Loretta Joyce Decker

Family and Friends Visitation will be held at Marshall Funeral Home in Alva on Sunday, July 21 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.and Graveside Services will be held at Pleasant View Cemetery, southwest of Dacoma, Oklahoma on Monday, July 22 at 10:30 a.m. Contributions in her memory may be made to the Alva Swimming Pool Fund c/o Freedom West Community Development Corporation, or to Freedom Gates Boys Ranch. Loretta Joyce Curtis Decker was born near Greensburg, Oklahoma in the home of her grandparents on February 14, 1937, to L.C. “Buzz” Curtis and Ina Marie Gately Curtis. She passed from her earthly life on July 18, 2024, at Share Medical Center. She lived her childhood years on the farm with her family in the Greensburg area. She attended Dacoma Schools. She married Roy William Decker on August 27, 1954, at the Greensburg Methodist Church. Loretta and Roy started their married life on the Dyer Ranch north of Camp Houston, Oklahoma, and moved to Alva soon after. Loretta and Roy lived in Alva until he was sent to join the U.S. Army in 1956 at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas and Fort Polk, Louisiana. They returned to Alva in 1958 where Roy went to work for Safeway Stores. Loretta worked at Southwestern Bell Telephone and at the Dr. Pepper Bottling Plant office in Alva. Their first daughter, Kay Lynn, was born in 1960 and their second daughter, Jo Lene, in 1961. Loretta and Roy enjoyed their family times and many friends during their early married life in Alva. She was a member of Beta Sigma Phi Sorority and took her role as a mother of two young girls seriously. Roy and Loretta decided in the late 1960s that it was time for Northwest Oklahoma to have a new kind of grocery store and founded the Jiffy Trip Corporation in 1970 in Alva. Loretta was the corporate accountant and managed the office staff. Together they built the Jiffy Trip Corporation into a multi-state company of convenience stores that sold fuel and groceries. The corporate offices were located in Alva until the company was sold to the Hammer and Williams Company in 1979. At the time of the sale, Loretta and Roy had 18 locations. Loretta and Roy built their country home in 1979 and moved to the farm in 1980. There they lived for the next 36 years until returning to Alva in 2016. They have enjoyed traveling the United States in their motor home and spent nearly 35 winters in South Texas, where they made many friends over the years. Their last great adventure was to Alaska where they toured the Canadian Provinces and the 49th state in their travel trailer, purchased just for that trip. They always returned home to the ranch located northwest of Waynoka, and loved having their children and grandchildren visit. Loretta found great pleasure in her family and especially her grandchildren. Loretta is survived by her husband, Roy, and her daughters Kay Decker and Jo Decker. She is survived by four grandchildren, Jay Lohmann, Taylor Turner Arndt and her husband Dallas Arndt, Ariel Simpson and her husband Michael Simpson, and Emily Koch and her husband Ethan Koch, and by 8 great grandchildren, a sister, Rosie Carberry and her husband, Carl, numerous nieces, nephews, and other family members.

Loretta Joyce Decker

February 14, 1937 - July 18, 2024