NORMAN — Georgia Lou Venk, 88, passed away Tuesday, June 19, 2012 in Norman.
A memorial service for Georgia will be at 4 p.m. Saturday, June 23, at the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship in Norman.
Georgia was born June 2, 1924, in Tulsa to George Vincent Dunn and Mary Ruby Carr. Georgia graduated from Tulsa Central High School. She then entered Tulsa University where she was a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority, Lantern Honor Society, and in her senior year, was president of Kappa Delta Phi, a national honorary education society. She graduated in 1945 with a double major in botany and elementary education.
She married Ralph Venk on July 13, 1947, in Oklahoma City at the First Unitarian Church. She moved with her husband to Michigan where she taught elementary school while he attended dental school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. After Ralph graduated they moved to Oklahoma City where he established his practice. Georgia and Ralph raised their three children in Oklahoma City. She taught elementary school for many years and later, with Ralph, opened the first photographic gallery in Oklahoma, Concepts in Photography.
Georgia and Ralph shared a passion for photography and were members together of the Oklahoma Camera Club, as well as the Photographic Society of America. She served as the first woman president of the Oklahoma Camera Club, and was awarded the FPSA (fellow) in 1992 for outstanding contribution to the advancement of photography, and for her devoted service to the Photographic Society of America.
Georgia also had a lifelong interest in botany, and loved caring for a greenhouse and gardens at their home in Oklahoma City.
After retirement she and her husband traveled the United States with a motor home, jeep and cameras, and they shared many wonderful adventures together.
In 1995 she and Ralph moved to Norman to be nearer to their grandchildren. They happily involved themselves with the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History as volunteers for many years.
She is survived by her loving husband, Ralph Earle Venk; three children, Virginia Susan Venk, Randall Earnest Venk and his wife Suzanne, Ronald Rexford Venk; three grandchildren, Ryan, Justin, and Emily; two great-grandchildren, Hayes and Halle; and her brother, George Vincent Dunn.
Norman Transcript, Friday, June 22, 2012
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