Obituary for Teresa Kemmerer

Teresa Kemmerer

November 21, 1934 – May 18, 2023

Teresa Regina Brinkman Kemmerer, joined the Lord God on May 18, 2023. Viewing will be from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM, Thursday, June 1, 2023, at Trout Funeral Home Chapel, with a Rosary Ceremony taking place at 6:00 PM. A Mass of Christian Burial will take place at 10:00 AM, Friday, June 2, 2023, at St. Mary’s Catholic Church. A Graveside Ceremony will be held at 2:00 PM, Friday, June 2, 2023, at Calvary Cemetery in Coffeyville, KS. Arrangements are under the direction of Trout Funeral Home and Crematory, 505 W. Grand Ave, Ponca City, OK, 74601.

Teresa was born November 21, 1934 in Coffeyville, KS, to Rosa Marie and Aloysius John Brinkman. She spent her childhood on the family farm sharing in the work essential to a successful family farm. She and her 7 siblings milked cows; fed the chickens and hogs; conducted prescribed burns; operated all the heavy equipment used to plant and harvest crops; and tended the large family garden. Teresa attended Lenapah High School and played on their basketball team. She must have been a pretty good ball player as the coach asked her father to allow her to stay longer after school for practice. Her father granted permission if she finished her chores after coming home in the evenings, which she did! Besides the never-ending chores, she also worked at Jensen Brothers in Coffeyville and dated Floyd Ray Kemmerer, whom she married on August 10, 1957.

In 1958, the couple moved to Ponca City, OK, where Floyd went to work for Southwestern Bell Telephone and began their family. Teresa was busy as the Chief Operating Officer for the Kemmerer household thru 1973, when she added more work to her day by helping with the P.C.D Bell Credit Union operations. True to form, Teresa found she was pretty good at it!

By 1975, she was the supervisor of the credit union and operating it in her home. Teresa was a “people person” who was great with numbers and thoroughly enjoyed helping people when they came to the house. Even better, she kept the Federal Auditors happy as the credit union thrived. Teresa successfully ran the credit union until it was eventually turned over to a larger credit union.

Teresa was from a large, close-knit family that loved to play cards and board games together, especially “Cut Throat Pitch”. Teresa was always up for a game of CAT, WAR, Scrabble, or Uno among others. She passed the love of games, numbers and reading to her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, all of which stayed with her at one time or another even when they started school.

Teresa was always a farm girl at heart and never gave up on the farm. Despite living in Ponca City, she continued working weekends on the farm with her family for the remainder of her life. She began spending extended periods of time at the farm helping her brother, Joe, with all aspects of farming. She was dedicated to improving the farm and learning ways to use the land that improved overall viability and environmental sustainability while farming like her father. It brought her great joy to surreptitiously film wildlife that wandered the farm and later view the films.

Teresa was a devoted member of St Mary’s Catholic Church and School in Ponca City, where she volunteered and helped in every aspect she could. All of her children, some grandchildren and great-grandchildren attended St Mary’s school.

Teresa is survived by: her husband, Floyd; her 3 children, Michael, Phillip and Anna (Kemmerer) Maloney; 12 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by: her parents; all 7 siblings; favorite son-in-law and her grandson.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to St. Mary’s Catholic School, 415 S 7th, Ponca City, OK 74601 or to the Lighthouse Outreach Center, PO Box 124, Bartlesville, OK 74005.

Source: Trout Funeral Home