Nancy Ann Hale

Nancy Ann, matriarch of the Hale family and her extended family, departed this life on the evening of August 7, 2026. She passed away peacefully and happily anticipating being reunited with her beloved daughter Elizabeth Ann, her parents, husband, sisters, many relatives, and a huge number of lifelong friends.

 Nancy was always totally committed to the happiness, comfort, and success of her family and friends. She was, “hands down,” the best mother, wife, grandmother, great-grandmother, daughter, and sister any family could hope to have. Anyone who had the good fortune to know her during her 96-year life was truly fortunate. 

Nancy Ann was born on December 4, 1929, in Kansas City, Missouri, the third daughter of Mary Elizabeth and James Fitzgerald Nichols. She enjoyed an idyllic early life in Kansas City with loving parents and doting older sisters. Nancy was reading and writing well before she began elementary school, due in large part to the attention of her older sisters. She and her sisters spent many summers and holidays in Dodge City, Kansas, with their grandparents, as well as taking numerous family trips to Minnesota, all of which she recounted as wonderful memories throughout her life.

 Nancy and her family moved to Oklahoma City after she finished the third grade in Kansas City. She enrolled at Wilson Elementary School and, following grade-level testing, the school recommended that she be placed in the sixth grade. Her parents thought skipping two grades was a bit much, but they did allow her to skip the fourth grade and start Wilson in the fifth grade, making her a year or more younger than her fifth-grade classmates.

 Nancy was smart, and she didn’t skip a beat. She fit right in with her older classmates and made wonderful friends who remained her friends throughout her high school years at Old Classen. Her high school years basically tracked with World War II, and she spent many weekends wrapping bandages at the Red Cross and working at Southwestern Bell Telephone Company (now AT&T), where her father was General Manager and she worked as a fill-in telephone operator. The work and the war did not interrupt the great fun she enjoyed during her high school years.

 Following in the footsteps of her older sisters, Nancy enrolled at the University of Oklahoma a few months shy of her seventeenth birthday. Nancy was an art major and a proud member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority, where she excelled in participation and leadership. She remained an active supporter of Tri Delt for most of her adult life. Just like in high school, Nancy worked hard but managed to wring a lot of fun and joy out of her time at OU.

 Early in her college years, she met her future husband, A.J. “Chick” Hale. Shortly after their meeting, she wore his fraternity pin until they became engaged. Following A.J.’s graduation, he re-enlisted in the military as a U.S. Marine Corps officer. They planned a wedding in Oklahoma City, but the eruption of the Korean War required A.J.’s immediate deployment, without leave, to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The wedding location was changed to Fredericksburg, Virginia, where Nancy and A.J. wed in September 1950.

 There she began her married life as an officer’s wife and homemaker. Following her husband’s military service, they later lived in Houston, Texas, and then relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she began her family and became the very best mother and wife. Three of her four children were born in Tulsa, where she lived the life as a wife and mother she had always wished for.

 Nancy, A.J., and their three children relocated home to Oklahoma City in 1962. She gave birth to her fourth child in Oklahoma City and reunited with her parents and her sister, Carolyn Bentley, and her large family. She thoroughly enjoyed being home in Oklahoma City with her family and friends for the rest of her life. She was an active member of the Junior League, book clubs, and other community-based organizations.

 Nancy re-entered the workforce in the early 1970s as a real estate agent and spent more than 40 years as a top-notch real estate agent. She prided herself on being very client-centered, she would never advise a client to buy a property that wasn’t in the client’s best interest. She sold real estate until the age of 87, ending her career at First Source Realty company.

 Nancy Ann lived a long, full life, she had an infectious laugh that once it started it wouldn’t end without everyone around her in tears. Her life was well lived in an honorable manner, in addition to being a great family matriarch, she loved her country and all it stood for. She will be greatly missed and remembered in the finest manner. 

 Nancy Ann was predeceased by her daughter, Elizabeth Ann White; husband, A.J. Hale; parents, Mary and James F. Nichols; sisters, Carolyn Bentley and Mary Lou Gray; brothers-in-law, Bill Bentley and Earl Gray and others not fortunate to have lived as long. Nancy Ann was one of the last one standing of her generation of family and friends.

 Nancy Ann is survived by her son, David Hale, grandchildren, Jackson and Emerson Hale, daughter Sarah Thompson, grandchildren Hannah Dean (Curry) Cody Thompson (Julianne) and Emily Shanbour (David) grandchild Nathan Shanbour, grandchild Duncan White (Millie) and son-in-law Barry White. Great-grandchildren Mae, Birdie, and Buck Dean and Colette Thompson, as well as many nephews, nieces, and their families. Nancy Ann Nichols Hale’s life will be celebrated with family and friends at a date to be announced.