Cimarron - Vesta Carlene Wendel, 89, died March 3, 2024 at The Shepherd's Center in Cimarron. She was born on May 29, 1934 at Copeland, Kansas the daughter of Melvin and Myrl (Stebbins) Frazier.

Carlene attended all 12 years of school in Ingalls and took some outreach courses at Garden City and Dodge City Junior Colleges, and U.S. Postal courses in Lawrence and Manhattan, Kansas and Chicago, Illinois, and was a regional Postal Counselor for the Wichita, Kansas Postal Division for four years. When she was 13 years old she accepted Christ as her savior, and attended the Ingalls Federated Church in Kansas until 1989. In 2005 Carlene joined the Immanuel Baptist Church of Sallisaw and gained a very loving church family.

On March 17, 1954 she and Donald M. Wendel were united in Marriage and to that union were born two children, a daughter, Candice Elaine, and a son Travis Frazier Wendel. Carlene and Donald farmed southwest of Dodge City, near Ingalls for 12 years, working side by side. In 1964 Carlene was employed as a postal clerk, then was sworn in as the Ingalls Postmaster in 1966, retiring from that career in 1989. Carlene and her husband both loved to fly and they both had private pilot licenses. They also loved to ride motorcycles and go boating and fishing. She and Donald moved to Sallisaw, Oklahoma in 1989. She took a job with the Sequoyah Memorial Hospital as an E.R. Clerk, Switchboard operator, and then as home health billing clerk and clerical office manager until retiring from there. A year later she went to work for Emberton Home Health as a billing clerk. Carlene loved her home and family very much, very much. She loved her God and later in life made him the center of her life.

She is survived by her son Travis Wendel and wife Dawn of Cimarron; two Grandchildren Cody Wendel and Lindsay "Linnie" Wendel; son-in-law Shane Heckenlively and one sister Betty Meador and several nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her husband Donald of 47 years; daughter Candice Heckenlively; parents Melvin and Myrl Frazier and two sisters Deloris Frazier and Crystal Denton.

Funeral service will be held at Ingalls Community Church on Saturday March 9, 2024 at 11:00 AM with Mr. David  Johnson presiding. Burial will be on Monday, March 11, 2024 at 11:00 AM at the Brent Cemetery in Sallisaw, Oklahoma. Visitation will be at Swaim Funeral Chapel in Cimarron on Friday, March 8, 2024 from 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Memorials are suggested to Gideon's Bible Fund or Ford County Humane Society in care of the funeral home. Thoughts and memories may be shared in the online guest book at www.swaimfuneralhome.com.