Miriam Gossen Sallaska

Funeral Services for Miriam GossenSallaska, 92, Corn Heritage Village resident will be held 10:00 A.M., Monday, April 21, 2014 in the Corn Mennonite Brethren Church, officiated by Rev. Tim sandy and Rev. Ken Gardner, burial will follow in the Corn MB Cemetery under the direction of the Kiesau-Lee Funeral Home. Mariam (Gossen)Sallaska was born February27, 1922 to Jacob C. and Annie (Vogt) Gossen in Corn, Oklahoma and passed away late Friday, April 18, 2014 in the Integris Southwest Medical Center in Oklahoma City, OK. She was raised in Corn and attended the Pleasant View Grade School. She had to walk 1 and ½ miles to and from school every day. She also attended Corn Bible Academy for three years and then her senior year she attended Corn high school where she graduated. She continued her education at Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kansas. She was blessed with a singing talent and was chosen to sing with the College Choir while at Tabor. Music was a God given talent to Miriam and it showed when she learned to play the old pedal organ at around 8 years of age. She and her sister, Edna (Gossen) Duerksen sang duets as 8 and 10 year olds. When their Grandpa and Grandma Vogt would stop in on their way home from town, Grandpa sat with a little sack with two pair of beads which he would give them if they would sing him a song. When she was 13 years of age, she received an accordion at Christmas which she played the rest of her life. Many times she played at Christian Ed programs at church, Sunday afternoon, for the Ladies Glee Club, sang at hospitals and the Tuberculosis Sanatorium, in the school band, and for many other occasions. Mariam was converted while at a large Ten Revival in 1935 with the Rev. H.D. Wiebe, as Evangelist. Then she was baptized in 1936 and joined the Corn Mennonite Brethren Church. On February 9, 1941 she was united in marriage with James Francis Sallaska of Fairview, OK. They lived near Fairview, OK until Francis was draftedand they spent 3 and ½ years in Colorado. After his discharge they lived at Fairview, OK for a short time and then to Balko, OK where they farmed for a living for the next 10 years. In 1956 they moved to Corn, Oklahoma and continued to farm plus adding a Grade A Dairy, and raised their four children. Mariam was an active member of the Church, she taught Sunday school for many years, sang in the church choir, and also sang in a ladies trio that broadcasted over theClinton Radio Station every 1st Sunday of the month for over fouryears, the trio also sang at many funerals. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, Francis in 2003, a son Keith Delton Sallaska in 2004, brothers, Willard (Infant) and Jacob (Infant), and Sam and Joel Gossen, sisters, Edna GossenDuerksen, and Annie Lee Gossen Graf. She issurvived by a daughter, Darlene Kay Sallaska, of Corinth, TX, two sons, AldeeSallaska and wife, Linda, of OKC, OK, and Orel Duane Sallaska and wife, Jeanne, of Corn, OK, daughter in law, Maggie Sallaska, of McAlester, OK; one brother, Jacob Gossen. She is also survived by six grandchildren, Cody Graf and wife, Debbie, of Denton, Texas, KerraSallaska Whaley, of Moore, OK, Sonya Graf Sullivan and husband, Jeff, of Denton, TX, JoRelSallaska Nye and her husband, Jack, of Cedar Park, TX, Jordan Sallaska, of Weatherford, OK and Aldee James Sallaska, Jr. of Moore, OK,. Eleven great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild and Miriam also leaves many cousins. We know our mother is in the presence of the Lord and we are looking forward to meeting her in Heaven someday.