Mary Lou Clift

Funeral Services for Mary Lou (Howe) Clift, 89, Butler resident will be held 1:00 P.M., Friday, January 6, 2023, in the Kiesau Memorial Chapel, officiated by Dan Day. Burial will follow in the Butler Cemetery under the direction of the Kiesau-Lee Funeral Home.

Mary Lou (Howe) Snider-Clift was born June 16, 1933, to Jennie (Parrish) and Fred Howe in Clinton, OK and passed away Tuesday, January 3, 2023, in the River Valley Nursing Home in Clinton, OK.

Mary Lou was raised on the farm east of Clinton and attended Red Rock Country School for five years. She continued her Junior High and High School Years in Clinton attending Wilson Jr. High School and Clinton high School. She married Mr. Dean Snider in 1949 and to this union two daughters and a son were born. She always had so much love and pride for her children and often said, “I was so young, I just grew up with the kids”.

She had lived on the farm but moved into Clinton and worked at various jobs. She wanted to return to school, she applied and was accepted into nursing school. She received her Licensed Practical Nursing Licenses in 1973. She moved to Shattuck, OK where she nursed at the Newman Memorial Hospital, known as “The Little Mayo Clinic of the Northwest”, for almost 18 years. She moved back to Clinton and continued her nursing career at the Clinton Regional Hospital. She was honored to be the recipient of the Florence Nightingale” Award for high achievement of her work in 1992. She loved nursing and found it to be very rewarding.

She made Butler, OK her home in 1996, and soon met and married Don Clift in 1999. She continued to work at the Clinton hospital. She loved the country life and felt that she had gone back to her roots, as she helped on the farm with the cattle and other numerous chores of farming and ranching.

She had a special love for all animals, raising all the little orphan calves on the bottle and rescuing any stray dog or cat that came along. She had a special passion for dogs. During her childhood years she would bring home every stray, or any dog that was to be given away. Until her dad said, “No More”!

She was preceded in death by her husband, Don Clift, in 2016. She continued to help with the cattle, but still found time to garden and worked at having a pretty yard.

She is preceded in death by her parents, husband, two brothers, Bill Howe and Charles Howe and a sister Marjorie Stockton.

She is survived by three children, DeAnne Shelton and husband, Sam, Butler, Connie Armstrong and husband, David, Sunset, TX, son, Larry Snider and wife, Patricia: two brothers, Olan Howe and wife, Phyllis, and Nolan Howe, both of Missouri, sister, Betty Bonny, Clinton.

She is also survived by six grandchildren, Gregg Kauk, Arapaho, Eric Shelton and wife, Lora, Thomas, OK, Angela Gittins, Yukon, OK, Tracy McCullough and husband, Gene, Chris Kauk and wife, Michelle, and Kristi Glance and husband, Neil, all of Clinton, OK and 18 great grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren.