Colleen Sue Harker

Oct. 4, 1940– Dec. 6, 2023

Colleen Sue Harker was born east of Rocky on Oct 4, 1940, to Louis Elmer Dobbs and Creta Lola Margaret (Diffendaffer) Dobbs.

Raised on farms as tenant farmers, they moved once or twice a year, sometimes more often. This made school hard for Colleen because she might be ahead of, or behind, where each new school was in their studies. But she made it to the 10th grade before she married her best friend Glenda Raleigh’s brother: William Carroll Holman.

Carroll wasn’t planning on getting married, until there came a time when he saw Colleen as more than just Glenda’s friend. He had started building a small bachelor’s pad with a dark room for his photography, and it wasn’t finished before they married. They lived with his folks, Willie and Lucius Holman, for several weeks while it was being finished.

They raised 4 kids in that home before moving to town—Beverly, Vincent, Robin, and Wesley. After they moved, they rented out the little bachelor’s pad to newlyweds. It was affectionately then called “The Honeymoon Cottage” or “The Cracker Box” because of its size.

Colleen helped her husband in all his endeavors while raising the 4 kids. Colleen drove truck, hauled furniture, farmed, kept the books and ran their 2 furniture-moving agencies in Cordell and Lawton, and did the same for their oilfield businesses and mini storages later. When she wanted a new car, she worked for several years at Kellwood Factory in Clinton during the kids’ high school years.

Carroll bought a used RV, and they traveled some before using it as a homebase on oilfield sites after they had moved west of Sayre. Later they bought another and enjoyed traveling and meeting new friends through an RV Club.

Colleen was a selftaught artist and also took painting lessons from Evalyn Diffendaffer and Delala Oliver and watched Bob Ross every Saturday morning on TV. She enjoyed sewing her children’s clothes while they were in school, and later made designer jackets for sale with her sister-in-law Mona Dobbs. They both later bought computer embroidery machines and enjoyed classes together. Sewing and reading were favorite past-times for her. She also enjoyed growing things, whether it was a garden, potted plants, or a flower bed out front. And she was wise in the common sense ways of life that few display.

Colleen’s regular social activities included playing Rook and 42 Dominoes with Billy Ray Holman, Matt and Glenda Raleigh, and her brothers. She loved square dancing with Lynn and Mona Dobbs.

Colleen always took time to do things with her kids like playing games, hiking at Red Rock Canyon, camping in the Wichita Mountains, backpacking in the Ouachita (pronounced Washita) Mountains or the canyons up by Thomas, roller skating at Carnegie, watching TV and putting puzzles together, teaching them life skills, and hosting young folks’ parties. She could always be counted on to help with the sick, or moms with new babies.

She was very adventurous and afraid of nothing. She drove a bunch of women on a tour bus trip to Branson, sharing the coach wheel with Nina Dobbs. After 48 years of marriage, Carroll died, and she and Nona Belle Holman went sightseeing to Australia.

When she returned, she married Michael Harker. They were wed on a train in Oklahoma City. Mike’s passion was trains, and he volunteered at the train museum in OKC. He even had a railcar which they rode, on live rails, with their club. Since they were both retired, and all their kids were grown, Mike and Colleen were able to travel and do things together on a regular basis.

She adored Mike; and she was the center of his world. He never tired of doing things for her and with her. One of their favorites was to sip hot tea or coffee on the patio at their Hext Road home every morning and watch the kittens playing. He was always doing things to make her life more enjoyable—like build a cedar-lined room to store their winter clothes and coats. And the list goes on and on.

They sold their small house on Hext Road and Mike, Vincent, and West built a new one right next to it.

As they got older and health became an issue, they moved to Weatherford, where they lived for 2 or 3 years before going into the nursing home. Mike and Colleen enjoyed 16 years together before she passed on December 6th.

Colleen was full of life and leaves behind to catch up with her, her husband Mike Harker and his 2 sons Matt and John; her brother Weldon Dobbs; two sisters- in-law—Damaris Dobbs and Twilla Peace; and her 4 children— Beverly Mitchell, Vincent Holman, Robin Huereca, and West Holman. Colleen has 18 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren, and many, many friends--young and old.

Colleen had her faults like the rest of us, but I guess you could call her a Proverbs 31 woman.