April 15th, 2014
Zella Darlene Dean, 1932 to 2014

WIMBERLEY — Zella Darlene Dean, 82, died Friday, April 11 at her home in Wimberley, surrounded by her husband and children. Dean suffered from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Dean was born on April 28, 1932 near Quanah in Comanche County, Okla. to Herman Brent and Juna Hess Stewart, who preceded her in death as did her eldest daughter, Teri Darlynn Dean.

At times in her life, Dean held multiple jobs — among them waitress, cook, carhop and civil servant — because “that’s what it took,” family members say. The majority of her career was spent as a medical records technician. After retiring from Malone Hogan Hospital in Big Spring, Dean was employed from time to time as a consultant in medical records management.

Dean’s passion, however, was being a good mother to her four children, family members say. She is remembered as tough and smart with a mischievous sense of humor. If you crossed her, family members say, she was a “force to be reckoned with.”

Dean is survived by her only brother, Donald Wayne Stewart of Hemet, Calif., and by her husband, Eugene Dean, to whom she was married for 57 years. She is also survived by three children: Tracey Dean and his wife, Marty, of Wimberley; Tony Dean and his wife, Kim, of Flower Mound; and Tami Dodson and her husband, Al, of San Antonio. She leaves behind five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, all of whom live in Texas.

Services for Dean will be held 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 15 at First Baptist Church, 15951 Winters Mill Pkwy. near Wimberley She will be buried near her parents’ and her daughter’s graves at 3 p.m. Wednesday, April 16 at the International Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery in Indiahoma, Okla.

Arrangements made by Thomason Funeral Home in Wimberley.

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