Funeral Service for Mary Frances Melton will be 10:00 a.m. Thursday, May 17, 2018 at Centenary United Methodist Church in Lawton, where she was a Cradle Roll member from the age of 13 with Dr. Robert Gorrell, Senior Pastor officiating.

Burial will follow at Highland Cemetery under direction of Becker-Rabon Funeral Home.

Mary Frances Melton, age 86, Lawton, passed away on Saturday, May 12, 2018 in Duncan.  Mary Frances was born December 13, 1931, in Lawton, to Grace B. (Adkins) and James Hogg Kennard. She attended Lincoln Elementary, Lawton Junior High, and graduated from Lawton High School (1950).  She cherished nature and the great value of family and friends forming her lifelong love of rocks, flowers, trees, the song of each bird, and every family meal. She then went on to enjoy music as a drummer in the school band, cheerleading for the school, and befriending many kindred spirits along the way. After a school game she was cheering, a football player, Bill Melton, asked a friend to ask a friend if she would have a soda with him — history was made. Bill and Mary Frances were married May 4, 1951.

Mary Frances worked at Fort Sill as a typist, until, as life would have it, she became a loving wife, homemaker, and mother of four wonderful children. She taught Sunday school, was a member of the Junior Service League, and a few other small organizations. Her true love of family, nature, and the arts continued — she loved oil painting, belly dancing, and collecting rocks.

Mary Frances went to work with Bill at B.W. Melton Construction Company as a bookkeeper once her children were grown. Being passionate about Lawton, she was a former President of the Lawton Heritage Association, was instrumental in the Mattie Beal restoration and getting the "old" Lawton/Central Junior High Building on the National Historic Register.

During retirement, Mary Frances enjoyed gardening, sitting on the porch with Bill overlooking the park, watching old Classic Western Movies especially featuring John Wayne, working crossword puzzles, and devoting her life and love to her family, friends, and the city in which she was born.

Mary Frances is survived by her husband of 67 years Bill Melton; her daughter April Bain (Donnie); her son Timothy Melton (Royalin); son-in-law, Randy Upton; daughter-in-law, Angela Melton; her grandchildren: Brandi Poolaw,  Billy Poolaw, II,  Austin Bain (Ashley), Buck Melton (Kristin),  Cody Melton (Lacee), Kirk Melton (Jeramy Krone), Brett Bain (Whitney) and Collin Melton (Frances) and 13 great-grandchildren.

She is preceded in death by her mother and father; daughter Vikki (Poolaw) Upton; son Billy Melton; sister Patsy Ensley and brother-in-law Bob Ensley; her mother and father-in-law Buster and Dorothy Melton; brothers-in-law Donald Melton and Gary Butch Melton.