Rebecca (Becky) Lee Huffine Ernest was born in Duncan, Oklahoma on November 2, 1941, to Hilbert and Lucille Huffine, and went to her Savior, Jesus Christ, surrounded by family in Norman, Oklahoma, on April 17, 2026. When she was born, her parents were living in a teacherage in Tucker, Oklahoma, where her dad was principal and taught. Shortly thereafter, due to World War II, her dad joined the army and was sent to Galveston, Texas, where Becky and her mom joined him. After the war, her dad joined the Border Patrol, and the small family moved to south Texas, where she was soon joined by her brother, Jim, and her sister, Mary. Her growing family lived close to the southern border of Texas for the next ten years—in Rio Grand City, LaFeria, and Brownsville. Becky and family attended the Baptist Church in Brownsville where Becky accepted Jesus as her personal Savior.

Fifth grade found Becky in school in Tuttle, Oklahoma, after her dad took a teaching job in Oklahoma. Becky graduated from Tuttle High School, where she played in the band, on all the girls’ sports teams, and began to use the talents and skills that would bless her and others for her whole life. She had a beautiful voice, played the piano, and sang in a popular trio for school and social events—the Charmettes--even performing on television in the early days of local programming. She also sharpened her lifetime homemaking skills of sewing and cooking. Her talent and people skills resulted in her being elected song leader at the Oklahoma state F.H.A. convention and also at the national convention in Chicago during her senior year.

While attending college at O.U., Becky participated in the Baptist Student Union. As a freshman in the B.S.U. choir she first met the love of her life, a sophomore named Melvin Ernest. They married on September 1, 1962, at Becky’s home church, First Baptist in Tuttle. She graduated with an education degree in May of 1964, and their first child, Lorraine, was born two months later on the Fourth of July.

The next forty years were busy and challenging. She served, with Melvin, as a charter and life-long member of Bethel Baptist Church in Norman where she taught and sang in the choir. She completed her family with the birth of their son, Phillip, the day after Valentine’s Day in 1967. She also served on the Norman Hospitality Committee for International Students at O.U. and was a chairperson for the Christian Women’s Club of Norman. Becky also helped Melvin for a time as interim secretary in his law office. While bearing these responsibilities she earned a master’s degree in reading education and taught for thirty years in classrooms in Norman and Little Axe public schools.

Becky was always an enthusiastic hostess and gatherer of friends and relatives, hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners and birthday parties for as many as forty participants. She traveled extensively, attending Lorraine’s opera performances all over the U.S. and Europe, and visiting Phillip’s family and her grandchildren. She loved traveling and camping with Melvin and the rest of her family, spending parts of 47 consecutive summers in Colorado. Her favorite hobbies were singing, reading, sewing, cooking, and caring for and loving Melvin, her children, grandchildren, and her new great grandchild, Theo.

Her later years were encumbered with arthritis disabilities, which slowed her physically without dimming her eternal optimism, her faith in God, and her love for, and enjoyment of, others. Everyone was “special” to Becky and was blessed with her joy for their presence.

She was, as quoted in Proverbs 31, “…a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her…”

She was predeceased by her parents, Hilbert and Lucille Huffine, and her sister Mary Word. She is survived by her brother, Jim Huffine, her husband, Melvin, her daughter, Lorraine Ernest and partner, Valerie Bernhardt, her son, Phillip Ernest and wife, Lisa, her grandson, Ryan Ernest and wife, Abigail, her granddaughter, Anna Jeffries and husband, Jared, her granddaughter, Rosalie Ernest, and her great grandson, Theo Jeffries.

Visitation will be from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Sunday, April 26, at Tribute Memorial Care, 4300 W. Indian Hills Rd, Norman, and her funeral service will be Monday, April 27, at 2:00 p.m. at Bethel Baptist Church, 1717 W. Lindsey St. Norman.