February 16, 1940
August 25, 2021
“Because Nice Matters”
There is a little sign, hanging up just inside the front door of the home of Luther and Josephine Dunegan. It says “Because Nice Matters”. It’s a great way to sum up the person that “Memaw”, as many called her, was. She spoke and acted and behaved the way she did because she believed it mattered what kind of person you are. It matters how you act. She brought up her girls with that message. The poet Maya Angelou wrote, “You know what’s right. Just do right.” Josephine might say “You know how to be nice. Just be nice.”
Josephine was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. If you ever heard of “Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA”, Muskogee is a small town, and Tahlequah is a nearby town that is at least two sizes smaller. She then lived in Oktaha, Oklahoma, on the opposite side of Muskogee from Tahlequah, which is three sizes smaller than that. The Dunegan’s relationship started when she would go to the grocery store in Muskogee where Luther worked. It seems she would always go home with a lot more than was on her grocery list.
Josephine married Luther H. Dunegan,
December 28, 1956, when they were quite young, she was 16 and he was 18, while Luther
was home on Christmas leave from the Army.
He served in the post-WWII occupation of Europe, stationed in
northeastern France.
A favorite story about Jo is when she
traveled all the way from Muskogee to New York City by Greyhound bus. She spent a night or two in a hotel and then
caught a ship headed to La Harve, France, landing 01-Oct-1957. Somehow, speaking no French, she then found
the train into Paris where she was finally able to connect with Luther. She and Luther had made all these
arrangements by telephone and “snail mail”.
She’d never been outside Oklahoma before, but with no computers, no
smart phones, no Google Maps, she managed to travel all the way to Europe, to be
with Luther, who would be her husband for over 62 years. Quite an impressive young lady !!
Josephine was preceded in death by her
husband, Luther H. Dunegan, in 2018. She
was from a large family of 10 children.
She is survived by her brother Charles Redeagle, but preceded in death
by siblings George, Mary Frances, Anna Lea, Joe, Grace, Enos, Minnie Elizabeth,
and John. Josephine is also survived by
her three daughters, Brenda Laughlin, Deanne Smith and Betsy Dunegan; four
grand-children, William Laughlin, Charles Laughlin, Rebecca Teel, Joanne Teel
Olds; and one great-grand-daughter, Riley.
- Mark
To have a look at Brenda's dad's obituary from 2018:
https://writtenpost.blogspot.com/2018/06/luther-h-dunegan-1938-2018-brendas-dad_20.html
