Juanita Susan Underwood

Funeral services for Mrs. Juanita Susan Underwood will be 10 a.m., Friday, August 11, 2023, at Sandy Baptist Church, in Sulphur, Okla. Rev. Steve Wall and Dusk Monetathchi will officiate. Interment will follow in the Oaklawn Cemetery in Sulphur. The family will receive friends and family at Hale’s Funeral Home, Sulphur, on Thursday evening from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Mrs. Underwood was born June 20, 1939, in Sulphur, Okla., to Elias and Vera Virgie (Perry) Brown. She passed from this life Monday, August 7, 2023, in Ada, Okla., at the age of 84 years, 1 month and 17 days.

She and Gene Underwood were married Nov. 22, 1961, in San Francisco, Calif. From this union were born three children, Dennis, Janay, and Joanna. Mr. Underwood preceded her in death on March 3, 2023

Mrs. Underwood grew up in the Sulphur/Davis area. She attended Sulphur school until her freshman year. She then enrolled at Chilocco Indian Agricultural School in Chilocco, Okla., in the Fall of 1954 and graduated in 1958. She was in the marching band her freshman and sophomore years and concert band for all four years. Juanita was elected Chilocco Drum Major where she led the marching band during her junior and senior years.

After graduation, she joined the relocation program and moved to the San Francisco area around 1960. Most of her siblings and other Chickasaws moved in the area where they all reconnected. There she was married and started a family. Eventually, she and Gene moved back home to Oklahoma to raise their children.

She spent 24 years working as a house parent at the Oklahoma School for the Deaf, in Sulphur. She retired in 2001. There she enjoyed looking after students who stayed at the dorms throughout the school year and learned American Sign Language. She was also a chaperone and later became a school bus driver where she would help transfer students to school and back on the weekends.

Mrs. Underwood was a member of Sandy Baptist Church. She enjoyed gardening and canning vegetables and making jelly from her fruit trees. She also liked spending time outdoors in the yard tending to her flower beds and planting trees. As a Chickasaw she was proud of her culture and loved attending cultural events. She loved spending time with family and welcoming her first great-granddaughter, Nanaiya.

Survivors include a son, Dennis Underwood; two daughters, Janay Underwood, and Joanna Underwood Blackburn and husband James; two grandchildren, Taloa Underwood and fiancé Jesse Allbritten, and Chestine Underwood; a great-granddaughter, Nanaiya Allbritten; three sisters, Anna Marie Wallace, Madeline Reed and husband Paul, and Mary Sue Underwood; as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

In addition to her parents, Mrs. Underwood was preceded in death by a grandson, Isaac Underwood; and two brothers, Paul Junior Brown and Harley Leroy Brown.