A new chapter in the 80-year love story Jerry L. Bell lived with Mary Ann was opened on June 3, 2018, when Jerry leapt from this earth into the loving arms of Christ, the very place Mary Ann began calling home 18 months earlier. September 30, 1931 marked the starting point for his life, which knew but 5 years unacquainted with Mary Ann, the woman that would one day become his best friend, girlfriend, and bride. Graduation from Oklahoma State University was delayed a few years by his enlistment into the Navy. A career with the former Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., and AT&T would lead to 18 moves across Oklahoma, New York City, and New Jersey. When working in New York in the 1960s the Wall Street Journal wrote a feature article about Jerry and the changes he experienced moving from Oklahoma to one of the largest cities in the world. He retired from a corporate career in his mid-fifties, joining Scope Ministries where he worked as a counselor for another 28 years. There were many challenges for Jerry to overcome growing up. Though some might have chosen to use such challenges as an explanation for why they made life so difficult for others, Jerry found the grace to break the pattern of anger and abuse and passed along a different legacy to his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. He is survived by two sons and daughter-in-laws, Mike and Vanette, and Tim and Lisa, five grandchildren, Jessica Sword and husband Tony, Daniel and wife Whitney, Matthew and wife Christa, David and Pierson, and eight great grandchildren, Samantha, Eli, Addison, Emma, Hudson, Ethan, Harper, and Emberly. His life was simple but extraordinary, revealed through his leadership in youth groups, singles ministries, scout troops, non-profit organizations, and his local church, as well as by work done well, and by friends, family, and strangers loved deeply. The legacy of his life, the treasure he passed to next generations, is his Love for Christ, and his devotion to Mary Ann, two love stories so well written that they break the confines of words on a page and continue on into eternity............. Memorial service will be Saturday, June 9, 11:30am at OKC First Nazarene. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial donations to ONE: Our Neighborhood Empowered at www.oneokc.org Memorial Service Oklahoma City First Nazarene Church Saturday, June 09, 2018 11:30 AM 4400 NW Expressway Oklahoma City, OK 73116