By Van Mitchell, staff writer
Faith has long played an important role in Crystal McGee DePue’s life in which she lost her father at age 12, and the loss of two husbands.
Born in Tehran, Iran, DePue’s parents, who hailed from Edmond, served as missionaries with the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions in that country from the late 1940s until 1954 when they returned to the United States.
The Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (PCUSA) was organized in 1837 because of General Assembly (Old School) action. Its creation marked the culmination of a discussion covering a period of years as to whether missionary operations should be carried on by voluntary societies, or by the Church in its organized capacity.
“I had come to know the Lord and I had lost my father as a 12-year-old, and I knew that God had seen me and my brothers and sisters through that,” DePue, a resident of Villagio of Bradford Village Independent Living /Assisted Living, located at 300 Enz Drive in Edmond said. “I told my kids, God has promised to be a father to the fatherless and a husband to the widow, and we’re just going to trust that that’s what’s going to happen even though it’s hard.”
DePue, 75, said her family moved to upstate New York upon returning home from Iran in what was supposed to be a year-long sabbatical.
“I moved first to New York City and stayed there for six months,” she said. “Then we moved to upstate New York because we were back supposedly on a furlough. It was just supposed to be a year of being back in the States, visiting family, getting refreshed and ready to go back. But my father was found to have serious health problems, and the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions wouldn’t send him back.”
DePue said her father continued doing mission work in upstate New York and at a women’s college in Ohio before moving their family back to Oklahoma where he worked as an accountant.
After graduating high school in Edmond, DePue attended a Presbyterian college in Clarksville, Arkansas before attending the University of Central Oklahoma.
It was at UCO where she met her first husband James “Rudy” McGee through a friend. Within two months of dating they were engaged.
“His name was James Brent, but his college roommate had a poster of Rudolph Valentino and thought he looked like that. So, they called him Rudy,” she said.
DePue said Rudy served in the United States Marine Corps and was stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Her son Jameson, a retired U.S. Marine Lt. Col. also served at the same military base in Okinawa, Japan as his father.
After leaving the Marines Rudy became a teacher and taught at several schools in Kansas before landing at his last school in Goddard, Kansas.
In 1985, Rudy was killed by a student in a school shooting along with several others left injured.
“He was shot and killed right after we found out I was pregnant with our fourth child,” DePue said.
She later moved her family back to Edmond to be closer to family. “We moved back here. I can tell stories of how God provided a house right behind my sister’s house,” she said. “I got Workman’s comp because he was killed on the job. So, that and Social Security allowed me to stay home and have the baby.”’
DePue later worked as a secretary for an oil and gas company before retiring.
Faith continued to tug at DePue’s heart, and she served a year as a missionary in Lyon, France.
“Faith gives meaning to life,” she said. “I don’t know how people make it in this world, particularly now without faith. God has proven himself faithful. As a single parent I had a choice of whether I can do it with God or without God. And I chose God.”
DePue later remarried to the Rev. Dale DePue, who served as the pastor at First United Presbyterian Church in Guthrie, and later served as a State Representative in the Oklahoma Legislature.
DePue said her husband had developed several health issues and moved to Villagio of Bradford Village Assisted Living.
“They took such wonderful care of him, and since it was COVID, I couldn’t go visit him. But when the weather was nice, they would let him come out and we could walk the community,” she said.
DePue later moved into an Independent Living cottage in Villagio of Bradford Village.
She said she enjoys living there. “They’re very intentional about keeping us active and keeping our minds engaged and keeping us socially engaged,” she said. “It’s a great place to be. I keep telling people it’s where I need to be.”
For more information about Villagio of Bradford Village call (405) 348-6945 or visit www.villagioliving.com.
