Fredericka L. Mehojah

Fredericka L. Mehojah passed away peacefully on July 26, 2022. She was ninety-nine years old. She was born in Afton, Oklahoma to Mr. Carl Velton Gray and Frances Fluke Gray and was preceded in death by her husband, William A. Mehojah, Sr. and her twin brother, Velton Gray, Jr., previously of Miami, Oklahoma. Fredericka attended schools in Afton, Oklahoma as well as Haskell Institute, now Haskell Indian Nations University, in Lawrence, Kansas.

She was married in 1943 in Tulsa, Oklahoma after which her husband who was in the Army during World War II left to go overseas. Upon his return from Europe, they had three children, Sandra G. Mehojah of Omaha, Nebraska; William A. Mehojah, Jr. of Rio Rancho, New Mexico; and Fredericka J. Joseph of Hanover, Maryland. Her husband, the last pure blood of the Kanza (Kaw) tribe, worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and as a result the family lived in Montana, South and North Dakota, Idaho, and Arizona. They moved to Omaha in 1998.

Mrs. Mehojah was a wife, mother, and homemaker, although she worked for several years as a secretary and for several financial institutions. She was a loving and supportive mother, a woman of faith, and a proud grandmother and great-grandmother. She actively attended Eagles Nest Worship Center until her health no longer permitted it. She loved to maintain her home, provided family dinners, supported her family by remembering family birthdates and anniversaries, and filled her home with warmth. She was a kind and thoughtful person. Fredericka was a member of the Cherokee Tribe of Oklahoma and was proud of her Native American heritage.

She is survived by her three children as well as two brothers, James Gray of Grove, Oklahoma, and John Gray of Desloge, Missouri. She had seven grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren.