Ivalane Carol Morford

Ivalane Morford was born on May 4, 1935 in Holdenville, OK where her parents, Norton and Pearl Hocker lived during the last of the Great Depression before they moved to Shawnee. Ivalane attended school in Shawnee and graduated with honors a year ahead of her classmates from Shawnee High School in 1954, however, she had completed her high school coursework a year earlier in 1953. She continued on to attend Oklahoma Baptist University, finishing her baccalaureate degree in 1957. At OBU, Ivalane majored in art and education. After graduation, she moved to Lawton, OK and began her teaching career with a year at the junior high level and then switched to teaching art at Lawton High School.  During summer vacations Ivalane attended graduate school at Oklahoma University to earn her Master of Education degree in school counseling. After several years of teaching high school art, Ivalane became a counselor at Eisenhower High School in Lawton. In addition to her other responsibilities, Ivalane organized Eisenhower student teams to compete in knowledge-based competitions with teams from other high schools.

Ivalane always loved and practiced art and in addition to her teaching, she completed several art classes at Cameron University as long as she was physically able. This assured her access to the facilities of their fully equipped art laboratory of which she made continuous use. 

Ivalane loved to travel, and when time permitted, she traveled extensively around the world in the U.S. and Alaska, Africa, Asia, and Europe.

She was a prodigious reader interested in a wide range of subjects. Her personal library was extensive. It contained books and magazines in many interest areas, both fiction and nonfiction, in the sciences and arts, history, and biography. She was a member of one of Lawton’s book clubs. Ivalane always traveled with a book or magazine. 
Ivalane was a musician, having learned piano from one of Shawnee’s best teachers. Her piano studies focused on classical music but also encouraged Ivalane to learn to express her skills with contemporary music. Her piano teacher described her talent as “concert-level” and assured her parents that she had the potential to become a professional if she ever desired to do so. 

After Ivalane’s retirement from teaching, she met and married Dr. Robert Morford, a man with whom she had a happy, loving marriage. She and Bob enjoyed many trips together, including some with family, around the country and abroad. Regrettably, that phase of Ivalane’s life ended when Bob unexpectedly died in 2020. 

Ivalane passed away on Friday, July 14, 2023 in Shawnee, Oklahoma. She was preceded in death by her parents, J. Norton Hocker and Pearl S. (Selman) Hocker and her husband, Dr. Robert Morford. Surviving family include her brother, Dr. Phillip N. Hocker and his wife Gail T. (Thomas) Hocker, two nieces, Katherine M. Hocker and Carol L. (Hocker) Vanderville and husband Mark and their children, Shaye Lynn and Aiden T.  

A memorial ceremony for Ivalane will be held on Tuesday, August 8, 2023, at 2:00 pm at the Walker Funeral Chapel in Shawnee, OK.