Funeral Services will be 10:00 AM Thursday June 4, 2015 at Vondel Smith Mortuary South Colonial Chapel (6934 S. Western)

Wilkerson, Olla Janice, age 81, went home to be with our Lord on the 1st day of June, 2015, in the early morning hours, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She was born on January 25, 1934 to Ollie John Wilkins and Rebecca "Frances" (Evans) Wilkins in Jennings, Oklahoma. There were five children in the Wilkins family – three boys and two girls. Janice was the oldest girl in the family, and she was referred to by her family and friends as "Olla Janice" when she was young, and then later as "Janice" – she was not at all fond of her first name, even though she was named after her daddy. Janice's father, born in Glencoe, Oklahoma, worked for the Oklahoma Highway Department as a crane operator. Her mother, born in Fannin County, Texas, was a housewife, mother, and Sunday school teacher. All of the Wilkins children were born in different parts of the State, because their father's job required the family to travel to follow his work. Eventually, however, the family settled at 3221 S.W. 24th Street in south Oklahoma City, near Rockwood Elementary School, where Janice's parents and her brother Keith lived throughout the remainder of their lives. The Wilkins' family home was in the country until the city grew up around it, and it had no running water except for a hand pump at the kitchen sink. It also had a two-hole outhouse in the back yard, until the house was finally hooked up to city services in the early 1960s. Janice's mother used to bathe her granddaughters in a washtub on the back porch, until a bathroom was finally built onto the back of the house. Janice's mother was very proud of her pink bathroom with little white swans bordering the room. It wasn't long after this that Janice's mother also got an electric dishwasher and refrigerator to replace the old ice box, but all of these things came several years after Janice had already moved out of the house, so Janice grew up without any of the modern conveniences. When Janice was young, she lived in Okmulgee and Wheatland, Oklahoma, before the family finally settled in Oklahoma City. She attended grade school in Okmulgee and Wheatland, and she attended 6th grade at Rockwood Elementary School in Oklahoma City. She also attended Jackson Junior High School, Central High School (one semester), and Capitol Hill High School in Oklahoma City (Class of 1952). Janice took piano lessons when she was young, and she had many piano recitals with her friend, Sylvia Edelman, who lived across the street from the Wilkins family on S.W. 24th Street. When Janice was in high school at Capitol Hill, she sang alto in Ozzie Ossenkop's choir, just as her daughter Cheryl did many years later. Janice also played the piano for the legendary Wanda Jackson at the KTOK Radio Station in downtown Oklahoma City, when they were both in high school at Capitol Hill. Janice met Vincent Mitchell Lawson at Grace Baptist Church in the late 1940s, and they married on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1951, in a double wedding ceremony with Junior and Pat Chiles. Junior and Pat Chiles were missionaries. Vincent and Janice raised their family of 4 girls in Oklahoma City, on the south side of town, and they divorced in the early 1970s. Their primary residences were 4025 S.W. 25th Street and 1617 Birch Street. When the girls were little, Janice stayed at home to take care of them while Vincent worked to support the family. When the girls reached school age, however, Janice went to work outside the home. Janice worked for Wilson and Company, a meat packing plant near Stockyards, for a short period of time, and she and Vincent also painted houses on occasion to try to make ends meet. Vincent worked the night shift, and often worked overtime, so Janice spent a lot of time alone with the girls. The five of them would often watch television shows or movies together, and they would occasionally enjoy some vanilla ice cream with chocolate milk or hot chocolate pudding. In the wintertime, if it snowed, Janice would sometimes make snow ice cream for the girls, which they liked to color with food coloring, and they would all huddle together over the floor furnace to eat their ice cream and stay warm. When the girls were a little bit older, Janice started working as a bookkeeper for Superior Laundry and Cleaners on S. Walker, near Capitol Hill High School, in Oklahoma City. She worked for Andy and Gladys Upton, the owners of the dry cleaners, for several years. Later, Janice started working as a secretary for the Traffic Control Department, Signal Division, for the City of Oklahoma City. Marty Saavedra was her supervisor. Janice seemed to enjoy working for the City, and she eventually retired. Later, however, she went back to work as a bookkeeper for Country Hearts' Day Care, which her daughters Linda and Vicki owned and operated for about ten years. Janice used to sew a lot when the girls were little, and she made most of their clothes, as well as her own clothes. One Christmas, Janice also made the girls' Barbie dolls a wardrobe of clothes apiece, and they were all sewn to perfection. Janice was a good seamstress, just like her mother, although she probably did not enjoy sewing quite as