Arlene Bayne
1943-2020
Arlene Funston Bayne passed away peacefully in her home in Edmond, OK, on January 29th, 2020, accompanied by her loving husband Brett.
Floy Arlene Funston was born in Elmer, Oklahoma on August 1, 1943 to Herman and Mary Frances Funston. Arlene came into that family as the middle of three sisters, preceded by her older sister Mary Kaye and followed by her younger sister Sue Ann.
Shortly after her birth, the Funston family moved south as Herman pursued decades of work in the oil fields of west Texas. Arlene spent most of her younger years in Anson, Texas, where at 13 years old she learned to drive around its country backroads. This was one of several early signs that Arlene was more than ready to take the wheel of most any challenge in life. At the same time, she balanced this fierce independence, with abiding love, proving to be the steady center of both the family into which she was born and the one she would later create herself. After moving to Wichita Falls in her teens, she graduated from high school there in 1961.
From Wichita Falls, Arlene made the short journey to Lubbock, where she attended Texas Technological College (later Texas Tech University). At Tech, she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority, and eventually became the first person in her family to obtain a university degree. She graduated with a bachelor's in 1965.
In another act of independence, Arlene moved to El Cajon, California shortly after graduation, and started a career in scientific research, first at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and later at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, both in La Jolla, CA. As she pursued those professional ambitions, she renewed a relationship with a fellow Tech student and then Navy officer stationed in San Diego named Brett Bayne. They married in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1967, beginning a partnership that lasted over 52 years, marked by mutual love and care that endured to the end. In the years that followed, they lived first in Point Loma and then Solana Beach, and Arlene gave birth to her daughter Ashley in 1971 and her son Brandon in 1974.
Hoping to raise their children closer to family, Arlene and Brett moved first to Sherman, Texas in 1975; Lubbock, Texas in 1976; then Edmond, Oklahoma in 1979. For the next decade, she spent the better part of her time building up a legendary family recipe box with her new creations, establishing herself as a gracious hosts to countless guests, and providing a wondrous childhood to Ashley and Brandon. She regularly volunteered for school activities and shuttled her kids to myriad athletic practices, which eventually gave way to untold weekends traveling to swim meets and patiently waiting through chlorinate air, rain, or sun for their events. Fortunately, those practices, car pools, and meets also cultivated a crew of "swim parents," many of whom became lifelong friends.
In the late 1980s, Arlene began a second career working in the Office of Engrossing and Enrolling for the Oklahoma State House of Representatives. At the Capitol, she used her keen eye for detail to bring bills into final legal form and publication, and later managed an office of several women that began as her workmates, but became a close community of friends.
She was a faithful member of Faith Bible Church for nearly four decades. In addition to active participation in everything from dinner groups to discipleship classes, Arlene expressed her faith most actively in ministering to those outside the church. After retirement, she launched into a new phase of life in which she spent her time volunteering at Faithworks of the Inner City and Shidler Elementary School. Over the years, Arlene assisted teachers, raised funds, tutored, mentored, and shared life with several students. She not only taught "her kids" basic skills, but took them on numerous adventures and included them in her own family outings. Arlene also began to work with prisoners both in incarceration and upon release, after she served as a juror on a trial that profoundly changed her view of the prison and justice systems. As she invested in all of these new friends, they returned the favor by bringing her into their lives, inviting her and Brett to their baptisms, weddings, barbecues, and quinceañeras.
All of these relationships grew alongside Arlene's own ever-expanding family. She welcomed five grandchildren in the 2000s. In later years, she delighted in family vacations to the mountains of North Carolina and the beaches of NC, CA, FL, and TX. On her regular trips to Ashley's family in Dripping Springs, Texas and Brandon's family in Chapel Hill, NC she relished the opportunity to connect with her grandkids and support them as they expanded her legacy of fierce independence, endless curiosity, hard work, family commitment, and joyful service to others.
Arlene was preceded in death by her father, Herman Monroe Funston; mother, Mary Frances Keeter Funston; sisters Mary Kaye Funston DuBoe and Sue Ann Funston Oates. She is survived by her husband, Brett Bayne; daughter, Ashley Best of Dripping Springs, TX; son Brandon Bayne of Chapel Hill, NC; son-in-law, James Best; daughter-in-law, Nidia Flores Bayne; and grandchildren Danica, Whitney, Azalea, Aidin, and Adelaide.
Services will be held at 2:00 p.m., Saturday, February 1, 2020 at Faith Bible Church in Edmond, OK. Interment will be held at 4:00 p.m., Sunday, February 2, 2020 at Old North Church Cemetery in Nacogdoches, TX.