Barbara Lenore (Cash) Matthews

Obituary for Barbara Lenore (Cash) Matthews

Lenore met her Savior face to face October 4, 2023 at the age of 92. 

She was born and raised in Del Rio, Texas. She graduated from Del Rio High School where she played the drums in the marching band.

Post high school, she was a switchboard operator at the telephone company.

She met her husband, Bill, at a Youth For Christ meeting and they were married after a six-week whirlwind romance. Bill was deployed to Tripoli, Libya a few months later.  Lenore and six-month old, Melody joined him there in the summer of 1956. They welcomed their second child, Pam, while living in Libya. They returned to the US and settled in Spiro, Oklahoma. While there, Bill pastored Lakeview Missionary Baptist Church and Lenore led ladies’ auxiliary groups and attended Poteau Junior College. During their time in Spiro, their third and fourth daughters, Valerie and Michelle were born. In 1966, they moved to Lomita, California, where she served as pastor’s wife and taught at Hawthorne Christian School. A year later, they moved to Marlow, Oklahoma, where she taught English, Greek, and Hebrew at Oklahoma Missionary Baptist Institute.

In the summer of 1968, they accepted the call to Liberty Baptist Church in Shawnee, Oklahoma, where for several years, she led Bible studies for ladies’ groups and taught weekly Sunday School lessons to the homebound.

In the 1970s, she obtained her real estate and pilot’s licenses. She and Bill established Liberty Preschool and Academy in 1978. Bill had the vision, but Lenore did the leg work. She retired as the school’s administrator when she was eighty. (She asked how the school was doing almost daily.)

Her many hobbies and passions included travel, art, sewing, photography, reading, writing poetry, and watching Wheel of Fortune. Lastly, and most importantly, she loved her Lord and the study of His Word.

She fervently loved her family members unconditionally and never hesitated to express her pride in each of them.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Bill; her parents, David and Beatrice (Gobble) Cash; her sisters, Inez, Laveda, Wanda, and Allene; and her great-grandson, Wells Thomas Puskarich.

She is survived by her four daughters and sons-in-law: Melody and Dave Licklider; Pam and Bill Leveridge; Valerie and Danny Baxter; and Michelle and Darrel Rader; her grandchildren: Sundi Forsythe and husband, Tommy, Gabbi Licklider, Olivia Licklider and partner, Jesse Pratt; Katie Anderson and husband Shawn; Garrett Leveridge and wife Melissa; Kelli Lawrence and husband Bryce; Brian Baxter; Kristen Thornton and husband, Zack; Brittney Puskarich and husband, Frank; and Chase Rader; her great- grandchildren: Chandler and Maci Forsythe; Preston and Isla Pratt;  Addie, Alexander, and  August Anderson; Elli, Rose, and Maggie Leveridge; Berkleigh and Emma Lawrence; Kash, Jagger and Beck Thornton; Nash and Knox Puskarich; her brother, Ned Carta, and many extended family members.

In lieu of flowers, the family prefers donations to be made in Lenore’s honor to Liberty Academy.

Memorial Service will be 11:00 a.m., Saturday, October 14, 2023 at Liberty Baptist Church with Dr. Bill Leveridge, son-in-law, Crossway Church, Sulphur, OK and Phil Thompson officiating. under the direction of Cooper Funeral Home of Tecumseh. Please join the celebration of Barbara’s life through Cooper Funeral Home’s Facebook page for live streaming of the service.

To share memories, or to sign the guest book on-line, go to www.cooperfuneral.com.