Wanda Ilene Swoveland Palmer, 92, of Owasso, passed away Saturday, November 16, 2013. She was born April 20, 1921, to Ora L. and Zelma Swoveland in Chester, Nebraska. Wanda grew up in Wymore, Nebraska, and graduated as valedictorian of her class from Wymore High School in 1938. She went on to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Manhattan BibleCollege in Manhattan, Kansas, in 1946. She continued to pursue her education at Lincoln Bible Institute in Lincoln, Illinois, in the late 1940s and at the State Teachers College in Kirksville, Missouri, in the mid 1950s. As a young woman, Wanda worked as a legal secretary in hometown and later as a secretary in the president’s office at Manhattan Bible College while attending there. She was poised to become a teacher, but eventually decided to devote herself to what she saw as her true calling as a wife and mother. Wanda married Kendrick Lowell Palmer in 1950 and was passionately committed to loving and caring for her family which grew to include four children. The family moved to Owasso in the late 1960s. Converted to Christianity as a teenager and baptized into Christ at the age of 15, Wanda found a home at the Owasso Church of Christ where she was a member for more than 40 years and dearly loved her brothers and sisters in the faith. As a young wife and mother, she loved teaching Vacation Bible School and Sunday school classes and later became involved in Camp Fire as a leader for a group of nearly a dozen elementary and later junior high girls. As she grew older, Wanda was always active. She took up genealogy while her children were growing up, writing letters and researching microfilm documents, and in her 80s continued with the expanded opportunities the Internet offered. She had a lifelong love as well for sewing, needlecrafts, and reading.
Wanda was the last surviving member of her family of origin which included her mother and father, Ora Lewis and Zelma (Swoveland) Swoveland; brothers Ora Jerald Swoveland and William Frederick Swoveland; and sister, Maxine Isabel Swoveland Buskirk Pittenger Neas. She was also preceded in death by her husband, Kendrick Palmer; her son, John Palmer; her son-in-law, Robert Brewer; her grandson, Mitch Neal; and her great-granddaughter, Addison Neal.
She is survived by daughters Lois Neal of Tulsa, Joanita Brewer of Duncan, and Eldora Palmer of Sapulpa; grandchildren Tom Neal, Cameron Brewer and Rebecca Brewer; and great-granddaughter Maylee Neal.
Visitation will be from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Friday, November 22, 2013, at Mowery Funeral Service, 9110 North Garnett Road in Owasso. Services will be at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, November 23, at the Owasso Church of Christ, 10510 North 129th East Avenue, Owasso, with Minister Dan Schnell officiating. Interment will be at Fairview Cemetery in Owasso. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in memory of Wanda to In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Arrangements and services were entrusted to Mowery Funeral Service of Owasso. www.moweryfs.com
