On October 15, 2014 the friends and family of Sheila Wilder Hoke lift their voices in thanks and praise to celebrate her life, legacy, and resurrection in the hands of God. Sheila was born July 15, 1928 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her father died soon after, but her mother, Virginia Wilder Dell, was a resilient and resourceful woman who soon took her Masters degree in English at the University of Alabama. Shortly after graduation she moved her family to Washington D. C. where she took a job in the treasury department. It was at that young age that Sheila had the opportunity to serve tea to the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. Sheila spent weekends exploring the nations capital, and it was there that she developed a deep and abiding love of history.

Later, Virginia took a job with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and moved her family to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Sheila often recounted stories of going to sleep at night to the sound of Lakota drums and chants. Eventually she was adopted by the nation and given an official Lakota name.

In time, the family moved to Lawrence, Kansas where her mother took the job of Dean of Students for Haskell Institute. Sheila attended the University of Kansas and graduated with a degree in education. She was always proud of her Jayhawk heritage. She took her first job teaching in Salina, Kansas; and though she enjoyed the experience greatly, she felt called to another path. So after two years of teaching she went to graduate school where she took her MLA degree at the University of Wisconsin. During that time she had the opportunity to meet and openly critique the work of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Upon graduation, she took a job at the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore, Maryland where she served as the childrens reference librarian. Yet, the call of adventure was still with her and she applied for and received a position as post librarian for the United States Army. She was stationed in Straubing, Germany where she met her husband, Robert Hoke, and In 1959 the couple welcomed their first child, Raymond Fellow Hoke on Christmas Eve.

The family returned to the United States, and their second child, Philip Wilder Hoke was born in Shirley, Massachusetts. The family relocated to Weatherford, Oklahoma where Sheila took the position of cataloguing librarian and eventually became the library director, a job she stayed at until she retired with emeritus status from Southwestern Oklahoma State University in 1993.

She was an avid traveler and was able to visit all fifty states in her lifetime. She also was able to visit most of the European countries while working for the military. In retirement she had the opportunity to visit Russia on an extended trip where she had the opportunity to meet and listen to a lecture delivered by Mikhail Gorbachev.

Still, her greatest joys were found in her deep and abiding faith, her friends, and family. Sheila was a member of the Federated Church, the Emmanuel Baptist Church, and the First Baptist Church of Weatherford, Oklahoma; Delta Kappa Gamma, Kappa Kappa Iota; NORFE, and several other civic organizations. She was quite pleased to have the opportunity to work with the reading program for Agape Clinic, and spent considerable energy in preparing the Christmas and Easter Book and Gift event for that organization.

She is preceded in death by her husband, Robert Edward Hoke, her brother, Herbert Bruce Wilder, and her mother, Virginia Wilder Dell; and is survived by her two sons, Raymond and Philip; her daughter in law, Bonnie Hoke; five grandchildren, Kimberly, Emily, Jeffery, Robert, and Bailey Hoke; her nephew and his wife, Bruce and Nancy Wilder and their three Children, Emily, Benjamin, and Kristin Wilder.

A memorial service will be held at Lockstone Funeral Home on October 25 at 2:00. Instead of flowers the family asks that individuals make small donations in her name to the Agape Clinic, Universal Hospice of Ft Worth, or the Southwestern Oklahoma State University Foundation.