Ester Gaines

Ester Gaines, 89, of Fritch, died Sunday, April 12, 2015. Services will be at 2 p.m., Thursday, April 16 at Canadian River Cowboy Church, with Pastor Billy Paul Vinson officiating. Burial will be at 2 p.m., Friday, April 17 at the Wynnewood View Cemetery in Wynnewood, Oklahoma under the direction of Minton Chatwell Funeral Directors.

Ester was born in Wynnewood, Oklahoma on February 10, 1926 to John Thomas and Alice Bratcher Edwards. She married Leo Gaines on February 10, 1944 at Sulphur, Oklahoma. Ester was saved in 1946 at a prayer meeting in their home. She was a member of the Canadian River Cowboy Church. Ester was a housewife and also worked in the ship yards during World War II. She used both of these experiences to teach her son how to weld and her daughters how to sew. Ester loved horses and even made it in the top 10 in the nation for Non-Pro Pleasure Driving in the Appaloosa Horse Club.

Ester is preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Leo in 2013; son, Edward Leo Gaines; five brothers, three sisters and one grandson.

Survivors are her son, David Gaines of Fritch; daughters, Joyce Smith and husband, Walter of Dover, Arkansas; Frances Schleg and husband, Tom of Walkerton, Indiana, Joan Gaines and Phillas Rich both of Amarillo, and Ree Hamilton and husband, Larry of Fritch; sister, Vina Cox of Mansfield, Arkansas; fourteen grandchildren and thirty-six great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild on the way; and numerous nieces and nephews.

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