Rachel Isabelle Jacobs of Oklahoma City succumbed to a sudden confluence of multiple organ failures, and died on August 18, 2026, in Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City, surrounded by friends and family that she loved so passionately. It was one of the few battles she had lost in her 81 years.

At Kiowa High School, she was a beauty who excelled at sports and academics, and was voted by the student body as the most popular female student in the school. She distinguished herself as an All-Conference basketball player, and in track and field, after winning multiple Conference Championships in both sprints and broad jumping, she was invited to the U.S. Olympic Trials (which her family finances precluded her from attending). Though diminutive in stature, she made up for it with an unrelenting competitive spirit and with remarkable speed that caused timekeepers to check their stop watches for accuracy.

She graduated from East Central University with a bachelor's degree in education and threw herself into teaching grade schoolers. She coaxed and charmed the best out of them, eliciting from them previously unseen academic achievement while instilling in them a feeling that they were loved just as they were and that there was little they could not master if they set their minds to it and worked at it regularly. At the same time, she frustrated school administrators with her unorthodox methods (and costumes) and her willingness to speak up when she thought things were not as they should be, which was often. Finally, she left the job that she loved (to the relief of the administrators and the remorse of more than a few parents), and worked for the next many years for AT&T, from which she ultimately retired.

Rachel lived the last several years of her life crippled by painful arthritis and endured cancer and multiple follow-on complications that imposed severe limitations on her physical activities. But she refused to allow that to diminish her zest for life or to indulge in self-pity. Somehow, she managed to exude youth. Young people were drawn to her, sensing in her a kindred spirit. She had the great fortune to meet and fall in love with an exceptional man who, like she, saw the possibilities in life, not the obstacles, and he brought her daily joy and adventure. Rachel and Jeff Lancaster for the last seven years of her life continued to travel and have new experiences (from Maine to Barry Manilow concerts) only because of his patient, loving care. She would say that those were the best years of her life.

Rachel formed a deep friendship with her neighbor Martin Lehman, despite their wildly differing political persuasions, and they daily discovered the healing balm of laughing with someone that you respect though you might disagree with. She was a woman of strongly held opinions, almost limitless charity and compassion, deep faith -- and always ready for a party. She took delight in making risqué comments and was without artifice: you either liked her or you didn't. Almost everybody did.

Rachel left behind the two great loves of her life: Jeff and her son, Eric Baumert. Three of her beloved older brothers preceded her in death (Ned, Vic, and Joe), and two brothers remain, Tom and John, one just older than she, one just younger. She is survived by dozens of nephews and nieces, great and great-great nephews and nieces that she loved mightily.

Rachel will be remembered and honored in two services on Saturday, August 29, 2026. The first service will be at 10:00 a.m. at Westlake Presbyterian Church in Bethany, Oklahoma at 2801 N. Rockwell. The second service (and burial) will take place at 3:00 p.m. at the First Baptist Church in Kiowa, Oklahoma.

Instead of flowers, consistent with Rachel's compassionate heart, the family suggests a donation to the food pantry or shelter of your choice.