November 2020

Services for Deborah Joyce Blanchard, formerly of El Reno, will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 25 in the Benson Memorial Chapel with Pastor Matt Neal of Love Church in Davis officiating. Burial will be in the El Reno Cemetery under the direction of Huber-Benson Funeral Home.

Debbie died Nov. 20, 2020, at home in Wellston. She was born Nov. 4, 1954, in Tipton. 

She was a registered nurse working in hospitals, doctors offices and nursing homes including Grace Living Center.

Rosary for Rita Jane “Janey” Wiewel Vogt Kretchmar was held Monday in the Benson Memorial Chapel, with Mass of Christian Burial held Tuesday at Holy Trinity Church in Okarche with Rev. Cory Stanley officiating. Interment followed at Holy Trinity Cemetery under the direction of Huber-Benson Funeral Home.

Janey died Nov. 20, 2020, at St. Katharine Drexel Retirement Center in El Reno. She was born Oct. 12, 1926, in Okarche. A lifelong resident of the Okarche area, she was a member of Holy Trinity Church, Altar Society and Catholic Daughters of the Americas.

Graveside services for Ida Jean Island were held Tuesday at the Concho Cemetery with Rev. Gerald Panana officiating. Services were under the direction of Huber-Benson Funeral Home.

Ida died Nov. 18, 2020, at Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City. She was born May 10, 1955, in Clinton. She lived most of her life in El Reno and taught in the Head Start Program at Concho.   

Graveside services for Ruth Ann Sleeper will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 25 at Concho Cemetery with Rev. Gerald Panana officiating. Services are under the direction of Huber-Benson Funeral Home.

Ruth died Nov. 19, 2020, at Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City. She was born Sept. 15, 1948, in Clinton and lived most of her life in Canadian County.

She was retired from Target and a member of First Baptist Church in Anadarko.   

Rosary and Mass of Christian Burial for Robert Joseph Barthelme were held Monday at Holy Trinity Church in Okarche with Rev. Cory Stanley officiating. Burial followed at Holy Trinity Cemetery under the direction of Huber-Benson Funeral Home.

Robert died Nov. 15, 2020, at Integris Southwest Medical Center in Oklahoma City. He was born Sept. 13, 1957, in Okarche.

He was a machinist working in the oil industry.

Note: The El Reno Tribune asked area schoolchildren their recipes for cooking the holiday bird.

Following are How to Cook a Turkey recipes from Tanya Ramsey’s pre-3 class at Sacred Heart Catholic School:

You put meat on the turkey and you cook it on top of the stove. You cook it for 4 minutes. You take it out of the pan carefully and put it on a plate, then you eat it. - Amelia

Put pepperoni on it and put it in the oven. You cook it for 5 minutes. You take it out and I eat it with my old friend Abby. - Scout

In the regular-season meeting with Piedmont, El Reno High School’s football team struggled to put points on the scoreboard off opportunities provided from its defense.

The two teams met again in the bi-district round of the Class 5A playoffs, and this time, both units for the Indians were on the same page.

Less than a year after pulling up stakes and leaving El Reno, energy giant Halliburton is looking to hire employees at its Duncan operation.

The Duncan Area Economic Development Authority sent out a press release last week saying Halliburton is looking to fill numerous positions within the company.

In December of 2019, Halliburton announced it was leaving the El Reno campus on SH 66 and moving its operation back to Duncan from where it had relocated a few years earlier. No explanation was given for the move and about 800 people were quickly looking for new employment.

Emilie McReynolds has loved looking at the sky since she was a little girl. She especially was drawn to gazing upward when the storm clouds would roll across Oklahoma.

So fascinated by the weather was McReynolds, she enrolled in the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma after graduating from El Reno High School in 2017.

McReynolds was honored recently, winning first place in the National Weather Festival Photo Contest for 2020.

She dubbed the photo she took of a storm developing in southwest Kansas “The Mother Ship.”