Requiem Mass for Miss Minnie Slief, pioneer Cheyenne business woman, will be held Thursday at 7:30 a.m. in the Cheyenne Catholic Church and rosary will be at 7:30 tonight in the Scroggins Funeral Chapel with Father Mike Hughes of Sayre officiating.
Miss Minnie, as she was affectionately known to most Cheyenne residents, was born September 27, 1888 in Caldwell, Kansas(Summer County) as Wilhelmina Regina Slief, daughter of Anton John and Anna Joan (Elsenrath) Slief. She came to Cheyenne 55 years ago from Kingfisher County and was the owner and operator of the Slief-Vaughan Abstract Company.
The residents of Cheyenne commemorated her service to the community by holding a “Miss Minnie Day” on April 6, 1963.
When the Constitutional Convention divided Roger Mills County and created Beckham County, Miss Slief accepted employment transcribing the official county records. Afterwards, she accepted a position with the Miller-Cornel Abstract Company and later purchased an interest in the firm. In 1921 the company name was changed to Slief-Vaughan.
Miss Minnie’s father, who was born in Didham, Holland, became a naturalized citizen in 1883 at the age of twenty-five and made the Land Run on April 22, 1889 having come to Buffalo Springs near Hennessey in Kingfisher County and homesteaded four and one-half miles southeast of what would become Dover, Oklahoma, being the first wagon to unload there. After Miss Minnie graduated from the common schools, she attended the Guthrie Business College. After graduating in 1907, she served as stenographer for the Constitutional Convention in Guthrie.
She was elected the first vice chairman of the Democratic Central Committee of Roger Mills County in 1919 and was an active member and past president of the American Legion Auxiliary of Cheyenne. She was also a member of the Platonic Club.
In 1948, Miss Minnie received the Papal Medal “Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice,” one of the highest honors that can be bestowed upon one of the Catholic faith.
Survivors include: two sisters, Miss Golda Slief and Mrs. Marie Vaughan, both of Oklahoma City; and two brothers, Floyd of Oklahoma City and A.W. (Bill) of Haviland, Kansas.
Burial will be at the Kingfisher Cemetery under the direction of Scroggins and Son Funeral Home, Cheyenne, Oklahoma.
Elk City Daily News, July 18, 1963