Eileen Williams, 77, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, died on Wednesday, March 11, 2020. She was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, one of thirteen children, to Albert and Josephine Flusche.
Eileen graduated from Muskogee Central High School and Oklahoma State University. In recent years, she enjoyed rekindled relationships with high school and college friends through Facebook. Eileen’s friends were precious to her, and she was fortunate to have many wonderful and supportive people in her life. Eileen worked in the financial service industry for many years, as a banker and stock broker. In the 1980s, she and her friend Ann Garrett opened a female satellite brokerage office. Once a week, they held Lunch and Learns to inform other women about investing. These were a huge success, and many of their clients became personal friends. Eileen also did all of the cooking for the luncheons, which probably helped boost their popularity.
Eileen was a lifelong Democrat. She worked for a wide range of political campaigns, including two Governor’s races, a Congressional seat, a state legislative campaign, and a mayoral campaign. She loved fundraising for candidates and campaigning - she relished the opportunity to meet so many interesting people from all walks of life, across the state of Oklahoma. In her last job, Eileen was Senior Director of Development for the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. Her work consisted largely of traveling across the state to talk with potential donors about the important research being done at OMRF. This was the perfect job for Eileen, as she never met a stranger, and could talk to anyone about anything. When she left OMRF in 2010, Eileen laughed about the goals that some people set for retirement: learn a new language, become a gourmet cook, travel the world. Her goal was to visit every casino in Oklahoma. Her co-workers gave her a map so she could mark each casino visited. She made it to 77, but they were building new casinos faster than she could get there. During retirement she and Bob traveled throughout the country in their motor home and spent many wonderful summers in Montana. Eileen loved to cook. When friends faced illness or a death in the family, she was always the first one to show up with food, and it was always something delicious. Many fun evenings were spent around her dining room table. She considered the dining room to be the last tribal gathering place, and her greatest joy was to have her kids and grandkids with her for Sunday dinner at Mimi and Bob’s. Eileen’s family would like to thank the doctors and staff at the Stephenson Cancer Center for their compassionate care. She was survived by her husband of 55 years, Bob Williams, and their three wonderful children, Wade (Susan), Wes (Sheila), and Laura (Dave); her eight grandchildren, Annabelle, Olivia, Paige, Logan, Henry, Charlie, Ellie, and Andrew. Eileen was very proud of her family, and considered them her greatest accomplishment. She also had two surviving siblings, Annette Snyder (Michael) and Doris Atkinson' along with many nieces and nephews. A Mass of Christian Burial was held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, 21 March, at Christ the King Catholic Church, Oklahoma City.