Wilma Duty

Wilma Duty, 92, was born August 30, 1929, in Lakin, Kansas and died December 30, 2021, in Richardson, Texas.She was preceded in death by husband, Gabriel A. Duty, two sons-in-law, John J. Tyler and Paul W. Wilfahrt.Survivors include six children: Mary Linda Duty Wilfahrt, Catherine Elaine Duty Ziegler and husband Terrence Francis Ziegler, Deborah Ellen Duty Tyler Armstrong and husband John Armstrong, Steven Paul Duty and wife Lynn, Mark Edward Duty and wife Linda Clarissa, John Christopher Duty and wife Deborah; eleven grandchildren; and fifteen great-grandchildren.Longtime members of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cathedral Parish, Wilma, with husband Gabriel, was named Family of the Year in 2005. Her parish participation included years of involvement in the Women's Altar Society, the RCIA program, and the Parish Book Club.Wilma was a writer, an avid reader and mathematician who valued education both formal and self- taught. A seamstress and gardener, she had a quick wit and strong character. Wilma was interested in herbs, square dancing and Bridge. She loved to travel, planning and executing memorable family vacations. In their retirement, Wilma and Gabe visited every continent except Antarctica. Granddaughter, Elizabeth Duty Bowen, reminisced about Wilma. "Strong, opinionated, matter-of-fact matriarch of our family, she was not one for blowing smoke and certainly not concerned with vanity. She was the epitome of waste not, want not, after spending some of her very early life in an adobe house on the banks of the Rio Grande in the Big Bend area before it became a National Park….She taught me, among many lessons, how to garden, how to sew, how to make plum jam and pepper jelly, how to make banana pudding and the best chocolate milk shake….I'll always cherish the time I spent at her house as a child and her patience as I threw everything I could find down the laundry shoot, and the hours, as an adult, sitting at her kitchen table sipping coffee while she read the newspaper with a magnifying glass."Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11:00 AM on Thursday, January 6th, at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cathedral in Oklahoma City, OK, followed by interment at Resurrection Memorial Cemetery attended by immediate family.