Stephanie Dannette Gooding Williams

Stephanie Dannette (Abney) Gooding Williams was born September 27, 1962 in Tulsa, OK to Macs Sheldon Abney and Della Joan (Smalley) Carnahan and passed from this life on January 17, 2021 at the age of 58.

Stephanie attended Monte Cassino and St Catherine Catholic Schools for elementary school. She then “begged” to go to our neighborhood junior high school and eventually graduated from Edison High School in 1980.

During her high school years she fell in love and married Duane Gooding. She loved being a young wife and soon had her 2 sons; Preston and Peyton whom she adored. After the passing of Duane, she fell in love and married Russell Williams. They moved from Tulsa to various cities while raising the boys. Stephanie dedicated those years to making Preston and Peyton’s lives full of love and lots of laughter. We are so thankful that she made her way back to Oklahoma recently to be with friends and family!

During those years, she also made it a priority to pour over her nieces, Abby and Annie Jordan, by keeping the postman busy with packages of love. Too much was never enough!

She chased her lifetime dream of being a flight attendant. “No” was never an option and she soon was invited to be part of the Southwest Airlines Flight Attendant School. From that day on Stephanie lived her childhood dream with passion, zest and an incredible life- giving spirit.

Stephanie was a Flight Attendant based in Phoenix, Arizona. She had six great years at Southwest and it was a career she cherished. She always said she would demonstrate her warrior spirit by never giving up. She often purchased Southwest Heart Pins and handed them out to all her friends and caregivers. She would say “Remember you are not a machine, you have the Heart of a Servant”. Stephanie always took pride to make flying with her passengers and teammates fun and enjoyable. She sought out opportunities to help others and enjoyed the camaraderie of her family and friends.

Stephanie is preceded in death by her husband, Duane Gooding and survived by her parents; Joan and her step father, Richard Carnahan and her father, Macs Abney; her husband, James Russell Williams; her sister and brother-in-law, Shawn & Patrick Jordan; little brother Dylan; her sons and daughters-in-law, Preston & Jen Gooding and Peyton & Tori Gooding; her brother and sister in-law, Mike and Tara Gooding and her grandchildren, Caden, Madison, Evan and Layla. She is also survived by nieces Abby and Annie Jordan, Toria Gooding Erskine and nephew Tim Gooding and countless Williams' extended family members.

Stephanie will lie in state Sunday, January 24 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with the family receiving friends from 3-5 p.m. at the Ninde Brookside Funeral Home and a service will be held 2:00 p.m. Monday, January 25 at the First United Methodist Church, 1115 S. Boulder Avenue, Tulsa, OK. She will be laid to rest at Memorial Park Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to be made to The Porta Caeli House at www.portacaeli.org