Nora Jo (Crowell) Larson

Nora Jo Larson of the Eakly, Oklahoma area, passed away in Lubbock, Texas on January 28, 2020. She was 98 and named by her grandchildren as Jo Jo and later Ju Ju.

 Born July 1, 1921, in Nashville, Arkansas to James Cleveland and Luna Mable Crowell, she was the sixth of ten children; 4 boys (Dexter, Emlis, Guy, and Chester) and six girls (Lois, Lavell, Mable, Wilda Jeanne, and Rema Dell). When she was three, the family moved from Nashville to a farm near Oney, Oklahoma.

She grew up working on the family farm near Oney helping raise cattle and hogs and pulling cotton and shocking hay. She helped her mother with cooking for a large family and learned from her mother the art of cooking and serving delightful food.  She graduated from Oney High School and attended Oakdale Baptist Church where the family crowded into the car to go to church. Her father taught the children music and she learned how to play the piano and was pianist at Oakdale Baptist Church for many years. 

The end of the Great Depression, the droughts of the Dust Bowl, and the onset of World War II would shape her life.  She married Emil W. Larson on February 17, 1943 and they were parents to three children, Terry, Annenda, and Emily. Nora Jo worked for a brief time in Renton Washington for Boeing while Emil was stationed in the US Army before he was shipped to Germany as an infantryman. After WWII, Nora Jo and Emil bought their first farm near Eakly, Oklahoma. They spent their lives farming and raising their family in the Eakly and Lookeba-Sickles area.    Nora Jo was a member of Oakdale Baptist Church for 80 years. She and Emil were early supporters of the development of Cedar Hills Baptist Youth Camp near Binger, Oklahoma.

 Nora Jo was well acquainted with hard work including driving tractors, moving irrigation pipe, hoeing peanut and cotton fields, and cooking. She loved to cook and was known for the delicious meals she cooked for family, friends, farm hands, and at church gatherings. She loved gospel music and had a beautiful alto voice that lifted hearts.

She accepted Christ as a teenage girl and was a faithful member at Oakdale until her health declined.   She is predeceased by her husband, Emil; son, Terry; siblings, Lois, Lavell, Emlis, Dexter, Guy, Chester, Rema Dell, and son-in-law Larry Merrill.

She is survived by two daughters, Annenda (Richard) of Kingfisher, Oklahoma and Emily of Lubbock, TX, and two sisters, Mable Duckworth of Edmond and Wilda Jeanne King of Yukon, and seven beloved grandchildren, Monte Larson, Darryn (Pat) Mills, Amber (Ray) Hite, Dawn (Kevin) Moore, Angie Larson, Royal (Amanda) Merrill and Rachel (Josh) Allen, eleven great grandchildren and many precious nieces and nephews.

Services will be held 2pm Saturday, February 1, 2020 at Oakdale Missionary Baptist Church (9 miles west of Binger on Highway 152). Memorials may be sent to Cedar Hills Baptist Youth Camp, POB 39, Binger, OK 73009.

Officiating: Rev. Buck Nicholson and Rev. Kevin Moore

Burial: Eakly Cemetery, Eakly, OK

 Services entrusted to Turner Funeral Home, Hinton, Oklahoma. Condolences may be sent to the family at turnerfuneralhomes@gmail.com, turnerfh.net, or you can find us on facebook.com (Turner Funeral Homes).

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Nora Jo (Crowell) Larson, please visit our floral store.