Edna “Janet Washinghands” Tabor Pawpa Cleveland
 
Edna “Janet Washinghands” Tabor Pawpa Cleveland was born December 10, 1909 to Wilbur Washinghands Tabor and Lydia Black Rock Sittingbull, in Canton, Oklahoma.  She went to be with our Lord early Sunday morning, April 2, 2006 at the age of 96.  She had been in Preferred Hospice care at the McLoud Nursing Home, McLoud, OK.

As a young girl she attended the Old Cantonment School.  At first she was scared and homesick, especially as she could not speak English.  Eventually, she liked working in the laundry, where she learned sewing and other homemaking skills that helped her in her later life.  After sixth grade at Cantonment she attended Seger School at Colony for a year and then went to Chilocco near the Kansas border.

            She married Victor Pawpa on October 9, 1933.  They farmed 16 years near Canton and moved to Watonga about 1960.  He died in 1967.  On March 16, 1976 she married George Cleveland and they lived in Watonga until his death on April 23, 1985.  She had good memories of the dances north of Carlton or at LeftHand allotment northeast of Geary.   She went to the Mennonite Church as a child, but in later years belonged to the Assembly of God Church in Watonga. 

            In the summer of 1968 at the University of Oklahoma, she taught Vietnamese Arapaho Linguistics, which in turn was easier to translate into English.

            Edna was preceded in death by her parents, her husbands Victor Pawpa and George Cleveland; daughters Belva Jean Pawpa, who died as a child; Marlene Pawpa Riggs and Linda Pawpa Yelloweyes and a son, Charles Erwin Pawpa.  Also preceding her in death were siblings Angus Blindy, Ellen Blindy, Chester Blindy, Oscar Tabor, Charles Tabor and Paul Tabor, and grandson Darrell Yelloweyes.

            Edna is survived by special caregivers in her granddaughter Ginger Pawpa Wallace and her husband Tim and their family of McLoud; Edna’s nieces and co-guardians Carol Botts and Mitzi Jenkins and their families of Lawton and life-long friends Louis and Janice Hood of Greenfield.

            Edna is survived by her grandsons, Jack, Michael, Erwin Keith and Victor Allen Riggs, Jeffery and Charles Yelloweyes, and granddaughters, Carla Yelloweyes, Charlene Pawpa Guffey, and Ginger Pawpa Wallace.  She is also survived by grandchildren and great-grandchildren; along with other numerous relatives and friends.

            Edna’s advice “Live for the Lord, serve Him, He will take care of you, it’s the only way, if you live for the Lord, He will take care of you.” Great is he who is in me than he who is in the world.  I John 4; 4

 

Graveside Services:  Geary Cemetery, 2:00 p.m., Thursday, April 6, 2006, Geary, OK

Officiating: Rev. Doug Jackson, Rev. Don Robinson, under the direction of the Turner Funeral Home, Geary, Oklahoma