Funeral services for Mary Ethel (Welch) Propp, 77, Adair, Okla., will be at 2 p.m. today at Stephens Memorial Chapel Pryor, Okla. Pastors J.J. James and Mark Hiehle will officiate. Burial will follow at Adair Cemetery.
Services are entrusted to Stephens Memorial Chapel.
Mary Ethel was born Sept. 8, 1935, in Adair. She departed this life on Nov. 13, 2012, at her home in Adair at the age of 77 years, two months and five days.
Mary Ethel lived in Adair and attended Rock Creek School until the age of 10, when her family moved to Kansas. She graduated from Moran High School in 1953. Mary Ethel then attended Kansas State Teachers College in Emporia and earned her teaching degree. She began her teaching career at a rural school in Kansas for five years, she then taught for two years in Gas. The majority of her career, Mary Ethel taught at McKinley Elementary School in Iola. She retired from teaching in 1993.
Mary Ethel moved back to Adair in 1993 and on Dec. 9, 1995, she was married to Bill Propp in Eureka Springs, Ark., and accepted his family as her own. She was a member of Eta Chapter of Alpha Delta Kappa in Iola. She also served as president for many years in the local women’s group known as “The Big Cabin Country Club.” Mary Ethel was also very active with the Adair All School Reunion Committee. She had been a member of the Nazarene Church for many years, first in Iola then at Pryor’s Church of the Nazarene and recently was a member of the Claremore Church of the Nazarene. Mary Ethel loved to mentor young people. Since she did not have any children of her own, over the years she helped many young people with their education. Mary Ethel enjoyed watching the Gaither Family on television, going to antique sales, going to sporting events that involved an Adair team and rooting for all of Oklahoma’s university teams.
Mary Ethel is survived by husband Bill, daughter Kathy Eby and husband Randy of Prague, son Chell Propp and wife Susan of Adair, daughter Lori Stout and husband Steve of Collinsville, 13 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren; three sisters-in-law, Betty Hollis of Tulsa, Mary Reed of Miami, Shirley Spears of Tulsa and several cousins and very close friends. She was preceded in death by her parents and one daughter, Leisa.
In lieu of other remembrances donations can be made to the Claremore Church of the Nazarene at 1336 N. Dorothy Ave.
You may sign Mary Ethel’s “Memory Book” at www.stephensmemorialchapel.com.
Mary Propp
