Funeral service for Gabrielle "Gay" Combs will be 2:00 p.m. Friday, March 17, 2023, in Becker-Rabon Funeral Home Chapel.

Burial will follow in Sunset Memorial Gardens.

Gabrielle "Gay" Combs, 87, of Lawton, Oklahoma went home to Heaven on March 11, 2023 in Lawton.

Gabrielle was born on September 17, 1935 in Cache, Oklahoma to Essie Mae and Vern Ford, Sr. Gabrielle attended Cache High School and in her senior year she met a young GI named Paul N. Britten stationed at Fort Sill and they were married on November 26, 1952.  Gabrielle lived in Cache and then Lawton and raised seven children, four girls and three boys, and loved her family.  She was active in the PTA at Swinney Elementary School and created a happy and active childhood for all her kids by taking leadership roles in Camp Fire Girls and Boy Scouts and coordinating schedules for all seven kids while putting many miles on the family station wagon driving everyone to their activities.  She was a master planner and coordinated many, many family camping trips to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge during summer breaks and sometimes well into the fall.  Gabrielle participated in several productions of the Easter Pageant along with her children and their friends.

Gabrielle was a master at stretching a dollar.  She did everything from canning vegetables to making her own ketchup and knew how to make the best bar-b-que buffalo ribs.  She could sew anything from dresses to animal costumes and loved jigsaw puzzles and all sorts of art and crafts.  As her kids grew older Gabrielle introduced her family to square dancing and joined the Kuntry Kuzins square dance club.  Because she was always smiling and happy, many of her friends convinced her to change her name to Gay and that was her nickname from then on.  Her chicken salad sandwiches and pimento and cheese sandwiches were always a hit at break time between dances.  Gabrielle loved being a great hostess and welcomed all the kids in the neighborhood to her house to hang out and exercise with Jack LaLanne on TV.

Gabrielle worked at the Auction Block and later became the co-owner and manager of the Auction Block and furniture store for many years.  After the Auction Block was closed, she worked as an advertising rep for KSWO radio.  She attended classes at Great Plains Vo-Tech Center to learn the art of floral decorating and worked as a florist and later as a travelling Posy Picker for several Walmart Stores.

After retiring from the Auction Block Gabrielle married Alan M. Combs on December 25, 1991.  They moved to Fly Inn near Fort Cobb Lake and Gay hosted many family reunions and other family events at her home by the lake.  After moving back to Lawton, Gay settled in to enjoy her 10 grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild.

Gay is survived by her husband Alan Combs; her children, Pauletta Tompkins, Edward Britten and wife Diana, Joetta Midgley and husband Jim, Nick Britten and wife Manuela, Rosetta Hennessee and husband George, Karlotta Milton and husband Burt Montague, and Benjamin Britten; 10 grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild, and her sisters Genevieve Runyan and husband Bob, Mary Ann Lee and husband Clarence Wayne, Jeanette Stuckey and husband Pete.

Gay was preceded in death by her mother and father, brother Vern Ford, Jr. and his wife Cherry, son-in-law Laurence Milton, and grandson Baby Larry.