Barbara Jo "Bj" Bryant

Barbara Jo (“BJ”) Bryant was greeted at heaven’s gate by her parents and other departed loved ones on September 16, 2022. Her earthly life began as the child of Howard and Ruby (Turpin) Bible on November 11, 1935 at her grandparents’ farm near May, Brown County, Texas. Her early years included extensive travel and numerous towns and schools as her father worked for Halliburton, and included the towns of Duncan and then finally Perry, OK, where she attended high school, was a cheerleader and graduated in 1954. She began nurse’s training in Enid, OK, and just before her R.N. graduation at Enid General Hospital, BJ traveled over summer break to Peru, South America to visit her parents and siblings who were then living there.

Her forty years of registered nursing began in Dr. Howard Puckett’s medical office in Stillwater, OK. Other than three years in Pasadena, Texas, BJ devoted twenty-five years of nursing to Stillwater Medical Center; her favorite areas were ICU and oncology.

As a young adult, she enjoyed camping, skiing, gardening, horse riding, softball (mother-daughter teams and trips), flying lessons, cooking (a great cook, especially at making pralines), sewing (including making most of her and her daughter’s clothes and making a “tutu” – one time only!) and oil painting. Most of her adult life, BJ was a Stillwater, OK resident where she was a founding member of Eagle Heights Baptist Church.

BJ’s last few years were as a resident of Westhaven Nursing Home where she enjoyed friendships with fellow residents, spending time with her roommate and watching cardinals on feeders right outside her window. She and her mother both enjoyed cardinal-watching and believed they were a sign from heaven. Her family on earth will now be surely watching for cardinals in remembrance!

BJ leaves behind to cherish her memory a daughter, Sherri (Troy) Longan of Stillwater; two granddaughters, Mandy (Blaine) Long of Mount Pleasant, Michigan; and Megan (Alex) Shafer of Stanton, Texas; three great-grandchildren, Jackson and Brooks Long and Kaden Shafer; siblings, Dorothea Bible of Pasadena, Texas and H.E. (Patty) Bible, of Perry, OK; and best friend, Shelley Waldo of Stillwater.

The family wishes to thank all those who in many ways, large and small, assisted in caring for BJ in her later years as her health declined.

Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of Dighton-Marler Funeral Home of Stillwater, OK.