, Matthew Owen Pridemore of Missouri, John J. Hendrix of White Settlement, Texas, Athena Hendrix of Everman, Texas and Andrew Rhodes Blankenship of Collier, Tennessee; 20 great grandchildren and 4 great-great-grandchildren.

Pearl will lie in state 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Sunday with the family receiving friends from 5-7 p.m. and her funeral will be held 2:00 p.m. Monday, both at the Ninde Brookside Funeral Home, 3841 S. Peoria. She will be laid to rest at Memorial Park Cemetery.