Judie Kay Daugherty Varnum, 84, passed away at her Stillwater, Oklahoma home March 24, 2024. A Celebration of Life will be held April 6, 2024, at 1 p.m. at the First Christian Church in Stillwater. Strode Funeral Home and Cremation is in charge of the arrangements.

Judie was the daughter of James L. Daugherty and Eva Helen Carter Daugherty. She was born in Pawnee, Oklahoma, on October 25, 1939. As Pawnee had no hospital at that time, Judie and her twin brother, James Carter Daugherty, were born upstairs in a downtown apartment building which still stands today.

Her parents moved to Tulsa during World War II to work in an airplane manufacturing plant for the war effort. When Judie was 5 years old, she and her mother moved to Stillwater and lived at 12th and Main streets, where her maternal great-grandmother Vaughn had once lived. At the end of the war, Judie's father, Jimmie, joined Judie and Helen in Stillwater.

Judie began first grade at what was then Lincoln Elementary. Later the family moved to the 600 block of Duck Street. Judie attended and graduated from Stillwater High School in 1957. She attended Junior High in the building on Duncan Street where her mother had once attended Stillwater High School. In high school, Judie was a member of DECCA and the High School Band.

It was in high school that Judie met the only love of her life and future husband, William Glen Varnum. After dating five years, they were wed at the old First Christian Church on June 7, 1958. They were both OSU students at that time. Judie received her bachelor's degree in business education in 1961 and her master's degree in health education in 1981. Although Judie had many different types of jobs, her favorite field was health education and she most enjoyed working in OSU's first cardiac rehabilitation program located in the Colvin Center.

During their marriage, Judie and Bill lived in Stillwater and Perry, Oklahoma, as well as Hawaii and Colorado. Helping others through volunteerism with Elite Repeat, city trash pick-up crews, visiting the sick at the hospital, and helping homebound elderly people gave Judie happiness. Lifelong learning classes, reading, library functions, genealogy and gardening were important to Judie. She had a curious mind and always wanted to learn more. Exercise gave Judie great pleasure, especially hiking and walking with friends or family in the Colorado mountains or around Boomer Lake. Her family, particularly her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, were the joy of Judie's life. She and Bill returned to Stillwater from Hawaii after Bill's retirement in 2002 to be near family. Bill, her husband of 65 years, was her best friend and soulmate.

Judie is survived by her sons Michael Alan Varnum (Janet), Richard Keith Varnum, and David Lynn Varnum (Abby), and daughter Tammy Kay Varnum Baker (Greg); grandchildren Ashley Baker Shields (David), Sarah Baker Oglesby (Nathan), Jared Baker (Maddie), Matthew Varnum, Tyler Varnum, Jeremy Varnum, Joshua Varnum, Andrew Winn and Benjamin Varnum; and great-grandchildren Madilynn and Cooper Shields, Carter, Hudson and Graham Oglesby, Sylvie Baker, Kennedy Varnum, and Georgia Varnum; and cousins Leanita Shelby, Jeanine Fischer Echo-Hawk, Walter Echo-Hawk and Debra Echo-Hawk.

Judie was preceded in death by her parents, twin brother James, grandson Austin Varnum, and her husband, Bill. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Helping Hands Fund at First Christian Church, Habitat for Humanity or Mission of Hope.