Individual Details

Celesta Frost Rippeto passed away May 22, 2010, at her home. Our Mom was born in an open range area called Delhi Flats (now western Oklahoma) in Oklahoma Territory on April 12, 1905, two years before Oklahoma became a state. Mom was the 5th in a family of 6 children - 4 girls and 2 boys. Grandpa Frost moved the family to Erick, Oklahoma, and then in 1913, when Mom was 8, to Norman so all the kids would be able to go to college. After graduating from Norman High in 1922, Mom entered OU and began what was to be a lifelong love affair with the University. She joined Chi Omega sorority and graduated with a double major in History and English in 1926. Soon after graduating, a teaching job opened up in Quinton (eastern Oklahoma), so Mom signed a contract for $125 a month to teach high school. In Quinton she found a room at Mrs. Williams' house, where the widow Williams took in boarders and fed them family style. At dinner the first night, she met a young dentist who had come from Missouri to set up a dental practice, and thus began a 75-year relationship. Mom and Dad's first date was to go to the picture show in McAlister where they saw Al Jolson in "Sonny Boy", the first talkie show. After a 2-year courtship, Mom and Dad got married in the parlor at the Chi Omega house in Norman on August 26, 1928. Their marriage was the first ever held in the Chi O house, and to our knowledge the only one to date. After marrying, the young couple returned to Quinton to save and plan for their move to the "big city". As it happened, they moved to Oklahoma City in 1930 in the midst of the Great Depression,' however, when the Mary Sudic discovery well hit later that year, the city became a boom town with 1,500 people moving in every week, and Dad was off and running with his practice. The '30s were a busy time for Mom and Dad with the purchase of a duplex on 20th street, Mom's substitute teaching and Dad's new dental practice, their involvement in St. Luke's Methodist Church, Mom's volunteer work at the Crippled Children's Hospital, and her many midnight calls to rush to the hospital to give blood to a save a life - her blood type was so rare that only a few donors were known. They were also season ticket holders for the OU football games where they did not miss a home game for well over 50 years. They had a fascinating trip to OU's first Orange Bowl in 1939 where they sat on folding chairs on the cinder track, and on the return trip in a small plane, they were forced to land in a cornfield in Georgia because of bad weather. The '40s were even more active with Doug's birth in 1940 and Lynn's in 1941, three weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. ln between births, Mom and Dad moved to their new home on 40th street where they would raise us and live for the next 30 years. They soon transferred their church membership to a fledgling new church around the corner from where we lived, Crown Heights Methodist Church, where Mom has been an active member for 65 years. They also joined the Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club in 1940 – it was a big decision since it was "way out north", and the membership cost $250! Mom was really supermom in the '40s - a homeroom mother, cub scouts mom, brownie mom, and she never missed an Edgemere Robins baseball game, including bringing picnic lunches for everyone-all the while being very active in her Chi Omega sorority, her book club, the church circle, founding the women's dental auxiliary, starting a social club fondly known as the Friday Nite Club, and countless other activities. The 50s and later years brought many graduations, honors, wonderful trips within the US - especially OU football games - and special trips abroad, particularly Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary cruise through the Panama Canal and a 1991 Capitals of the Orient trip where they visited the Great Wall of China. ln 1998, a special celebration marked Mom and Dad's 70th wedding anniversary. A busload of family and friends escorted them from Oklahoma City to Norman where a surprise re-enactment of Mom and Dad's wedding at the Chi O house was performed. Mom and Dad marked their 72nd wedding anniversary before Parkinson's disease took Dad in December 2000. We know Mom missed Dad terribly, but what a long and wonderful relationship they had. Mom lived in the home she and Dad had for the last 25 years, and we are all blessed by her constant companion of 10 years, Lucy Williams, who made sure Mom maintained an active lifestyle and social life attending luncheons, parties, church and book club. This brief chronology does not begin to describe who Mom really is in our eyes. She is simply the most loving, caring, kind person we, her children, know. In fact, we can safely say we have never met anyone who doesn't like Mom. We cherish her and love her dearly and thank her so much for being here for us all these years. Memorial donations may be made to Crown Heights United Methodist Church. The family will receive guests at the funeral home on Tuesday from 6-8 p.m. Graveside services will be 10 a.m., Wednesday, June 2, 2010, at Rose Hill Burial Park. Arrangements under the direction of Hahn-Cook/Street & Draper Funeral Directors, Oklahoma City, OK.

spouse: Douglas Legrand Rippeto, 1902–2000
marriage: 24 August 1928, Cleveland, Oklahoma

Birth	12 Apr 1905	Oklahoma
Census (family)-shared	23 Apr 1910	(James Fount Frost and Sarah Ellen McDonald) Erick, Beckham County, Oklahoma
Census (family)-shared	13 Jan 1920	(James Fount Frost and Sarah Ellen McDonald) Norman, Cleveland County, Oklahoma
Death	22 May 2010	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma
Obituary	31 May 2010	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma
Burial		Rose Hill Burial Park, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma

Father	James Fount Frost (1873 - 1963)
Mother	Sarah Ellen McDonald (1877 - 1926)
Sibling	Rauel Bryan Frost (1897 - 1985)
Sibling	Hessie Edith Frost (1900 - 1989)
Sibling	Jessie Arlene Frost (1903 - 1993)
Sibling	Henry Lee "Jack" Frost (1906 - 1993)

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