Carolyn Nell Mcbride

Services for Anadarko Daily News Publisher Carolyn Nell (Meyers) McBride, 88, of Anadarko, will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday, April 2 in the chapel of Ray & Martha's Funeral Home in Anadarko.
She was born Feb. 11, 1936 in Oklahoma City to Fletcher A. and Opal (Stuart) Meyers. She passed away peacefully at her home in Anadarko in the evening of Thursday, March 28, 2024 after an illness of several months.
She lived in Oklahoma City with her parents until their divorce in 1943. She then lived in Oklahoma City with her mother, her sister Sandy, and her maternal grandparents, Lock and Callie Stuart, until after her third grade year in elementary school. Her mother had taken a job teaching in Apache, and the family moved to Anadarko.
Renting a room over the funeral home in Apache, Carolyn and her mother lived there during the week then stayed in Anadarko on the weekends. When she was in the fourth grade, her mother secured a teaching job at Anadarko Public Schools and they moved to the 600 block of West Kentucky in Anadarko.
Carolyn went to school at West Grade Elementary, where her mother taught social studies, then went to Anadarko Junior High, which was where East Elementary is now. She told stories of walking to junior high with her friends, with the group getting bigger and bigger as they walked across town. It was in junior high that Carolyn became member of the band. She played the clarinet with the stage and marching bands, and also played the violin.
While in junior high, her grandmother Callie passed away in 1948. The household then consisted of Carolyn, her mother, her sister Sandy, her granddaddy Lock Stuart and her uncle, T.L. Stuart.
She went to Anadarko High School where she remained a part of the band, and excelled in her classes. She graduated from AHS with the Class of 1954.
Carolyn went to Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford for one year, where she took business classes.
When she returned to Anadarko, Carolyn got a job with the county school superintendent's office at the Caddo County Courthouse in Anadarko. She was the secretary to the superintendent.
As the story goes, in 1955, a young man named Joe McBride Jr. was working for his father's printing company and delivered some log books to the county superintendent's office. As he came into the office, he saw the "prettiest girl I'd ever seen, wearing a bright red dress and who had typewriter ribbon ink all over her hands." It was love at first sight for them both, and soon they were dating.
Of course, Joe had to be approved by Carolyn's Granddaddy Stuart first. She knew that he approved of Joe since he kept his shoes on. Apparently her granddaddy would take his shoes off if he didn't approve of her beaus.
After about a two-year courtship, the couple eloped to Liberty, Texas, where Joe's best friend, Bill Billingsley, lived. They were married July 20, 1957 by a pastor at the First Baptist Church in Liberty.
When they returned home, the couple lived in Joe's "bachelor's pad," a small apartment with a Murphy bed in the wall and a bathroom which sat on the alley behind the "big house." They soon moved to the 100 block of West Colorado, where they lived when their first daughter, Paula, was born in March 1958. In late 1959, when they were expecting their second daughter, JoNell, the couple purchased a house and 20 acres of land on Country Club Road, where they made their permanent home. After JoNell was born in March 1960, the couple settled into the new home, with Carolyn making some alterations to it. By the time their third daughter, Carla, was born in June 1964, they were well established there, and lived there for the rest of their lives.
Carolyn continued for many years to make alterations and additions to the house, which was originally built in 1914. Joe used to joke that every time he got the house paid off, Carolyn found something else to do to it.
When Carla was around four years old, Joe asked Carolyn to come to work in the family businesses. She left Carla in the capable hands of Evon Jacobs, and became a working mother. She ran the Anadarko Printing & Office Supply business for many years, and also helped out at the Anadarko Daily News, where Joe was the general manager.
Carolyn was active in the Sorosis social club for several years.
When Paula was in the second grade, Carolyn became the leader of Paula's Camp Fire Girls group. She continued with this group and when Carla was in the second grade, became the leader of her Camp Fire Girls group. She led Paula's group through their senior year in high school, and Carla's group through their sophomore year when the girls received their Wo-He-Lo medallions, the highest award for a Camp Fire Girl. Carla's group was the youngest ever to receive the honor at that time.
Carolyn had continued working at the printing office, keeping busy with jobs like the brochures for Indian City U.S.A. and the American Indian Exposition and forms for local businesses.
