Johna Mae Uzzel West

Johna Uzzel West passed away peacefully on February 8,2025 after celebrating her 93rd birthday with family and friends.

Johna was born on February 8,1932 in Summerfield, Oklahoma to Ed and Sadie Uzzel. Lessons learned as a sharecropper's daughter taught her the rewards of working hard and being thrifty. 

After graduating from Bing High School, she learned secretarial and printing skills at Okmulgee College. During that time, she played on a women's basketball team where she and her assistant coach, Dwight Wright met and later married on November 17, 1949. His service in the Army took them to Arkansas where they started a family. She enjoyed motherhood and homemaking and later they settled in the Dallas area. She was an avid bowler in several leagues and even taught bowling often. 

She began a secretarial career with LTV and gained a high security clearance, got to travel to many states, and was highlighted on the local news christening the railroad car that carried the first DC10 Horizontal Stabilizer across the country in April of 1970.

She later moved to a job with less stress and travel as an inside sales rep for BF Goodrich then Firestone. Her final role was working with her sister Leonah Hein in the OK city stockyards. 

She held the volunteer position as secretary of the Dallas area chapter of the German American Club. She enjoyed the social aspect of the club as well as the many friends she met.

She enjoyed watching golf. Never having played it she said that it was calming to her. Oftentimes she would be cutting out quilt pieces, sewing them or mending clothes for neighbors in her complex who knew she had those skills.

She lived a very active life showing respect and generosity to all she met. She always wanted to be fair and treat everyone equally and gave everyone the benefit of the doubt.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Ed and Sadie, her sister, Leonah, two grandchildren, Amanda and Luke. 

She is survived by her three children Sue Ahlfinger (Brad), Theda Cornwell (Bob), Damon Wright (Thelma), eight grandchildren, twenty great grandchildren, cousins, nieces, nephews and dear friends.

Johna's family would like to thank Collinwood Nursing & Rehabilitation Center and Vitas Healthcare for their compassion and loving care during these last months.