Sandra Stevens Ives died peacefully at Primrose Retirement Community on August 3, 2024. A memorial service will begin at 10:30 a.m., Monday, August 12, 2024 at Stillwater First Presbyterian Church. Strode Funeral Home and Cremation is in charge of the arrangements.

Born June 10, 1930, in Teague, Texas, she lived in Durant, OK, until the age of 10, when her father was called to active duty with the 45th Division in preparation for WWII. When her father was posted to Abilene, TX, she and her mother began accompanying her dad to each military posting. Over the next two years he trained, first for a Nordic invasion--eventually postponed at the insistence of Winston Churchill--and then for the Italian Campaign to liberate Europe from Nazi control. During this time, Sandy attended 8 schools in 3 years in Texas, Georgia, and Virginia. As a result, although she was a conscientious student, who made good grades, there were inevitable gaps. "I never did learn square roots," she recalled.

After the war's victorious end, her parents settled in Stillwater, OK, where her father was employed by Oklahoma A&M College, later Oklahoma State University. Sandra graduated from Stillwater High School in 1947 and started college at A&M/OSU, where she joined Pi Beta Phi women's fraternity, majoring in Art under the tutelage of the noted regional artist, Doel Reed. The following year, she attended Texas State College for Women (her mother's alma mater) in Denton, TX, to study Occupational Therapy. Returning to OSU for her junior year, she became engaged to Dick Brown, an engineering student and also a Stillwater High School graduate. The couple married in August 1950 and lived in the Veterans Village family campus housing until her husband completed his electrical engineering degree. Afterward, he completed his military service in the Korean Conflict and Sandra completed her B.A. degree in Art during his absence. Upon her husband's return, the couple moved, first to Borger, TX, then to Pampa, TX, where Dick worked for Schlumberger. In 1954, the first of their two children, Richard Steven, was born in May. And in March, 1957, the Browns welcomed their daughter, Michelle.

Shortly after her daughter's birth, Sandy's family moved to Idaho Falls, Idaho, where Dick worked at the Phillips Nuclear Materials Testing Reactor. Sandy remained a fulltime homemaker until both children were in school. Then, she earned an Idaho teaching certificate and taught art in Idaho Falls for two years. She also served as President of the League of Women Voters and was active in the Pi Phi Alumnae Club.

In the fall of 1968, Sandy returned to Stillwater as the recipient of a National Defense Education Act scholarship to earn a master's degree in Education with a field of concentration in English. In graduate school, she began writing poetry and quickly became an accomplished poet, according the then-English Department Head, Dr. Clinton Keeler, editor of the Cimarron Review literary journal and a published poet, himself.

Sandy completed her M.S. degree in 1970 and began teaching English fulltime at Stillwater High School. Sandy and her estranged husband divorced shortly afterward. She continued to teach at SHS until her retirement in the 1990s. During her professional career, Sandy served as President of Delta Kappa Gamma teachers' sorority, the Stillwater Education Association, and the Cimarron Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution.

In 1976, Sandy and Ben "Rusty" Hudgins married. The couple lived in Oklahoma City, where Sandy and Rusty worked together in his company, Hudgins Construction. They loved to travel together, frequently including several, grandchildren on their sightseeing ventures throughout the South. Sandy and Rusty also explored a mutual interest in family history, documenting their ancestry and scouting locations significant to their families. They resided in Oklahoma City until Rusty's death on April 22, 2006.

While residing in Oklahoma City, Sandy was active in the Pi Beta Phi Alumnae Club, which she served as President, and continued honing her skill as a poet. In 1997, she entered an international poetry competition and received third place "Poet of Merit" honors from the International Society of Poets. Her award was presented at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Following Rusty's death, an old friend who had lost his wife called to offer his condolences on Sandy's loss. In Oklahoma for a high school class reunion, he invited her out for a cup of coffee. After his return to California, they remained in touch daily until February of the following year, when Sandy and John Ives married. The Ives made their primary home in Stillwater, spending their summers beside the Pacific Ocean in San Felipe, Mexico. Both became active members of the First Presbyterian Church of Stillwater, and Sandy's Saturday morning coffee group at Panera named John their "token male" member.

In 2013, Sandy and John moved into Primrose Retirement Community, where they were both active in the Renegade Writers group until John's death May 6, 2016. Sandy remained at Primrose, continuing to participate in Renegade Writers and attending meetings of the Stillwater Pi Phi Alumnae Club, as well as her Saturday coffee group, until Covid19 changed the life of the nation.

In November of 2020, at age 90 and before a vaccine became available, Sandy was hospitalized with the Coronavirus. With first-class medical care at SMC, she recovered fully and returned to Primrose to the joy of her companion cat, Rascal, and her family. In June this year, Sandy celebrated her 94th birthday at Primrose with family and friends Bob and Norma Burke.

She is survived by her son and daughter in law, Richard and Jody Brown, of Buffalo, N.Y.; her daughter, Michelle Husband, Broken Arrow, OK; grandsons, Adam Lynch of Slidell, LA.; Chris Kopecky, of Broken Arrow, OK; and great-granddaughter Kaia Ruddell-Lynch of Riva, Md. She is also survived by daughters Ruth Ives and Molly Ives Brower of Tulsa, Molly's husband, Stewart, their son, Robyn; also daughter Barbara Ives of Rostrevor, South Australia, and husband Matthew Fox. Sandra is also survived by her sister and brother-in-law, Sharon and Gary Wright of Stillwater OK; nephew and niece David and Christy Wright, Rolla, MO; nephew Blake Wright, Stillwater, OK; and her loving companion, Rascal, the rescue kitten she adopted.

Memorial contributions may be made to Tiny Paws Kitten Rescue, 901 S. Lowry, Stillwater, OK, 74074, or to First Presbyterian Church of Stillwater.