Lillie Renee Martinez

Funeral Service for Lillie Martinez, 48, Hammon resident will be held 1:00 PM, Saturday, March 16, 2024, in the Hammon School Auditorium in Hammon, OK officiated by Jan Phillips and Bobby Stewart. The burial will follow in the Hammon Indian Mennonite Cemetery under the direction of the Kiesau-Lee Funeral Home.

A wake service will be held 6:00 PM until 8:00 PM Friday March 15, 2024, in the Kiesau Memorial Chapel.

Lillie Renee Martinez (Indian name” Moose” Moeh-dah) was born June 4, 1975, in Clinton, Oklahoma and passed away Sunday, March 10, 2024, in the Ryan Hospice House in Phoenix, AZ.

Lillie was raised in Hammon, OK where she graduated high school in 1993. She continued her education at the Pima Medical Institute and received her Certified Nurses Aid Certificate. She worked as a CNA in Mesa, AZ.

She moved to Arizona in 1994 and worked for Honeywell, and later she worked for the Salt River Project. Then she changed jobs, working for Wells Fargo from 1995 until 2000. She became very close to her co-workers, and some became family.

She married Franciso Martinez, on August 7, 1999. To this marriage she had three children, Alyssa, Alexandra, and Franciso Martinez, Jr. She became a stay-at-home mother for the next 29 years.

In Nov 2022 she was stricken with Large B Cell Lymphoma and spent time at the Mayo Clinic, and they were successful in shrinking her tumors and she was able to move to her childhood home in Hammon, OK in June of 2023. After moving home her tumors surfaced again and she began treatment at the Oklahoma University Hospital in Oklahoma City. Lillies children wanted her back home in Arizona to get further treatments at the Mayo Clinic. She fell ill to covid and had minor heart surgery while her cancer progressed. Surrounded by her children, all her sisters and other family members, Lillie took her journey on March 10, 2024.

She loved to play basketball, she was an avid seamstress and enjoyed doing arts and crafts and making t-shirts for her kids and family members. She was a pool player and enjoyed competing in small tournaments.

She was preceded in death by her parents, sister, Lorette Higgins, and brother Lawrence Higgins, brother in law, Dane Kauk.

She is survived by daughters, Alyssa Martinez-Higgins and Alexandra Martinez, and son Francisco Martinez, Jr., all from Arizona, sisters, Bridget Higgins, Hammon, OK, Mary Jo Higgins, Clinton, OK, Jennifer Higgins, Clinton, OK, Lila Kauk, Leedey, OK, Kathrine Higgins, of CA, and Sona Higgins, Portland, OK.

She is also survived by Aunts (Mom) Irene Hayes, Hammon, OK, and Margaret Howlingwolf, Seiling, OK, adopted sisters, Shannon Littleman, Veronica Candy and Alisun Little Coyote.

The family wants to give a special thank you to Veronica Candy for always being there by Lillies side during the early part of her fighting the B Cell Lymphoma, Dr. Loren of the Cheyenne Emergency Room for Lillies care and praying for her during her difficult stay in the E.R. Her Hospice nurses in Phoenix, Jessica, Michelle and Kim and Chaplain Frank and a special thank you to Troy Lee for bringing our beloved mother, sister, and aunty home to Oklahoma.