Maria Oakley

OBITUARY: Maria "Ella" (Adkins) Oakley, 90



Maria Ella (Adkins) Oakley died Monday, January 29, 2007 in La Mesa, Calif. at the age of 90.

A Memorial Mass was held in February at St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church in La Mesa.

A Rosary will be said at Joseph Vertin & Sons Funeral Home in Breckenridge, MN at 10:00 AM. on Saturday, May 26, 2007, followed by a graveside service at 10:30 AM at St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Breckenridge, with Fr. Kenneth Popp officiating. A lunch will follow at the Northern Grille Restaurant, Breckenridge.

Maria Ella Adkins was born December 23, 1916 in Breckenridge, MN, the daughter of George and Ella (O'Kane) Adkins. She was baptized and confirmed at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Breckenridge and graduated from Breckenridge High School in 1935.

On May 1, 1942, she married Charles Oakley in Grand Forks, ND.

They lived in Grand Forks, where Ella worked for Montgomery Ward for many years. From the early 1960's until the early 1970's they lived in Idaho and San Diego, California.

In 1973 Ella returned to Minnesota and resided at Otter Tail Lake with her dad and step-mother, Florence, and, at times, with her brother John and his family; for a couple of years she also stayed with and cared for her cousin, Walter Adkins.

In 1979, she returned to San Diego, where she helped care for her ill husband and spent the remaining years of her life.

Maria "Ella" is survived by her sister-in-law, LaDonna Adkins of Fergus Falls, many cousins, nieces and nephews.

In addition to her parents, and step-mother, Ella was preceded in death by her husband, her sisters, Rose Donahue and Sister Ignatia (Marion) Adkins, her brothers, George, Joseph and John, her brother-in-law, Tom Donahue, and her nephews, Dennis Adkins and Tom Donahue, Jr.