Vicki Lynn Butler

A Life Fully Lived

Vicki Lynn (Heath) Butler was born December 9, 1946, in Chandler, Oklahoma to parents Leonard and Jeanne (Bailey) Heath. She departed this life on June 5, 2025.

Vicki spent most of her childhood in Chandler, attending Chandler Public Schools until 1962, when the family relocated to Meeker, where she graduated from high school in 1964.

During her years growing up in Chandler, Vicki developed a life-long love for horses. Her grandfather, Art Leffingwell, gave Vicki her first horse and built her a barn and paddock, when she was around twelve years old. As the years flew by, her love for horses grew, eventually leading to a full-time career with her equine friends.

Vicki was a talented dancer, attending classes throughout her childhood.

While attending Meeker High School, she met Gary Smith. They were married in 1964 and welcomed a daughter, Tena Lynn into their lives in July of 1965.

After Vicki and Gary divorced, she moved to Oklahoma City and enrolled in business school, where she excelled in her studies. Following graduation, she put her new skills to good use, beginning in the oil industry, and eventually joining the Oklahoma Secretary of State’s office. She remained there throughout most of the early 1970’s.

It was during this time she met and married attorney Robert “Bob” Butler, in 1975. Soon thereafter, Vicki, Tena and Bob moved to Bob’s hometown of Tulsa. Vicki’s business office skills were again put to good use, and during their early years together she helped manage the law office.

After the law office became successful, the couple bought and moved to a lovely horse ranching facility, north of Tulsa. As a result, during the next thirty years, Vicki flourished. She was doing what she had always loved – raising, breeding, and training her own line of Egyptian thoroughbred horses.

Tragically, Vicki’s only child Tena, passed away in 2005.

To be closer to her family, Vicki returned to Oklahoma City in 2013. For the remainder of her life, she spent her time enjoying retirement, friends, family, and the company of her long-time companion, Jack Still.

Vicki was preceded in death by her parents, Leonard and Jeanne, her grandparents, Bluford and Erda Bailey, Art and Jewell Leffingwell, Alden Heath, her daughter Tena Lynn Smith, and Robert Butler.

She is survived by her siblings, Larry Heath and Holly Crothers and their families, three nieces, and two nephews.