Mamie Eggert's Obituary
Mamie Arizona Tilson Eggert was born in a log cabin on January 17, 1920 to Mary Alice/Allie Baity and Oscar Lee Tilson in Culbertson, NC in the beautiful Smoky Mountains. She was the fourth child with siblings Edgar, Thelma and Florence already in residence. Later Ollie Mae and Wilma would join the family. They were a tight knit farming family, growing all of their own food and raising animals for milk and meat. Mamie and her siblings were very ambitious and all left home to begin careers of their own. They all remained close throughout their adult lives and gathered each summer at their homestead to visit and enjoy each others' company.
Mamie traveled to Greenville, SC to attend beauty college after high school. Her social life included parties with the eligible bachelors of the Brooklyn Dodgers farm team which was in spring training in Greenville. She met William Eggert, a promising pitcher for the team. They married and moved to William’s home town of Minneapolis and raised 2 beautiful daughters, Kathy and Christy, who were greatly loved and encouraged to also pursue their dreams.. Mamie was a stay at home mom, cutting hair and giving perms in her basement for her neighbors, until she realized she could work at Blue Cross and send her girls to college at ORU if she saved her paycheck. She was very proud of the achievements of her girls becoming a doctor and a teacher.
Mamie always had a deep unwavering belief in God’s faithfulness and raised her girls in the same way. Her faith was often tested and deepened throughout her life. Bill developed bulbar/brainstem polio early in their marriage and was not expected to survive the night or be confined to an iron lung. Mamie prayed for God’s intervention and Bill survived and thrived for many more years. She also prayed for her kindergarten daughter with a speech impediment and she was immediately healed and never went back to speech therapy. Mamie prayed for her teenage grandchildren as they “went up fool’s hill” but they all came back down relatively unscathed. In Mamie’s retirement years, her daughter experienced a life threatening illness where her heart stopped once and her kidneys stopped twice. Mamie and Bill spent 6 months at her hospital bedside with Mamie praying and also whispering in her daughter's ear, “breathe.” After her daughter recovered, one of her few memories of the ordeal was Mamie telling her to breathe which she felt required to do since she had been raised that when mama told you to do something you did it.
Mamie lived in Tulsa in the home of her younger daughter and son in law for 7 years after Bill’s passing. She struggled at first asking why God was letting her live so long. Her daughter told that both her girls left home at 18 and this was God’s way of giving them more time together. She loved to walk outside and look at the flower gardens around her home and even suggested charging people walking the neighborhood to walk through the beautiful gardens for a price. She was so proud of her 4 grandchildren, Ben, Jake, Joanna and Abigail relating a little more to the girls and marveling at the stronger physique of the boys. She often played with her 12 great grandchildren including the 11th one named Emerson Mamie in her honor. She and the great grands loved playing chase around the kitchen island with Mamie growling like a dinosaur. It was quite a site and she ignored cautionary remarks from others to take it easy. Her last 2 years in memory care, she remained very feisty and quite helpful picking up fuzz off the floor and folding napkins. She loved being helpful and serving others. She once shared that her philosophy of life was to listen to others’ advice, nod, and then do exactly as you pleased.
Mamie’s legacy is her testimony of believing and living in God’s mercy , grace, and endless love.
A graveside service will be held on Friday, October 24, 2025 at 12:30 PM at Floral Haven Memorial Gardens. Mamie will then be laid to rest with her late husband William Fred Eggert.
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