- Rose Lee (Odetta) Grimm, a long time
resident of Pauls Valley, passed away peacefully on April 21, 2008, at
the age of 92 in the presence of a music therapist and the hospice
Chaplin at Augustana Home in Minneapolis which is across the street from
the hospital where her son, Richard Grimm Jr. is employed as a
physician.
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- Rose was born on January 8, 1916 in
the tiny town of Edhube in NE Texas not far from Bonham where she
graduated from High School. As a youngster she lived on a farm where her
father died when she was 5 years old and her mother when she was 12.
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- Rose lived with aunts and uncles and
helped out around the house until she went to live with her older sister
Annie in Ada, Oklahoma where she found work as a waitress. In Ada, she
met a handsome young man, Richard H. Grimm, who worked as an oil well
supply salesman. Dick was an early "barnstormer" who flew with Wiley
Post.
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- Rose and Dick married in 1937 and moved frequently to follow the
oil boom (Oklahoma, Kansas, W. Texas, New Mexico and Indiana.) In
Indiana in 1939 their first child, Janice Diana Grimm was born. While
living in Oklahoma City during WWII, Rose pitched in on the war effort
by working in an arms factory. On August 22, 1946 their second child,
Richard H Grimm Jr. was born. Soon after, the family moved to Pauls
Valley, Oklahoma where they settled in a small former ranch house right
across the street from Bob Hammond’s "Pig Shop," the popular gathering
place now owned by Susan and Phil Henderson.
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- In the summer of 1948 while Dick was
working at a Garvin County oil well, a discarded cigarette ignited a
huge fire in a surrounding gas field. Dick escaped the fire but went
back in to try to rescue a young woman still surrounded by flames. The
woman did not survive, and Dick passed away in the Pauls Valley Hospital
10 days later with third degree burns on over 90% of his body. Dick was
awarded the “Carnegie Medal For Heroism” posthumously which Rose passed
on to Janice.
- Rose was active in the community as a
member of the “Mothers’ Study Club” and the First Methodist Church where
for years she enjoyed the Bible study class. Richard and Jeanne now
cherish the well worn family Bible. Rose enjoyed creative writing,
reading astrology books, fishing and watching for flying saucers.
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- Rose worked for 25 years at the Pauls
Valley State School for the developmentally disabled. She lived in Pauls
Valley for 60 years where she was liked and loved by many. She was
probably best known for her quick wit and sense of irony. Truly one of a
kind, Rose has been missed in Pauls Valley since she left thirteen years
ago to be cared for by Janice in Tulsa and by Richard and Jeanne in
Minneapolis.
- During her last months, family friend
Shamsa Bowman, whose prayer vigils helped to ease Rose's passage, was a
frequent visitor.
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- Rose is survived by her daughter
Janice Roan who taught English as a Second Language in Tulsa, her son
Dr. Richard H Grimm Jr. and daughter in law Jeanne Dowd Grimm of
Minneapolis as well as her three grandchildren Heather and Richard Roan
of Tulsa and Richard H. Grimm III of Minneapolis. Rose's adopted
grandsons, Max Ormond and Will Clark (Jeanne's sons) will miss her as
well.
