The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

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July 16, 2010

Thelma Gungoll dead at 104

By Joe Malan, Staff Writer Enid News and Eagle

ENID — The founder of Youth and Family Services of North Central Oklahoma died Friday.

Thelma Compton Gungoll passed away Friday at her home in Enid. She was 104.

The funeral will be 11 a.m. Wednesday at Central Christian Church. Burial will follow at Memorial Park Cemetery.

Gungoll, a longtime resident of Enid, founded Youth and Family Services in 1973 and served on the board for many years. She was named YWCA Citizen of the Year in 2008.

Enid resident Dan Dillingham said he grew up with Gungoll’s daughter, Carol.

Dillingham called Gungoll a wonderful mother to her children.

“She’s sturdy pioneer stock that came off the farms of Oklahoma that really helped build the state,” Dillngham said. “She was just a wonderful, wonderful person.”

Dillingham said Gungoll made the community aware of the problems kids can get into if they were on their own too early in their life.

Lee Thompson also knew Gungoll, and  knows her daughter, Myra, who is married to Enid oilman Lew Ward.

“She was a nice lady and I enjoyed knowing her,” Thompson said.

Gungoll was born Nov. 19, 1905 in Beirne, Ark., to John M. Compton and Mittie Culp Compton.

Her family moved to Broken Bow in 1910, where she graduated from high school in 1924.

She attended Phillips University and earned a bachelor of arts degree. She taught elementary school for five years in Wauk-omis, where she met her husband, Carl E. Gungoll. They were married in 1929 at Central Christian Church in Enid.

Gungoll was preceded in death by Carl.

Gungoll is survived by two daughters: Myra B. Ward and Carole J. Drake of Okla-homa City; six grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; and three great-great-grandchildren.

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