Enid, OK — Winona Suttles, resident of Ponca City, passed away Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009, at Westminster Village. She was 85.

The service will be 2 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009, at Trout Funeral Home Chapel. Public viewing will be 8 a.m. to service time Thursday. Arrange-ments are under the direction of Trout Funeral Home & Crematory, Ponca City.

Winona was born on Tuesday, June 24, 1924, to Robert Lee Whisenhunt and Rittie Gertrude (Lyda) Whisenhunt in Olustee, Okla. Winona was the fourth youngest of 14 children, grew up on a watermelon and cotton farm in southwest Oklahoma and was a letterman basketball player in school. Following her mother’s death in 1930, during the dust bowl and great depression years, “Poppa” Whisenhunt moved his family to California, where he found work in the Santa Monica shipyards.

During the war, Winona went to work at Douglas Aircraft Plant as a true “Rosie the Riveter,” where she met and married her former husband, Raymond.

She was involved in community theatre and her love of sports led her to a semi-pro baseball as a catcher – receiving her signature broken nose as a memento. After the war, they moved to Kansas in 1946, where she devoted herself to raising her six children, lovingly and sacrificially. With many diversions on a winding road of relocations that ultimately lead to Enid, then Ponca City, Okla., Winona was a tireless, thoughtful, caring and intelligent woman who exhibited a tireless work ethic, a strong independent nature and an uncommon insight into human nature. Even in difficult times she maintained a calm and loving spirit. She was not only a wonderful mother, she was a thoughtful friend, a fun-loving companion and an engaged civic-minded volunteer, imparting to her children the assurance that she loved and cared for them without measure. While raising her family, she also found time to pursue employment in retail sales, in the medical field as a respiratory therapist, a main-frame computer operator and a census taker. She was a rare person of quality and will be missed deeply by her family.

She is survived by her children, Cheryl Fletcher of Ponca City, Ron Suttles of Oklahoma City, Steve Suttles of Enid, Mark Suttles of Enid, Vicki Schuster of Simi Valley, Calif., and Kim Roper of Riverside, Calif.; 10 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents; one son, Monte Suttles; and one granddaughter, Michelle Suttles.

Memorial contributions may be made in Winona’s name to the Winona Suttles Memorial fund, c/o Regena Lewis, RCB Bank, Ponca City, OK 74601. All funds will be distributed to an Alzheimer’s organization to be named later.

(Paid Obit 11-18-1)