The funeral for Mary Sue Hassler will be 10 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016, at United Church of Lahoma, 3rd and Maine. Her grandson, Pastor Robert Pringle, and Pastor Terry Jewell will officiate. Burial will follow at Memorial Park Cemetery, Enid. Visitation with family will be 6-7 p.m. Monday at the funeral home. Arrangements are by Anderson-Burris Funeral Home.
She was born April 8, 1936, in Westville, Okla., to Clema (Dustman) and Prade Rusk, and passed away at her home in Enid Friday, Oct. 7, 2016.
She contracted polio as a young child, facing and overcoming a lot of adversity and living a full life, never losing her love for nor her faith in God. She walked quite a ways to school, even though doctors said she would be in a wheelchair all of her life. She attended Westville schools and helped her family, despite her health, which always was affected by the polio.
In the mid-1950s, she saw in a church bulletin that an airman stationed in Korea desired letters from home, so she decided to write and enclosed a photo signed "As Ever, Mary Sue." The airman received several letters, so he decided to share them with others at the base, including his good friend, Airman 2nd Class Bill Hassler. Bill read Sue's letter, saw her photo with the signature and thought, "that is a nice-looking girl," so he answered her letter. They continued to correspond, sharing a lot about themselves in letters, while he was in Korea.
After Bill returned to the U.S., he was stationed in El Paso, Texas, and the two continued to write and would talk during pre-arranged times, he on the landlord's phone and she on the drugstore's phone. He eventually proposed, and they met face to face — despite the Hungarian Revolution and car trouble — for the first time when he traveled to Oklahoma for their wedding, Nov. 23, 1956.
The couple had four children, Rick, Kevin, Debbie and Steve. Sue didn't work outside the home but was an Air Force wife, traveling the world from base to base, making their home and raising their children, sometimes alone for stretches of time while her husband was deployed elsewhere.
The couple lived in El Paso, Texas; Omaha, Neb.; Bossier City, La.; Izmir and Istanbul, Turkey; Fairfield, Calif.; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Vance Air Force Base in Enid, where the family settled.
She enjoyed working with her hands, doing embroidery, crocheting, making jewelry; cooking; and doting on her many companion dogs through the years, the most recent two Misty and Rags. She liked to travel, spending a month in Europe to visit her daughter and her family, seeing most of the countries there, and even catching a glimpse of the Queen of England. She and Bill traveled to see sights in the United States, as well, frequently traveling to Colorado to visit their two grandsons, Bobby and Matt, and seeing the surrounding countryside.
Her grandsons were her joy, and after many years she welcomed two more grandsons from China, Jake and Jude, making sure she was there to greet both of them at the airport when they first came home and seeing that they wanted for nothing, especially their grandmother's love.
She and Bill became members of United Church of Lahoma, and at one time whenever someone in church was in the hospital or ill Sue would be the one to send cards. She was a member of the church's Women's Circle.
She was the best wife, mother and grandmother. We know she is in heaven, rejoicing with Jesus. No longer in pain. We love you Sue, mom and grandma.
Those who survive Sue are her husband for nearly 60 years, Bill, of the home in Enid; children, Rick Hassler and wife Donna of Enid, Kevin Hassler and wife Violet of Enid, Debra (Hassler) Pringle and husband John of Salina, Okla., and Steven Hassler and wife Doris of Enid; grandchildren, Robert Pringle and wife Klarissa of Nowata, Matthew Pringle and wife Holly of Oklahoma City and Jacob and Judah Hassler, both of Enid; stepgrandson Stephen Hunt of Enid; great-granddaughters, Miley and Mia Deane, both of Oklahoma City; sisters, Bernice Lackey, Pauline Huffman, Minnie Powell and Barbara Townsend; brother Tracy Rusk; and many nieces, nephews and cousins.
She was preceded in death by her parents; brothers, James and Billie Gene; and two sisters, Betty Lou and Ovie.
Memorials may be made through the funeral home to United Church of Lahoma or to Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF), breast cancer division.
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