While all this was going on, Carolyn and Joe had the opportunity to travel the world as Olivetti typewriter representatives, and as members of the International Press Association. They went to Italy, Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Switzerland, South America and Mexico, as well as Canada. They visited every state in the continental United States along with Hawaii and the U.S. Virgin Islands, but never made it to Alaska. They took a Greece, Egypt and the Holy Land cruise in celebration of their 25th wedding anniversary.
She and Joe took their girls on several trips, including the infamous 14-states-in-12-days when the girls were young. They went snow skiing twice, where Carolyn read a book and visited with other skiers since she never cared to ski. They also made a family trip to to St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands when the girls were teenagers.
Carolyn and Joe were devoted University of Oklahoma football fans, and attended all the home games and the OU/Texas games for many, many years.
When her girls were in junior high and high school, the printing office was sold and Carolyn went to work full time at the Daily News. She was the administrator, in charge of all the bookwork and payroll for the company, as well as helping with day-to-day duties. She became involved with helping set up a bookkeeping/payroll computer program specific for newspapers, one of the first of its kind.
She was named editor of the paper after long-time ADN editor Jack Stone retired, was associate publisher after Joe retired, and later became editor/publisher again, a position she held until her death.
Carolyn's "Point of View" column was very popular with Daily News readers. She started the weekly column in the late 1980s, and continued it until late 2023.
She served her community as a member of the Anadarko Chamber of Commerce, a member and chairman of the Anadarko Hospital Board, and member and secretary of the board of the National Hall of Fame for Famous American Indians in Anadarko. She also was on the board for the Oklahoma Press Association's insurance program. She served on the Indian City U.S.A. board of directors, and also served on the State of Oklahoma Department Tourism and Recreation Board. She was one of the original board members of U.S. Sen. David Boren's Foundation for Excellence.
Tourism in Anadarko was one of her greatest passions. She was very knowledgeable about the history of Anadarko and the tribes in the area. She started The Anadarko Daily News Visitors Guide, which had many stories of early-day Anadarko and Caddo County. She would scour the archives of the University of Oklahoma's Western History Collection to find photographs to use in The Guide.
She was raised in the Baptist church, but became a member of the First United Methodist Church of Anadarko after her marriage. She would say, however, she always remained a Baptist at heart.
One of the greatest joys in Carolyn's life were her grandsons, Dalton and Max. She spent hours with them, reading to them, playing outside with them, and taking them places.
In November 2023, Carolyn was diagnosed with low blood sodium, and was hospitalized for a month. When dismissed from the hospital, her girls chose to bring her home, where they cared for her with the help of Elara Home Health until her passing.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Joe W. McBride Jr., on Feb. 25, 2020; her daughter, Paula LeMarr McBride, on Oct. 12, 2019; two brothers-in-law, David L. McBride M.D., and David D. Hill; her mother, Opal Stuart Kardokus; her stepfather, James M. Kardokus; her uncles, T.L., Jack and Sherald Lee Stuart, Jack Roddy and Billy Hamm; her aunts, Rubye Roddy, Jewell Hamm, Jean Stuart and Zella Mae Stuart; her first cousins, Jim Stuart and Phillip Hamm; her father- and mother-in-law, Joe W. and Clella (LeMarr) McBride; her biological father, Fletcher Meyers; her maternal grandparents, Lock and Callie (Childers) Stuart, and her dear friend of many, many years, Pat Williams.
Survivors include her daughters and sons-in-law, JoNell McBride-Thomas and David Thomas, and Carla McBride-Alexander and David Alexander, all of Anadarko; her grandsons, Dalton Thomas of Norman and Max Alexander of Anadarko; her beloved sister, Sandra Hill of Tulsa; her half-brother, Rollie Meyers of Chico, Calif.; her stepbrother and his wife, Steve and Dorothy Kardokus of Flower Mound, Texas; two nieces and their husbands, Holly and Trip Park of Tulsa and Jamie and Joe Milek of Stillwater, and their children; her first cousins, Tommy Stuart and Darla Stuart of Anadarko, Kenneth Roddy and wife Glenda of Fort Cobb Lake, Darlenne Thayer and husband Michael of Broken Arrow, Illenne Johnson and husband Gerald of Merrill, Iowa, Phyllis Bedford and husband Tom of Wagoner, and Sue Logan and husband Wayne of Vancouver, Wash., and her dear friend, Evelyn Boake of Tulsa.
Carolyn will be buried next to her husband Joe in Anadarko's Memory Lane Cemetery.

Funeral Service: 1:00 p.m., Tuesday, April 2, 2024
Ray and Martha's Funeral Home Chapel, Anadarko

Interment: Tuesday, April 2,2024
Memory Lane Cemetery, Anadarko

Under the direction of Ray & Martha's Funeral Home, Anadarko