As she slept on the evening of May 23, 2016, Loraine Oakes was welcomed into the arms of her Savior, Jesus Christ. There to help greet her was her husband Ted Oakes who died ten and a half years before. At his death they had been married just six months short of 60 years. She just missed being 94 years old. Also there to welcome her was an infant daughter, Cynthia, her parents, Max and Mary Lorenz, her brother, Max and his wife Janie, and other close friends and relatives.

Surviving Loraine are two sons, Randy (Brenda) and Gary Oakes, grandchildren Kelly (Emily) Oakes and Krista (fiancée Andrew) Oakes, Andrea Bayadsy and Robert Oakes, Erin (Matt) White, and Justin (Claire) Baetge, and seven beautiful great grandchildren, Grady, Coy and Lane White, Elise, Will and Evan Baetge, and Dimitri Bayadsy.

She was born in San Antonio in 1922 and spoke German before learning English.  She graduated from Harlandale High School in 1940. She married Ted in 1946. The two moved to New Braunfels in 1950. They bought property in Blanco in 1966 and moved there in 1968. She made very close friends wherever she went. She was the bookkeeper for Cox Paving where she was made to feel like part of the family. She deeply loved her church. She was a very soft spoken lady, but yet was elected to vice president of the Women's Society of Christian Service for the Southwestern Conference of the Methodist Church in the 1960's. She loved her family and showed it by cooking wonderful meals, while not being hesitant to spank her boys if they did wrong.

Honorary pallbearers are Reverend Clyde Chestnutt, Harold and Florine Lord, Willie Olfers, Jane Reinarz,  Alvin Kutzer, Jim Harris, Becky and Danny McHugh, Maxine Crow, James Scoggins, Carlos Garcia, Garry Thomas, Ken and Barbara Luckett, the Cox Family, the Gloor family, the Blanco United Methodist Church, the Blanco Bowling Club (especially the Bubba Table and John Sadosky) and the wonderful staff at the Live Oak Nursing Home and Hill Country Memorial Hospice.

She will be greatly missed. She is at peace and surrounded by love.

Visitation will be at Crofts-Crow Funeral Home on Friday, May 27, 2016 from 4:00-6:00 pm. Funeral services will be held at the Blanco United Methodist Church, 61 Pecan St., Blanco, TX 78606 at 1:00 pm on Saturday, May 28,2016 with the Reverend Carlos Cloyd officiating.  In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Blanco United Methodist Church. Loraine will be laid to rest beside her beloved husband in a private ceremony at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas.