Cleta E. Malone went to walk the streets of gold with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on August 23, 2021 at the age of 88 years 3 months and 15 days.

Cleta was born in Nash, Oklahoma to Esther Sawyer Dixon and Emil T. Dixon on June 8, 1933 and was one of six surviving children of the Dixons. Coming out of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl days she and her family worked hard enduring life with neither electricity nor indoor plumbing she quickly learned the value of integrity and loyalty to family and friends.

In her early years, she lived and worked in Great Bend, KS; Hobart, Lawton, and Altus, OK; and Yakima, WA before finally settling in Lawton. Cleta did accounting, bill collection, building management, insurance sales and real estate before entering the political administration arena which she learned from her father, a World War I Purple Heart veteran, as he explained the government and it day by day functioning during WW II.

During much of this time she was a "single mother" raising 5 children on her own before anyone knew what that really meant and long before it became fashionable. Her children will always remember getting up early and doing their assigned chores before school as part of developing a strong work ethic and her encouragement that you can be anything that you choose in life if you are willing to work hard enough. Her spirit of independence that defied defeat though faced with many of life's most difficult challenges life taught them perseverance and the grit to see things through to the end. Most of all she gave them her leadership in life and her deep faith in Salvation through Jesus Christ, her Lord.

In 1983, she married LTC Bill Malone at Fort McNair in Washington, DC beginning a new chapter in her life living in the big city. While there she worked for a defense contractor, a professional association of alcoholism and drug abuse counselors, and finally the Del Ray Baptist Church in Alexandria, VA. While at Del Ray, she served for nearly 16 years as a unpaid, full-time volunteer supervising a multi-national, multi-racial early learning center and later serving as the sole church administrator. When her husband retired from the Army, they said that they would stay for a few years and see how they liked it. The few turned into two months short of 30 years. Like many seniors, family ties and support brought them back to Lawton.

Since returning to Lawton, Cleta re-entered the political arena once again serving with distinction with the Great Plains Republican Women ultimately retiring from there as President Emeritus. As with this and her earlier exploits, her counsel and sage advice in a wide range of issues was sought by many who testify of the positive impact that she has had as a wise Christian woman during her lifetime.

In order to insure family integrity and resilience, no one was ever banned from her circle because of divorce, remarriage, or other divisive actions. Re-marriages brought in "shirt tail relatives' from all over the country. Each of those families were and still are an integral part of the whole.

Cleta is survived by her brother George Dixon (Betty) of Amarillo, TX; her husband Bill of the home; and her children Gene Booker (Ann) of Chattanooga, OK; Dorthy Underwood (Mike) of Lawton, OK; Stan Booker (Paula) of Lawton, OK; Monty Booker (Kim) of Lawton, OK and special friend and adopted son Mark Wilkinson (Cheryl) of Mount

Pleasant, SC and a host of grand, great-grand ,and great-great-grand children.

She was preceded in death by her parents, brothers Stanley and Elbert, sisters Dorthy Watkins and Retha Karnes, her beloved son Andy who was taken in an industrial accident, and a grandson, Will Booker.

Funeral arrangements are under direction of Becker-Rabon Funeral Home and will include a service at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, August 28, 2021 at the Becker-Rabon Funeral Home Chapel with burial to follow at Sunset Memorial Gardens. The family will greet friends on Friday evening at the funeral home from 5 to 7 PM. The service may be viewed by following the Livestream link at www.beckerfuneral.com or by visiting the Becker-Rabon Funeral Home Facebook page.