Fern Marie Gitchell Young

Fern Marie Gitchell Young was 83 when she passed on Sunday, July 26, 2020 in Tulsa.

Graveside services will be 10:00 AM Saturday, August 1, 2020 in Edith Ford Cemetery with Pastor Willie George, Fern’s son-in-law, officiating.  Arrangements are under the direction of Carmichael-Whatley Funeral Directors of Canadian. 

She was born on May 14,1937 to James and Mabel (Stahl) Gitchell in a small parsonage in Paonia, Colorado.  When Fern was young the family moved to Uravan, Colorado, a mining town where her father started a church.  When Fern was 13, Fern’s father accepted a position as Associate Pastor in Dallas, Oregon where Fern worked in the fields harvesting an assortment of berries.  When she became a freshman in high school, her family moved to Monte Vista, Colorado, where she worked harvesting potatoes.  Fern also spent time picking cotton, which she recalled as being the hardest work she had ever done.  When Fern was 15, her family moved to Briscoe, Texas where her father became a new minister at the Assembly of God church and Fern graduated from high school.  It was at this church where Fern discovered her future husband, Frank Marion Young.  After graduating high school, Fern and her family moved to Hickory, North Carolina where she worked as a seamstress in a glove factory.  Fern married Frank on January 7, 1956 in Briscoe and following the wedding they moved to Lubbock, Texas where Frank completed his chemical engineering studies at Texas Tech University.  Following college graduation, Frank and Fern moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee where they had four children: Deleva, Janet, Henry, and Lee.  In 1967, the Youngs moved to Canadian, Texas and lived on the Young Ranch.  Frank Quinten, their fifth child was born in Canadian in 1969.  Fern was very involved with her church playing the piano, teaching Sunday school classes and driving the church bus.  Fern was also an excellent cook.  In 2007, Fern and Frank moved to Owasso, Oklahoma where she enjoyed attending Church on the Move in Tulsa, attending her grandchildren and great grandchildren’s’ events, taking painting lessons, cooking and visiting family.  Fern was a very talented and accomplished artist as well as a self taught musician playing the piano, saxophone, and accordion. 

Fern is survived by 2 daughters, Deleva George and husband Willie of Owasso, Oklahoma and Janet Smith and  husband Buster of Plainview, Texas; 3 sons, Henry Young and wife Melinda of Owasso, Oklahoma, Lee Young and wife Lisa of Lubbock, Texas, and Frank Young and wife Tiffany of Tulsa, Oklahoma; 15 grandchildren and 18 great grandchildren.  She is proceeded in death by her husband Frank in 2011, her parents James and Mabel Gitchell, sister Donna Beaver Lemond, and brother James Gitchell.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in memory of Fern to the Kingdom Keys Network, P.O. Box 8088, Amarillo, Texas 79114. Online donations can also be made at www.kingdomkeys.org.  Please note on the donation that it is in memory of Fern Young.