Rebecca Ann McMurray's Obituary
Beloved mother, sister, wife, and friend, Rebecca Ann McMurray, passed away at her home in Tulsa, OK on February 7, 2025. She was 61 years old. Born March 22, 1963, to Harry and Catherine (Peak) Baldwin in Coffeyville, KS, Rebecca was the youngest of six siblings (in a house with only one bathroom!) and spent her childhood and adolescence riding her bike around Coffeyville, playing with her treasured Barbie Dream Camper(TM), studying hard, and later, performing in high school plays and marching in drum corps with her bass baritone bugle. In her senior year of high school, she was cast as Lucy in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and met Kevin McMurray, the young man playing Linus - and even though she punched him on
stage every single night during the run of the play, they fell in love. They were married in Coffeyville, KS on November 29, 1986. In May of the next year, they welcomed a daughter, Rachel McMurray, and Rebecca’s most difficult and fulfilling life’s work began: motherhood.
Rebecca worked many jobs before and after becoming a mother. She started at KGGF, spinning records at the radio station in Coffeyville and once even talking on the phone to radio legend “Wolf Man” Jack. She then spent many years working as a bank teller in Coffeyville, then in Pittsburg, before working as a homemaker and stay-at-home mom. Once Rachel was in school, Rebecca pursued many different interests: volunteering and then teaching in elementary education, baking and decorating cookies for Cookie Bouquet, then working as an administrative assistant at a State Farm agency, until finally becoming a claims adjuster for State Farm herself. In spite of her numerous jobs, she always made it a priority to attend every one of Rachel’s choir recitals, every school play performance, every award assembly. She opened her home to Rachel’s friends and classmates, always welcoming each kid with a smile, a joke, and plentiful snacks, and many of Rachel’s friends came to love her as a second mom as a result. She was an incredible cook and baker - everyone who knew her likely remembers her famous sugar cookies, each one hand-iced and hand-decorated. She would spend days making and decorating them each holiday season, along with enough Chex Mix to feed a small army.
Working and raising a child were not her only calling, however. Rebecca always prioritized academics, graduating with honors from Field Kindley High School in Coffeyville, attending Coffeyville Junior College, then graduating Summa Cum Laude with her B.A. in Elementary Education from Oklahoma State University. She was a voracious reader; Stephen King was her favorite author, and she got to see him speak multiple times, owned first editions of all his books as well as a letter from him, and even won a signed copy of one of his novels. Her love of books instilled a lifelong love of reading in her daughter, her nieces and nephews, and their children too. One of Rebecca’s most enduring legacies is the library of books she gave to each child in her family over the course of their lives. She was the “book aunt” and she loved it, taking great care to pick out each book to meet the needs and interests of each child. She loved travelling, trying new foods, going to museums, and always seemed to be “in the know” about the latest in pop culture. The arts were a driving force in her life, and she knew the words to every song on the radio, could tear up the mic at karaoke, and loved going to concerts, musicals, plays, and movies. She was unfailingly kind, generous, quick to laugh, and always the first to crack a joke, make a pun, or bring you a drink from Sonic (where she went every day to get her Rt. 44 unsweet iced tea). Her humor, joy, and endless love of animals, especially dogs, will be deeply missed.
Rebecca is predeceased by her parents Harry and Catherine Baldwin, and her brother, Dan Baldwin. She is survived by her husband, Kevin McMurray (Tulsa, OK); her daughter Rachel McMurray and her wife Jess Wagner (Philadelphia, PA); and her siblings: Fr. Mike Baldwin (Bel Aire, KS); Marilyn Hendrix and her husband Jim (Coffeyville, KS); David Baldwin and his wife Cindy (Coffeyville, KS); Barbara Statuto and her husband Dan (Tulsa, OK), as well as her many nieces, nephews, great nieces, and great nephews.
Rebecca’s family welcomes you to join us for a celebration of life at Floral Haven (Tulsa, OK) in the Rose Chapel on Friday, February 21, 2025 at 11:00 am. Her brother Fr. Mike Baldwin will officiate. Rebecca requested to be cremated and for Kevin and Rachel to spread her ashes over water in Hawaii, the place she visited that she loved most in the world.
In honor of her commitment to improving the lives of both children and dogs, Rebecca has requested that friends and family consider making a donation to St. Jude’s children’s hospital (www.stjude.org/tribute) or the Humane Society of Tulsa (https://www.tulsapets.com/donate) in lieu of flowers.
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