January 28, 1947 – June 14, 2022
Virgie Shank lost a quick battle with inflammatory breast cancer June 14, 2022.
Virgie was born to Chuck and Kathleen Snelgrove in southwest Oklahoma City on January 28, 1947, and spent most of her formative years attending Columbus Elementary, Jackson Junior High and Capitol Hill High School. A 1965 graduate, Virgie was in the National Honor Society and lettered in six sports: volleyball, basketball, softball, tennis, badminton and synchronized swimming.
Virgie was a long-time member of Kentucky Avenue Baptist Church, where she attended Sword Drill, Sunday School, Falls Creek and was named Miss Young Women’s Auxiliary. She met Richard Shank in 1964, and after his tours in Vietnam she became a Marine wife residing in Carlsbad and Oceanside, California. Richard and Virgie returned to Oklahoma to Stillwater, where she began cheering for the Oklahoma State Cowboy teams.
Virgie and Richard were always quick to join their local Southern Baptist churches and volunteered for many activities in service to those. She especially enjoyed her time leading the Women’s Missionary Union at the First Baptist Church of Piedmont, Oklahoma.
Virgie was a devoted, loving mother to two girls, Laura and Carla, and volunteered for most anything that mothers were asked to do at school and church – Vacation Bible School, Girls in Action, homeroom mother, library volunteer, Helping Hands, field trips and Falls Creek Cook are some of the many ways she stayed an active part of the girls’ lives. She also worked as the secretary for the 5th and 6th grade building for Piedmont Public Schools.
Her greatest joy in life was being a mother. That joy expanded into being a grandmother to Jeannie, Katt, Hannah, Rebekah and Karl. She loved spending time as “Giggie” to them.
Family was important to Virgie and she was a favored aunt, cousin, sister and In-law of most everyone related to her.
She was preceded in death by her father, David Clarence Snelgrove, and mother, Kathleen Snelgrove of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
She is survived by husband, Carl Richard Shank of Seiling, Oklahoma; brother, David Snelgrove and wife Mary of Piedmont, Oklahoma; sister, Shirley Owen and husband Dennis of Mustang, Oklahoma; daughter, Laura Sobieck of Columbia, Missouri; daughter, Carla Brown of Highlands Ranch, Colorado; grandchildren, Jeanne Sobieck, Rebekah Sobieck and R. Karl Sobieck of Columbia, Missouri; Haley Katt Brown and Hannah Brown of Highlands Ranch, Colorado; as well as a host of nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews and cousins.
Friends and family are invited to a visitation on Thursday, June 16, 2022, from 4-8 p.m. at Vondel L. Smith Mortuary North, 13125 North MacArthur Blvd., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Funeral services will be held Friday, June 17, 2022, at 11 a.m. at the First Baptist Church of Piedmont, Oklahoma, 15 Jackson Ave NW, Piedmont, Oklahoma. Burial to follow at approximately 2:30 p.m. at Munice Cemetery in Seiling, Oklahoma, approximately one mile west of the intersection of Highway 270 and Highway 51.
Donations in Virgie’s honor can be made to the Baptist Mission Center, 2233 West Interstate-44 Service Road, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 73112.
