Memorial Services for Margaret Lee (Shorter) Graalman, 84, of Fairview, will be at 2 pm, Friday, 4 December 2009 at the First Baptist in Fairview. The Reverend David Mendenhall will officiate. There will be a private burial prior to the Memorial Service. Arrangements are by Fairview Funeral Home, Inc.

Viewing will be Tuesday and Wednesday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Thursday from 9:00 a.m to 8:00 p.m. at Fairview Funeral Home, Inc. There will be no viewing at the church prior to the service.

Margaret Lee (Shorter) Graalman passed away Nov. 29, 2009, leaving a legacy of love of family and friends, service to her community and church, and the enduring echoes of her musical gifts. She died in the family home in Fairview.

Born in Enid on April 16, 1925, to Mate and Levi Shorter, Margaret's first 16 years were spent on the family farm near Hillsdale. In 1941 she moved to Okeene to finish high school while living with her sister Dortha and her husband Leonard Buller. Within weeks of her moving to Okeene, she met Robert (Bob) Graalman who was home briefly from the University of Minnesota. Margaret often said she knew he was the one when she saw him behind the fountain at the drugstore, and she knew that their fates were sealed after she offered -- and he accepted -- a stick of gum. One week after her high school graduation in 1943, she traveled by train with her mother and Bob's parents (Otto and Laura) to Richmond, Virginia, where Bob was stationed to begin Naval Officers' Training School; on May 31 they were married in the First Baptist Church of Richmond.

Margaret followed Bob for the next two years to his various postings in Rhode Island and New York (sometimes surprising him) before he shipped out to Hawaii in 1945. She returned to Oklahoma to attend Oklahoma College for Women in Chickasha, where she continued her studies in concert piano and expanded her performance interest to the harpsichord. Bob was assigned to the Navy's Japanese Language School, which had coincidentally been placed in Stillwater where they reunited.

After the war they moved to Madison for graduate work at the University of Wisconsin, but returned to Okeene to begin their family. In 1953 Bob accepted a position at the Fairview State Bank, and they settled in Fairview with their children Robert (Bob) Jr., and Nancy. Margaret promptly embarked on her more than half-century of leadership and involvement in Fairview's civic, school, and social life, most notably through her 51-year tenure as organist at the First Baptist Church. Over the years she played for several hundred weddings and funerals, as well as for school and community events, thereby becoming interwoven with the lives of multiple generations of families in Northwest Oklahoma.

Her community work over the years earned her the Chamber of Commerce's 2000 award as Fairview's Volunteer of the Year. She served on the Fairview Hospital Foundation Board; headed Make-a-Difference Day, Meals on Wheels, the American Red Cross and Bloodmobile for Major County, and Fairview's American Bicentennial Celebration; and, contributed her talents to untold fundraising and philanthropic projects. She also was devoted to the sisters and causes of P.E.O. (Chapter B.S.).

Parallel to her affection for her home, Margaret loved to travel, which began with family vacations throughout the United States, then extended to extensive journeys around Mexico, and, in the late '90s, to international travel. Wherever she went Margaret gained friends by practicing her often-expressed principle to "step forward and be the first to make others feel comfortable and important."
Margaret is survived by her husband Robert of Fairview; her son Robert Jr. and his wife Diane of Stillwater; her daughter Nancy of San Francisco; her sister Dortha Buller of Granbury, Texas; four grandchildren Travis and Sarah Graalman of Los Angeles and New York City, respectively, and Margaret (Meg) and Julia Millhouse of San Francisco; and, her nephew Kendall Buller and his wife Sharon of Granbury. Margaret was singularly blessed by loving and sustaining friends in Fairview, including Brenda Shelley, Darlene, Barbara Shelley, and Kathy and Eldon Edingfield, and Phil and Judy Ewbank.

She was preceded in death by her parent.

In Lieu of flowers, the family has set up a memorial to the Fairview Regional Medical Center with Fairview Funeral Home Inc acting as custodians of the funds.

Condolences may be made online at www.fairviewfuneralhomeinc.com