At sunrise on Saturday morning, August 20, 2022, our matriarch, Nina Lou Vansickle Marshall Garrett, peacefully passed away while surrounded by loved ones. We rejoice that she is in Heaven with her beloved Savior whose praises she joyfully sang all of her life. This Oklahoma original was born at home on October 8, 1926, near Antlers, Oklahoma, and was the only daughter of Major Jim and Emily Wolfe Vansickle and had four brothers who loved to tease her. Most of her childhood was spent in Oklahoma, but the family moved to Arizona during the dust bowl days. What they lacked in material possessions was offset by strong faith, family love, and fierce determination. They also knew what it was to do without. In 1938, they moved back to their beloved Oklahoma, settling at Lake West. Nina graduated from Boswell High School as the class salutatorian and after graduation worked at Douglas Aircraft Plant building airplanes. On December 19, 1945, Nina married William Marshall after he was discharged from the Army at the end of World War II. They lived in Bonham, TX and raised four daughters: Linda, Joy, Mary Ann, and Billie Gail, with each one being her favorite. William and Nina were members of Boyd Baptist Church where Nina sang in the choir, taught a Sunday School class, and was active in the church activities. For 26 years Nina was the office nurse for Dr. Walter Sisk. When she and William retired in 1988, they were able to travel and enjoy their grandchildren before his death in 1992 while they were on a trip to France to visit the battlefields where William had been a soldier so many years before. After William died, Nina was married to Theo Garrett until his death in 2004. Her life was devoted to being a loving wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother while also enjoying her passion for reading, writing, genealogy, and singing. Nina was one of the great ladies of that by-gone era, a partaker in the greatest generation known for their strength, determination, sacrifice, and patriotism, and as such, was a woman of immense pride who could do anything she set her mind to do. She was an expert at canning and freezing garden vegetables, sewing, and an amazing cook. While attending Telling Our Stories classes at Austin College she won a contest with her story about coping with hard times, wrote many other stories and an autobiography to share her memories with her family. Even as dementia stole her memory, she could still remember the words to the great old hymns she grew up with and never lost her sweet disposition, sense of humor, or the love for her family and friends. Nina was preceded in death by husbands, William Franklin Marshall and Theo Olen Garrett; her parents, Major and Emily Vansickle; brothers, J. T. Vansickle, Max Vansickle, Julius Vansickle, and Major Johnson Vansickle; and sons-in-law, Preston Anderson and Joe Reiner. As Mom she is loved by Linda and Larry Scott of Sherman, TX, Joy Reiner of San Antonio, TX, Mary Ann and Terry Cody of Bonham, TX, and Billie Gail and Charles Ratcliff of Greenville, TX. As MamMaw she is adored by grandchildren, Lori and Robb McWilliams of Dallas, TX, Dr. Jim Reiner and Paula Levy J.D. of Palo Alto, CA, Jerald Reiner of San Antonio, TX, Dr. Kyle Anderson and Dr. Carrie Cearley of Lubbock, TX, Dr. Kelly Anderson of Kemah, TX, Joshua and Crystal Ratcliff of Greenville, TX, Daniel and Kayla Ratcliff of Fate, TX, Adam Ratcliff of Greenville, TX, Elias and Shannon Ratcliff of Aubrey, TX; great grandchildren, Isaac and Aaron Reiner, Aidan, Avery, and Andrew Reiner, Abigail, Amelia, William, and Winston Anderson, Kaden and Makayla James, Christopher Strickland, Elizabeth and Isabelle Ratcliff, Brooklyn and Charlotte Ratcliff, and Lucy and Henry Ratcliff. To name the rest of her surviving relatives would be tedious and expensive, but there are a bunch of them and they all loved Nina. She is also survived by a large contingent of devoted friends from all walks of life. Nina summed it up best in one of her writings when she wrote: “I have expressed how wonderful my life has been: to be born, to live through childhood and experience all of the periods of marriage, motherhood, grandparent and now being a widow, which from the beginning is God’s plan, and seems to me to be miraculous. I remember often what my father when he was quite old said about how proud he was of all his children and grandchildren. It must be so with most everyone in our universe and so it is with me.” The family invites you to join them in celebrating her life on Saturday, August 27, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. at the First Baptist Church in Bonham, Texas. The family will receive friends from 1:00 2:00 p.m. prior to the service. A private burial will follow the service at Willow Wild Cemetery. The family considers flowers an honorable tribute as are donations. We suggest donations to the Music Ministry at the First Baptist Church, 710 North Center Street, Bonham, TX 75418 or the Willow Wild Cemetery, P. O. Box 159, Bonham, TX 75418. God has her in His arms; we have her in our hearts.