Helen Grace O'Dell

Helen Grace O’Dell went home to be with the Lord on 26 May 2022. Funeral Services will be 10:00 AM Tuesday May 31, 2022 at First Baptist Church in the chapel, 1208 S Tyler St, with Reverend Corky Holland officiating. Helen will be available for viewing from 2:00 - 5:00 PM Sunday May 29, 2022 at the funeral home. Arrangements are under the direction of Cox-Rowley Funeral Home.

Helen was born to John McKinley and Evvie Maybelle Jones Cagle in Wister, Oklahoma, on 15 January 1934. She grew up in the First Baptist Church of Wister, trusted Jesus Christ as her Savior at nine years old, in November of 1943, and was baptized in Caston Creek nearby. She felt called by God to special ministry in her teens. Helen graduated from Wister High School in 1951 and attended Poteau Junior College. She met her future husband, William H. O'Dell, after he returned from serving in the Korean War, at First Baptist Church of Wister, and they were married there on 20 December 1952. She then completed her associate degree before they moved to Waco, Texas, for Bill to attend Baylor University.

Bill then pastored churches in Oklahoma, California, and Texas, and Helen served many roles in church planting, missions, and ministry support. Along the way, she and Bill had four children, and Helen earned both bachelor and master degrees from Wayland Baptist University. She worked at Air Force bases in Waco and Big Spring, Texas, and served twenty-four years at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Amarillo, Texas, retiring as Assistant Chief of Information Management.

She also volunteered for many years at the Perkins Center Buchanan Street Chapel, a mission of FBC, worked in Woman's Missionary Union, mentored in the Christian Women's Job Corps, taught English as a Second Language, and served with Bill in interim pastorates. She delighted in the "Discussion Class" at First Baptist, that she and Bill felt led to begin in 2007.

Helen O'Dell was preceded in death by her husband of sixty-eight years, William H. O'Dell, in June 2021. She is survived by her dear sister, Virginia Corby, of Heavener, Oklahoma; daughters Karen O'Dell Bullock and her husband John of Granbury, Texas; Kandi O'Dell Pruitt of Iowa Park, Texas; Kathy O'Dell of Amarillo, Texas; and son William O'Dell Jr. and his wife Amy of Stephenville, Texas. Their grandchildren are: Joshua Bullock and his wife Erin, and their daughters Chloe and Emma; Bethany Bullock Bullion and her husband Clayton, and their children Noah, Nathanael, Sophia, and Obadiah; Justin Pruitt and his wife Kathleen, and their sons Elijah and Levi; Helen Christine Prickett; Jesse Pruitt and his wife Sarah, and daughter Emily; China Pruitt; Jesseca Bullock; Lauren Bullock; Hunter Bullock and his wife Daley; and Lily and Sarah O'Dell.