Obituary of Nina Faye Bunyea Roach

NINA FAYE CROSSETT ROACH (Married names: Hardy, Bunyea, Roach) Nina (“Narney”) was born in Caddo, OK on August 23, 1922 to Guy A Crossett and Daisy Baxter Crossett of Caddo. She died peacefully in her home with her family and caregiver on May 26 2018 in Granite Bay, CA. Her decline in health was quite rapid – she seemed to have held on for the fiftieth wedding anniversary of her eldest son Pat and his wife Jean on April 15. She was delighted to spend the day surrounded by loved ones, extended family and friends that she had not seen in years. Nina was predeceased by husbands Pat W Hardy (2011), George Bunyea (2000), and James Roach (2012), daughter Janene Royce Souter (2017) and Grandson Scott Hardy (2014). She is survived by sons Guy Michael Hardy (Bloomington, Indiana), and Pat Crossett Hardy, (Granite Bay, CA). She also has eight grandchildren, many great grandchildren and stepchildren spanning four generations, as well as nieces Mary Arteaga and Sue Shepard. Narney was, above all, a teacher. She received her BA /Ed at Southeastern State College, Durant, OK in 1947 and MA at California State College in 1965. She taught at secondary schools in Oklahoma in the 1950s, Secondary and special education schools in Long Beach, Costa Mesa, and Newport Beach CA through the 1960s to mid 80s. She then retired with her husband George to Atascadero and real estate development. Later, they moved to Northern California with similar pursuits. Perhaps Nina’s greatest legacy is the string of college diplomas, from bachelor’s to doctorate, mounting the walls of her husbands, children, grandchildren, extended family, and students all over the world. Those years of education she clearly helped spawn must amass to at least two centuries. They went to school because she demanded it of them. They became engineers and teachers and doctors and nurses and parents. This is her legacy, and it continues down the generations. Nina was a Choctaw Indian, with family bloodlines that extend into the lines of Baxters, Freeneys, & Robinsons -- long before Oklahoma statehood. That proud Native American spirit was pervasive in all of her thought, teachings, and art. A year before her death, she visited a granddaughter’s school and spent an entire morning teaching them HER Indian heritage. Many of her family are tribal members today. Nina had printer’s ink in her veins. Her father, Guy A Crossett, published the weekly Caddo Herald from 1900 until his death in 1948. She learned in childhood the mechanics and spirit of the printing art from linotype and journalistic composition to writing backwards and editing. That curious & unique spirit continued her whole life and has been passed on to many of her children. Nina was an artist. An art minor at SE State College, she continued to paint and do needlepoint from childhood until a few months before her death. Her paintings hang in churches and homes from Oklahoma to California. But Narney was first a teacher. So let us remember her surrounded by (& captivating) the children of all ages in her extended family, discussing (lecturing) on our Indian heritage, art, grammar, composition, real estate development, education (past, present, and future), politics, her latest book, OU and OSU sports stats, and just about anything else. Special accolades are extended to long term live-in caregivers Colette (“Cookie”) Blomquist and her late husband Fred Blomquist, and to Bristol Hospice of Roseville, CA. Rest easy dear mother. THANK YOU! To send a flower arrangement or to plant trees in memory of Nina Faye Bunyea Roach, please click here to visit our Sympathy Store.