Imogene Starns

Imogene “Jean” Starns, age 93 and a longtime resident of Konawa Oklahoma, passed from this life Friday, December 23, 2016 in Kingston, Oklahoma.   Funeral services are scheduled for 1:00 p.m., December 27, 2016 at the Swearingen Funeral Home Chapel in Konawa, Oklahoma with Rev. Mitch Williams and Buddy Drake officiating the service.  Interment will be at Konawa Cemetery. She was born March 23, 1923 in Konawa to parents William Albert Collins and Willie Leona (Greer) Collins.  She grew up on a farm East of Konawa.  After high school, she worked for a short time in Ada with the United States Agricultural Department.  World War II was starting so she took the Civil Service test.  Passing the test she was sent to Washington D.C. working in the Pentagon as a clerk.  After her father’s health declined she returned to Oklahoma.  She worked with two of her sisters at McDonnell-Douglas in Tulsa, Oklahoma as a “Rosie the Riveter,” assembling airplanes.  She met and married William Frank Starns on November 12, 1946.  They were married 34 years until his passing on October 26, 1980.  They moved many times over the years employed with Sun Oil Company.  They ended up back in Konawa in 1973.  She was a housewife, with making every garage sale possible, her priority number one was visiting with friends and neighbors.  Jean never met a stranger and made informing others of things they didn’t know her ambition in life.  Jean was a member of VFW and the American Legion. Survivors include one sister, Dorothy Smith of Strother, Oklahoma, one son William Frank Starns Jr. and his wife Jerri Kay Starns of Kingston, Oklahoma, grandson Nichlous Ryan Starns and his wife Amy Starns, great granddaughter Isabella Caton Starns, great-grandson Eathan Starns all of Ada, Oklahoma. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband William Frank Starns, sons Billy Gene Starns and Michael Collins Starns, twin sister Geraldine “Jerry” Woods, sisters Mildred Gasaway and Ruth Swigart. Funeral Information: December 27, 2016, 1:00 PM Swearingen Funeral Home Chapel - Konawa located at 217 North Broadway, Konawa, OK 74849