much as her mother did. Janice loved to play the piano and sing, and she was the pianist at Jones Grove Baptist Church (now McKinley Avenue Baptist Church), Grace Baptist Church, and Southern Temple Baptist Church – all in Oklahoma City. When the girls were little, friends from church and family members would come over to sing gospel songs and to have doughnuts or cake and coffee. Janice's girls really enjoyed hearing their mother play "Autumn Leaves" and "Overshadowed" on the piano. Later, when the girls were teen-agers, Janice played and sang alto in a gospel quartet called the "Temple-Aires", from Southern Temple Baptist Church, and they traveled and sang at churches in Oklahoma and the bordering states. Janice enjoyed visiting her "Mother" and "Dad", as well as her brother Keith who lived with his parents, and she and Vincent took the girls to see their grandparents and "Uncle Keithie" regularly. Keith would swing the girls like airplanes in the front yard, play his guitar and sing for them, and sometimes blow smoke rings with cigarette smoke. He could even make smoke come out of his ears, and the girls certainly enjoyed being entertained by him. Keithie used to like to tickle the girls, and although they would laugh, they didn't like it very much. Janice's dad would usually be watching a ballgame on television, and her mother would usually be cooking in the kitchen or showing off her latest sewing project to Janice, while all of the nonsense was going on. When the girls were young, the Wilkins family always spent Christmas Eve together, usually at Janice's sister Nelda's house. Janice loved all of her brothers and her sister, but she rarely got to see her brothers, Kenneth and Carrol, who lived in California. When the girls were little, Janice and Vincent would take them camping with Vincent's brother Paul's family at Platt National Park (now called the Chickasaw National Recreation Area), in Sulphur, Oklahoma. The kids loved to swim and play on their dads' giant truck innertubes, and the families enjoyed cooking and eating out of doors. Janice had never learned to swim, and one time she took a dive off of a waterfall and came up a little bit short of the shallow water. When she panicked and started to go under, her daughter Linda dove in and pulled her to safety. Janice enjoyed playing games. When the girls were young, she played Scrabble with the next door neighbor, Stella Ivy, or dominos with the "Old Man" down the street, Bob Thomas, for hours at a time. Later in life, Janice loved to play bingo and went every chance she could. Usually, Debbie or Linda would take her – sometimes two or three times a week. Janice enjoyed the simple things in life. She liked watching westerns, old movies, and game shows on television, and she enjoyed working the daily cryptoquote in the newspaper. Janice was like her dad – a quiet and introverted person, but occasionally she would come out of her shell. After Janice and Vincent divorced, she remained single for several years, but then was re-introduced by her dad to Dr. Hardy L. Wilkerson, a chiropractor. Hardy and Janice dated for a while, and eventually married on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1981. Hardy and Janice purchased a home on the south side of Oklahoma City and moved in on December 31, 1980, where they lived throughout the remainder of their lives. Hardy passed away at home due to pneumonia on January 30, 1997, and Janice never remarried. Hardy treated Janice like a queen, and he took her on trips to Hawaii, Germany, Oregon and Washington, and to see the Panama Canal. Hardy was also very good to Janice's daughters and grandchildren, and they all loved him in return. When Blake was little, he called him "Paka Hardy". Janice is survived by her daughter Deborah Latham and husband Mike of Arcadia, Oklahoma; her daughter Cheryl Tolson and husband Steve of Edmond, Oklahoma; her daughter Linda Brewster and husband Brian of Moore, Oklahoma; and her daughter Vicki Wheeler and husband Charles of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Janice is also survived by 7 grandchildren – Terry Melton, Kara Fenwick and her husband Chuck, Jennifer Wade and her husband Grady, Abbie Brewster, Blake Brewster, Christa Smith and her husband Russell, and Gary Wheeler; as well as 10 great grandchildren – Nathan Melton, Gracie Melton, Kayla Fenwick, Jaicee Fenwick, Ansley Fenwick, Logan Wade, Lane Wade, Evan Smith, Justin Smith, and Trevor Wheeler. Janice is survived by her sister Nelda Kennedy and husband Leland of Haines City, Florida; her brother Carrol Wilkins and wife Ann of San Mateo, California; her niece Teresa (Blaylock) Parrish and husband Kelvin of Granbury, Texas; her nephew Bruce Blaylock of Fort Worth, Texas; her nephew David Wilkins of San Mateo, California; as well as other family members and friends. Janice is preceded in death by her husband Dr. Hardy L. Wilkerson; her parents Ollie and Frances Wilkins of Oklahoma City; her oldest brother Kenneth Irl Wilkins of Redwood City, California; her brother Keith Oland Wilkins of Oklahoma City; her niece Carol Ann (Wilkins) Williamson of San Mateo, California; and other family members. Janice fought a good fight, and through all of her hardships, she kept the faith. We all loved her very much, and we will all miss her.