Sarah Anna Lee "Ma" (Hallum) Whitlow Pippenger

Sarah Anna Lee “Ma” (Hallum) Whitlow Pippenger was born on January 8, 1926 in Hardy, Arkansas and passed from this life to her Heavenly Home on August 11, 2023. She was a kind and loving daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, friend, neighbor and nurse. Most importantly, she was a woman who shared God’s love with everyone she came in contact with.

She spent most of her younger years in Pawnee and its surrounding area. Life wasn’t easy for young Anna Lee. She had to work in the cotton fields, clean corn fields and even lost hope of becoming a nurse one day. She found that leaning on God and believing in the power of prayer could get her through any hardship – which is something she continued to do throughout her life.During WWII, Anna Lee’s prayer to one day become a nurse, was answered when she was given the opportunity to care for the sick at Pawnee Hospital. Little did she know this job would lead her to another answered prayer, to marry a “city dude” – Zane Owen Whitlow, the son of a fellow nurse.

Anna Lee and Zane began their life together on January 23, 1946, eloping to the Justice of the Peace in Sedan, Kansas. They became business owners in Perry, OK. - a gas station where Anna Lee would receive a kiss from Zane for every gallon of gas she sold. Together they raised 4 children, Gwen, Zane,

Abby and Molly. Marriage and motherhood must have suited her, because she strove daily to be the best wife and mother she could be, and succeeded. Much of their early married life was spent moving wherever the oil field took them. In the late ‘50s they settled down in Woodward, OK and Anna Lee was able to resume her nursing career by working for Dr. R.G. Obermiller, where she was fondly named “Nurse Ann.” After her last nestling graduated high school, she and Zane moved back to where they began, Pawnee, OK. and opened a Western Auto store. A few years later she lost her “honey” Zane and opened a thrift shop as a way to fill the time, help others and share her knack for finding treasures.

In 1985, Anna Lee moved to Cushing into the house she “bought at a garage sale” and began a new life. Whether it was at church, a garage sale or bowling with the Senior Citizens, she made friends wherever she went. While bowling, she met her soon-to-be next husband, Lawrence “Larry” Pippenger. They married in 1986 and were able to spend nearly 26 years together caring for each other and watching their families grow.

For the next decade of her life, Anna Lee continued to care for others anyway she could. When the time came for her to let others care for her, it was a difficult thing for her to accept, but she did. We would like to thank all of the ones who stepped up to help her and our family – especially Genesis Home Health, Walker Companion Services, Karman Legacy Hospice, Kevin Tate, Andrea Stewart and Claudia Martin.

She was preceded in death by her parents, John V. and Essie Hallum, brother Lawrence Hallum, sisters Lola Feaster, Hazel Skidgel, Elsie Skidgel, Jessie Robbins, Joy Minney, daughter Gwen Buttram, son Albert Whitlow, granddaughter Ami Whitlow Brown, son-in-law Gjon Payne and a host of other family and friends. The great rejoicing upon her arrival in Heaven could be felt by those of us she left behind

.She is survived by her sister Aredia (Rita) Nixon, son Zane V. Whitlow (Cheryl Hill), daughter Molly Payne, grandchildren Danny Buttram (Sherri), Leslie Buttram, Cheryl Davenport (John), Cheri Gibbs (Curtis), Chauna Utterback (Jon), Zane Whitlow II (Rhema), Kari Purdie (Rod), Zackri Whitlow (Brooke), Kyle Brown, Sara Payne Keyes (Jacob), Ian Payne (Chelsea), Sean Payne, 21 great grandchildren, 9 great-great grandchildren and many beloved nieces, nephews, family and friends.

Visitation will be Tuesday 9:00 A.M. till 7:00 P.M.in the Poteet Funeral Home Chapel

Services will be held Wednesday 2:00 P.M. August 16, 2023 in the Poteet Funeral home chapel with Randy Whitlow and Ryan Whitlow officiating, burial will follow in the Highland Cemetery in Pawnee. Services were entrusted to the Poteet Funeral Home and Cremation Services, friends and family can leave a memory for the family at www.poteetfuneralhome.com