Rebecca Alice Cryer ( Schoemann; October 9, 1946 – September 29, 2020) was an American attorney, tribal officer, and Oklahoma judge who survived the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995.

Early life and education

Born Rebecca Alice Schoemann in

Shawnee, Oklahoma Shawnee ( sac, Shânîheki) is a city in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 29,857 in 2010, a 4.9 percent increase from the figure of 28,692 in 2000. The city is part of the Oklahoma City-Shawnee Combined Statistical ...

, Cryer was a member of the

Citizen Potawatomi Nation Citizen Potawatomi Nation is a federally recognized tribe of Potawatomi people located in Oklahoma. The Potawatomi are traditionally an Algonquian-speaking Eastern Woodlands tribe. They have 29,155 enrolled tribal members, of whom 10,312 live in ...

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

. She was raised in the small town of Wanette, Oklahoma, where she met David Cryer while in high school; they married when she was 18. Due to her husband's military service, they moved frequently for the first several years of their marriage, but then settled in

Norman, Oklahoma Norman () is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,097 as of 2021. It is the largest city and the county seat of Cleveland County, and the second-largest city in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, b ...

. Cryer received her undergraduate degree from the

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

in 1973, followed by a J.D. from the

University of Oklahoma College of Law The University of Oklahoma College of Law is the professional graduate law school of the University of Oklahoma. It is located on the University's campus in Norman, Oklahoma. The College of Law was founded in 1909 by a resolution of the OU Boa ...

in 1977. She passed the bar examination that same year, and served as the Tribal Administrator for the Potawatomi Nation from 1977 to 1978.

Legal and judicial career

Cryer became an Assistant District Attorney for Cleveland and McClain Counties in 1982, and a trial attorney in the Enforcement Division of the Oklahoma Department of Securities in 1989. While working in that position on April 19, 1995, she was in a building across the street from the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on the day of the

Oklahoma City bombing The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorism in the United States, domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, on April 19, 1995. Perpetrated by two anti-federal go ...

. The building she was in was caught in the blast, and Cryer was seriously injured, with cuts requiring 100 stitches and dust inhalation that required her to be re-hospitalized several days after the incident. Due to Cryer's injuries, her husband had to close his caramel corn shop at the Sooner Fashion Mall; he later worked in the clerk's office of the Cleveland County District Court.Leonard Jackson, "No man's land, no more", ''The Daily Oklahoman'' (April 27, 2002), p. 1, 6. In October 2015, Chief

Gary Batton Gary Dale Batton (born December 15, 1966) is a tribal administrator and politician, the current and 47th Chief of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. It is the third-largest federally recognized tribe and second-largest reservation in total area. Bat ...

of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma appointed Cryer Special District Judge of the Choctaw Nation District Court, where Cryer remained until her death.

Death

Cryer contracted

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

in September 2020, during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Oklahoma As of December 22, 2022, Oklahoma has been impacted more by Covid than the average U.S. state. Statistics for the U.S. as a whole are 331 deaths per 100,000 population with 68 percent of the population fully vaccinated. The comparable statistic ...

. Despite this, she continued working on cases from her hospital bed. She died a week before turning 74, and was survived by her husband and their two sons and one daughter. Following her death, flags were flown at

half-staff Half-mast or half-staff (American English) refers to a flag flying below the summit of a ship mast, a pole on land, or a pole on a building. In many countries this is seen as a symbol of respect, mourning, distress, or, in some cases, a salu ...

across the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cryer, Rebecca 1946 births 2020 deaths People from Shawnee, Oklahoma Citizen Potawatomi Nation people University of Oklahoma alumni University of Oklahoma College of Law alumni Native American judges Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Oklahoma 21st-century Native American women 21st-century Native American politicians