Rebecca Ann ‘Becky’ Mayo, 1941-2021

Apr 1, 2021

Rebecca Ann ‘Becky’ Mayo, who was active in many phases of the Sequoyah County Times newspaper operation, died Jan. 14, 2021. She was 79.

Mayo was born Dec. 30, 1941, in Muskogee, Oklahoma. She attended Lindenwood College in Missouri for a year before transferring to the University of Oklahoma, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in home economics in 1964. She taught school in California before moving to Sallisaw in 1967.

Since the 1970s, Mayo was active at the Sequoyah County Times serving as educational services and business manager before her retirement in 2016. She was part owner of Cookson Hills Publishers Inc.

In 2003, she was inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame. In 2002, she was co-winner, along with her husband, Jim, of the Oklahoma Newspaper Foundation’s Beachy Musselman Award for outstanding contributions to newspaper journalism. In 1992, Becky Mayo pioneered a comprehensive Newspaper in Education (NIE) program for the Sequoyah County Times and other small newspapers to provide newspapers, tours and youth career counseling to students. She was the first chairperson of the Oklahoma Newspaper Foundation committee on NIE.

She was active in many civic organizations and clubs and served as a Sunday school teacher, a den leader for Cub Scouts, as well as a district leader for Boy Scouts of America.

Mayo is survived by her two sons, John Robert (Jack) Mayo and wife, Jennifer of Duvall, Washington, and Jeffrey William Mayo and wife, Beth, of Sallisaw; brother, Bob Boen of San Carlos, Calif.; six grandchildren, Gretchen Kate Mayo, Jacob Wheeler Mayo, Zachary John Mayo and Harrison Walker Carmel Mayo, all of Duvall, and Madolyn Rose Mayo and Maddox William Mayo of Sallisaw.