Story and photo provided by D. Scott Petty, Stillwater Medical Center Foundation
The Roy T. Hoke family from Stillwater has long been synonymous with helping Stillwater and Stillwater Medical Center grow and succeed. Carrying on the legacy of the Hoke family, his grandchildren William S. Smith of Tulsa and Susan Hoke Smith Burghart of Colorado Springs, CO, co-directors of the Sherman Smith Family Foundation, announced a commitment to donate $250,000 to the $8 million renovation and expansion of the Cancer Center at SMC.
“Will and Susie’s mother, Mary Frances Hoke Smith, passed from cancer in 1991,” said D. Scott Petty, Executive Director of the SMC Foundation. “This major gift will allow the Cancer Center to include a beautiful healing garden, which will be named after Mary Frances.”
Mary Frances Hoke, daughter of Roy T. Hoke, married Sherman E. Smith in 1948 after he had returned from World War II and following their graduation from Oklahoma A&M. Raised in Stillwater, Mrs. Hoke Smith was an alumnae of Pi Beta Phi sorority, received her BA degree in English and a minor in Physical Education, while attending Oklahoma A&M. After living briefly in Lindsay, OK and Borger, TX, Mr. and Mrs. Smith settled in Tulsa, where they lived for the remainder of their lives. Mrs. Smith proudly served in almost every capacity within her Tulsa PEO chapter.
Mary Frances Hoke Smith’s father, Roy T. Hoke, played a vital role in the beginning development of Stillwater Medical Center when he bought the original Whittenburg Hospital at auction. He was also part of a group that recommended Stillwater leaders consider bonds for the construction of Stillwater Municipal Hospital in 1938. In 1986, Mr. Hoke donated $25,000 to upgrade the new cardiac telemetry system for monitoring cardiac patients who had moved out of the ICU. Stillwater Medical Center staff celebrates the vivid history and the innovative vision the Hoke family started nearly 80 years ago and continues to inspire today.
“Appropriately, the focus of our infusion zone at the Cancer Center will be the Mary Frances Hoke Smith Healing Garden,” stated Mackenzie Wilfong, JD, SMC Foundation chairperson. “Our SMC Foundation board of directors is genuinely grateful for the Sherman Smith Family Foundation making this tremendous investment in the future of cancer care in the Stillwater region.”
For more information about how to support the Cancer Center at SMC or the SMC Foundation, please visit www.smc-foundation.org or contact Executive Director, D. Scott Petty or Jeffery Corbett at the SMC Foundation at 405.742.5387.