Norman, OK - Anita Maureen (Durrett) Bynum joined her high school sweetheart and life-long partner, Chester Lee, on his birthday--February 26, 2026. Her flare for life started from day one when she was born on Halloween, October 31, 1931, in Oklahoma City. The doctor, fearing it was a prank, refused to leave his home; so, Maureen's father, James Homa Durrett, had to get in his car and retrieve the doctor to help her mother, Nita Vae, bring Anita Maureen into the world.

Maureen was an Okie through and through. Her grandfather on her father's side was a Boomer who participated in the 1889 land rush, purchasing stakes from a Sooner.

Growing up during the Great Depression and World War Il, she certainly learned how to be thrifty and make her money go a long way. She attended Taft Junior High and Classen High School, one of the best high schools in the country at that time. Graduating in 1949, she went on to work for Southwestern Bell, a.k.a. AT&T, helping her future husband through OU Medical School.

She trained in classical music playing the piano and the organ. And she could type 60 words a minute which was not easy on those old metal Underwoods.

She and Chester Lee Bynum were married in her parents' home on May 24, 1952, and two years later their firstborn son, Brett Lee, was born. Spending the next few years in Oklahoma City while Chester Lee did his medical residency and after a few months in Pyror, Oklahoma where their second son, Burl James, was born, they headed west to Farmington, New Mexico, where Maureen's father owned a water bottling business.

While in Farmington, she was elected President of the PEO, learned to play golf and had two more children: her daughter, Brenda Lynn, and her third son, Ben Randall.

The expanding family headed north to Denver where Dr. Bynum studied the burgeoning medical field of radiology. They returned to Farmington briefly and then headed back to Oklahoma. They whittled down their choices to Lincoln. Nebraska and Norman. Oklahoma. It came down to Maureen when she told Chester Lee that she just couldn't raise her boys to be "Nebraska Cornhuskers." It was Boomer Sooner for this gal from Oklahoma.

Moving to Norman in 1970, they made this their permanent home living in the same house for 55 years. On the block were people she went to high school with in Oklahoma City so she felt right at home.

And Maureen began leaving her thumbprint all over town. She started with creating a printed program for the high school football team. When she was handed a mimeographed single sheet of paper as the program, she was not happy. It took her a year, but she created a full 20-page program with photographs, advertisements and a photograph on front page. She was deeply involved in designing the logo for Norman High, which is still being used today.

And she didn't stop there. She parked her Lincoln in front of the three frees that were on the west side of Norman when a developer wanted to cut them down for a parking lot. She penned Joyce Kilmer's line, "I think that I shall never see / A poem as lovely as a tree," onto each tree and parked her Lincoln Continental in front of them so the bulldozers couldn't pull them down. She lost the fight, but made a huge impression on her children to fight for what you believe in.

She became the first female president of the Norman Athletic Association. It came with resistance, but when the man sponsoring her quipped to the board "She knows all the bankers in town and knows how to get money out of them," she got the job.

She also helped to raise the funds to build the new sanctuary for St. Stephen's Methodist Church. Maureen served in many different positions with the Norman Assistance League, including President, Treasurer and Parliamentarian (her favorite).

Other organizations where she did her philanthropic work include Bethesda, Transition House, PEO, Junior League, Health for Friends and the Oklahoma State Medical Association Alliance.

In 1980, she and Dr. Bynum founded Norman Radiology Services where Maureen ran a tight ship. So much so, the office manager, Becky Coffey, created the phrase "Queen Bee Alert (QBA)" to alert the staff whenever Maureen's Lincoln flying into the parking lot.

She enjoyed traveling as well, spending time in many great cities in the U.S., in Russia behind the Iron Curtain, and in Finland, Denmark, France, England, Scotland and Ireland. She rafted down the Colorado River, and loved playing paddle ball with Jean Harper and Joan Barry.

She loved children and enjoyed listening to them as they shared their stories. Operation School Bell was one of her favorite programs through the Assistance League. And her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were her pride and joy.

She spent the last few years of her life at Arbor House where she made many friends, both on the staff and with the residence. She was always the life of the party. A particular favorite pastime was her nightly visits and treats with Janelle who worked the front desk.

Maureen lived a full and exciting life complete with traveling adventures, a loving family and a husband who truly adored her. She will be missed.

Maureen was preceded in death by her husband, Chester Lee Bynum, her parents, James Homa and Nita Vae (Thompson) Durrett, and her brother, James Homa Durrett, Jr. She is survived her sons Brett Bynum and wife Marlene of Farmington, NM, Burl Bynum and fiancée Randa Sabbagha of Moab, UT and Chicago, IL, and Ben Bynum and wife Jennifer of Norman; daughter Brenda Bynum and husband Jim Jenner of Abiquiu; and grandchildren Jydonne Bynum, Jamar Bynum and husband Conn Wethington, Bailey Dowell and husband John Dowell, Austin Bynum and her great grandson Bo, Jack Bynum, Sam Bynum, Alex and Blakely Berney and her great granddaughter, Bennie Noah.