Lanelle Hayes

A Celebration of Life Service for Norma "Lanelle" Hayes will be 10:00 am Monday, November 16, 2026 at the Ladusau-Evans Chapel with Rev. Jared Blunt officiating. Burial will follow in the Memorial Park Cemetery under the direction Ladusau-Evans Funeral Home and Crematory.

Lanelle was born on August 4, 1937, in a five-room bungalow on the family farm 1 mile east and 1 ½ mile north of Sweetwater, Oklahoma. Her parents were LeRoy Allen Sr. and Mildred Katherine Carlson (Allen). She grew up on the farm with her parents and brother LeRoy Allen Jr. She had one older sister Barbara Genelle Allen which died at the age of one prior to Lanelle being born. The farm was 160 acres when she was born, and her parents bought an additional 160 acres (the Huffman place) just southeast of the original ¼ section in 1946. They grew cotton, milo and raised hogs, chickens and milked up to 10 cows by hand selling eggs and cream. Later they had a herd of Herford cows and grew wheat along with the cotton and milo. The farm had a limited supply of water from a water well and no irrigation with the region averaging about 26 inches of rain a year. They used a wind charger (windmill) for electricity and to run the cream separator. A tornado destroyed the wind charger in 1947. After the tornado they were able to get electricity from the rural electric association (R.E.A.). In Lanelle's early years they picked cotton by hand until her dad invented and built his first cotton stripper. Weed control was performed by hand, walking the field with a hoe. In 1954 they sold the bungalow and built a six-room brick house.

Lanelle graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1955 where she played basketball. After high school she went to Oklahoma A&M in Stillwater, Oklahoma studying home economics for one year. While attending Oklahoma A&M she met Donis Earl Hayes on a blind date set up by a close friend. On September 16, 1956, they were married in a ceremony at Lanelle's parents' home on the farm northeast of Sweetwater. They settled in Enid, Oklahoma, after the wedding, living in a small house at 1324 E. Randolph. Lanelle and Donis both worked at Earl Hayes' (Donis Dad's) butcher shop and frozen food locker. In 1958 they moved into a newly built 1,400 square foot, 3 bedroom, 1 ½ bath house with a single car garage located at 726 W. Cottonwood in Enid. Lanelle worked at the meat locker until the Saturday before their only child Don was born on Sunday April 5, 1959. After the birth she focused on being a parent and homemaker. Donis quit working as a butcher in 1965 and started working for Champlin Petroleum Company in the pipeline department.

Lanelle was an excellent cook and kept a spotless house. Almost all meals were eaten at home except for the Sunday noon meal which was usually a take home meal from the local burger place or pizza from Ken's pizza when they could buy two pizzas get one free deal. She raised tomatoes and other vegetables in the back flower bed and grew flowers in the other beds around the house. She helped pick strawberries at Donis' dad's strawberry patch and made strawberry jam several summers. In the summers she mowed the lawn twice a week until Don grew old enough to help and she helped with Don's lawn business when he was in high school. No remodeling or repair project around the house was too big for her and Donis to attack including digging their storm seller in the back yard by hand. The cellar was approximately 8 feet by 8 foot and 8 feet deep. They hauled off the dirt in barrels with the mobile butcher truck.

While Don was growing up Lanelle, along with taking care of the house chores, spent time taking Don to see the jets fly at Vance Air Force base, kept him busy with craft projects, helped him with school projects and was taxi to school for various sporting and school events including band. Don developed his love for crafts from her various projects. The house was always decorated for the holiday season and you didn't need a calendar to know what time of year it was. She excelled at making artificial flower arrangements and was always in charge of making the arrangements for the family grave sites on Memorial Day. She also enjoyed feeding the birds as long as it wasn't those "pesky" sparrows and she didn't like squirrels. Donis hot-wired the bird feeder with a switch by the kitchen sink. When the squirrels got on the feeder, Lanelle flipped the switch giving the squirrel just enough of a shock to not get hurt but not want to stay.

Lanelle's father died suddenly of a heart attack on December 14, 1969, and her mother continued to live on the farm. After Lanelle moved away from the farm she and her mom communicated weekly through letters. Long distance phone calls were way too expensive, and the farm phone was on a "party line" where several other neighbors, including the lady that wrote the local gossip column in the paper, could pick up and listen. She and Donis, along with Don until he went to college, traveled approximately once a month to the farm and spent most of the major holidays and summer vacations there. Lanelle did not like to travel, and the word "trip" was a four-letter word unless it ended that night in "her" bed either in Enid or Sweetwater. She did enjoy going on a 2 hour drive most Sunday's in and around Enid to explore new houses being built or to see the farmland around the area. Summer evenings sometimes included a drive to the ice cream place on the other side of town. After Don left for college, Lanelle and Donis attended the OSU home football games and after Don got married, they spent many years traveling to the grandkid's soccer matches and school events in Tulsa and their swim meets primarily in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. The grandkids normally spent 1 week in Enid each summer to be treated with good food and get spoiled by grandma. Building a tent in the living room to play in was one of the grandkids' favorite activities with grandma.

In the 1960 and 1970, Lanelle and Donis went to Willow Road Christian church were they both did volunteer work. In October of 1981, Lanelle's aunt, Myrtle Taylor (her mother's twin), moved to a nursing home in Enid due to illness and Lanelle made daily trips to the nursing home to help with her care until she passed away from heart failure in November of 1981. Lanelle's mother moved from the farm into an assisted living facility in Enid in 1996 and Lanelle assisted in her care until Mildred passed on November 1, 2000. Lanelle and Donis transferred their church membership to Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid and spent many years leading the stage set up for the church's annual Christmas Pageant.

In 1998, Lanelle and Donis moved to Enid. The house is a 2,600 square foot house with 4 bedrooms and 1 ½ bathrooms and a 2 ½ car garage. More room for a wood shop and a bigger place in a nicer neighborhood to enjoy and retire. Donis retired in 1999 from Sun Petroleum. Before Donis retired Lanelle took several tole painting classes and started painting bigger craft projects along with making quilts. Donis cut out the wood projects and Lanelle painted them. Most projects included one for themselves, Don and Debbie and a keepsake for each to the two grandkids. The grandkids received their set as a Christmas present when they were ending college and establishing a place of their own.

Not too many years after moving into the new house Lanelle was diagnosed with Parkin's Disease. The disease slowly took its tole and Lanelle had to give up her craft work and painting around her 70th birthday. She handled the disease with grace and never complained as the shaking spells became more frequent and the ability to walk and write went away. She passed peacefully in her sleep Sunday morning November 8, 2026.

Lanelle is survived by her husband Donis, son Don and wife Debbie, two grandchildren Kevin Hayes and wife Andrea, and Valerie Williams and husband Eric, great grandchildren Lucas, Logan, Liesl, Laney Hayes and Ryker and Kiera Williams.

She was preceded in death by her sister Genelle Allen and brother LeRoy Allen, Jr.

Memorials may be made to Emanuel Enid with Ladusau-Evans Funeral Home serving as custodians of the funds.

Condolences may be made online and the service may be viewed online at www.ladusauevans.com.