Obituary

MARY LOUISE HECKENKEMPER LEBOEUF was born in Muskogee, OK, November 25, 1930, and died peacefully at her home on May 4, 2025.
She moved to Tulsa with parents, Bill and Gertrude (Peggy) Harrison Heckenkemper, in 1933. She attended Immaculate Conception Catholic grade school where she met her future husband Ron in the third grade. She graduated from Holy Family High School in 1948 then worked at Warren Petroleum Company.
As a young adult she actively participated in Catholic Activities young single group and enjoyed Ice Skating at the old Coliseum, Bowling, Dancing, and publishing a monthly CA newsletter.
She and Ron married in 1952 at Immaculate Conception Church in Tulsa. Susan and Ron Jr were born there. In 1956, they moved to Stillwater, OK, so Ron could go to Oklahoma A & M for his degree in Physics. She worked on campus and also ran a business, peddling sandwiches to the fraternity houses during evening study hour.
While in Stillwater they had a third child, Sharon, who unfortunately died in a house fire at age 36. After Ron graduated from OSU in 1960, they moved to Kansas City, MO where he worked for the Bendix Corporation. While there they had two more children, Marian and Linda.
In 1964 they moved to Tullahoma, TN for Ron’s job at Arnold Engineering & Development Center where he worked aerospace programs such as the Apollo project. In Tullahoma they had two more children, Jeanne and John, and a great group of friends that she maintained correspondence and phone conversations with these last many years.
In 1970 when aerospace programs began to falter, Ron was severed from his position and all nine of them moved back to their hometown, Tulsa.
Back in Tulsa she went to work at St. Francis Hospital for a couple years, got her real estate broker license and worked for Sunshine Properties for about four years. After that she worked at H&R Block as administrative assistant for about six years, then on to Public Service Company of Oklahoma, a local utility company, for eleven years before she retired at age 65.
After retirement, she worked for about three years as a temporary employee at PSO and undertook helping publish the PSO retiree newsletter which she did from 1995 until 2023.
To finish out her “bucket list”, she and Ron traveled the country doing genealogy research in North Carolina, Indiana, Ohio, Louisiana, Kansas, and Arkansas to compile information on their ancestors. They visited 46 states and saw the capital buildings in each state. She only missed Rhode Island, North Dakota, Alaska and
Hawaii.
She was fortunate to have their two sons, a daughter and beloved only grandchild Jacob live about one-half block from them the last years of her life and was able to see them often.
She is survived by her husband Ron, their six caring children, Susan Murray and husband George, Tullahoma, TN, Ronald, Jr., Marian Devasher, Linda Reif and her husband Bill, Jeanne Schreiner, and John, all of Tulsa, her only grandchild, Jacob Schreiner, Tulsa, and many nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her wonderful caring parents, daughter Sharon Ann, her two brothers Bill and John Heckenkemper, and her husband Ron’s twin, Ralph.
She wanted to thank all of her dear friends that she acquired along the way. She declined fanfare and requested cremation without a funeral. She requested that instead of flowers, etc., a donation in her memory be given to Catholic Charities or Neighbor for Neighbor in Tulsa.
Ron and her children will host a celebration of life at their home on Sunday, May 18, 2025 starting at 4pm.
Contact Marian at moodevasher@gmail.com for information.