Mary Louise Lockee

NORFOLK -- Services for Mary L. Lockee, 89, of Norfolk will be at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at Stonacek Funeral Chapel in Norfolk. Visitation will be 4-7 p.m. Monday. Burial will be in Prospect View Cemetery at Pierce. The Rev. Matthew Gilmore will officiate. She died Sunday, Feb. 6, 2011, at Heritage of Bel Air. Mary Louise Lockee was born in Milan, Mo., on Oct. 11, 1921, to W. R. Caldwell and Fannie Watson. Mary Louise once commented, "I've had an interesting life," and she truly did. At Trenton High School, Trenton, Mo., she won an amateur singing contest and went to St. Joe, Mo., and sang on the radio. As a high school senior, Mary Louise worked in one of the original JC Penney stores. After high school graduation in 1939, she moved to Washington, D.C. There she worked for the FBI and was trained and qualified in pistol shooting by FBI Assistant Director Clyde Tolson. She then got "itchy feet" and moved to Mississippi, where she kept the books for a flour mill. In 1943, Mary Louise joined the Navy and became a WAVE, undergoing training in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and New York City. While in the Navy, she stood with General Pershing during a Memorial Day service at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In 1944, Mary Louise married John Thompson, an airman in the Army Air Corps and later an oil service driver for Haliburton. Her first son, Bruce Thompson, was born in 1945 in Cut Bank, Mont. Her second son, John Thompson, was born in 1948, also in Cut Bank. Work next took the family to Vernal, Utah, where Mary Louise gave birth to her third son, Brad Lockee, in 1952. After a transfer to Tioga, N.D., Mary Louise worked as a secretary for Signal Oil Co. The marriage ended in 1956, and she and her sons moved to Fort Worth, Texas. In 1959, Signal Oil sent her to its Pomona, Calif., offices. In California, Mary Louise met Arch Lockee, a major in the Air Force, and married him in 1961. As an Air Force wife, she lived on bases at Lincoln, McGuire, N.J., Maxwell, Ala., the embassy in London, England, and Scott Field, Ill. In 1973, she and Arch retired from the service and moved to Lincoln. In retirement Mary Louise helped her husband raise hunting dogs, tended a large vegetable garden each year and volunteered with the Red Cross. She also served as the treasurer/secretary for the First Baptist Church for 20 years. In addition, she enjoyed vacationing throughout the continental United States, Hawaii, Canada and the Caribbean. Upon her husband's death, Mary Louise lived in Omaha for four years. She moved to Norfolk in 2005. She was preceded in death by her parents; her stepmother, Bernice Caldwell; two sisters, Gayle Clizer and Bille Jean Oren; and her husband of 39 years, Arch Lockee. She is survived by her sons, Bruce, John and Brad; and is also survived by two step-children, Michael Lockee and Linda Gill; as well as 15 grandchildren and nine great- grandchildren. Mary Louise truly had an interesting life and loved her family and church. She will be dearly missed by her family and friends and welcomed into Heaven according to her faith. Organist will be Eileen Damme. Song leader will be John Grimes. Song selections will be "Amazing Grace," "Just As I Am" and "Ivory Palaces." Casketbearers will be Reed Lockee, Jake Lockee, Katie Lockee, Ryan Lockee, John Thompson and Bob Zimmermann. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be sent to Northern Heights Baptist Church, Norfolk, for its building fund.

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Mary Louise Lockee

October 11, 1921 - February 6, 2011