Jeffrey Alan Markley, age 56 years, most recently of Kiefer, Oklahoma, passed away on June 7, 2017 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Born Jeffrey Alan Markley, January 18, 1961 at the Tulsa Osteopathic Hospital, now OSU Medical Center in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma to parents Sarah Ann (Powell) Markley Secrist and James Hilton Markley. He grew up in the Tulsa area and attended Sapulpa Schools and graduated from Jenks High School in 1979. He attended Tulsa Junior College before transferring his college career to Park College in Parkville, Missouri. Mr. Markley received his undergraduate degree in 1986 with honors graduating Magna Cum Laude. He received his MFA with emphasis is Design and Technology for the Theater; a three-year terminal degree program, in 1989 at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. Of 22 students enrolling in the program initially, Mr. Markley was one of 3 to receive the degree and the only one to choose teaching. Mr. Markleys third year of graduate school was as an intern for the Missouri Repertory Theater, a national theater company with LORT standing. He graduated Cum Laude. He married Karen Kelley Greene in 1986. The couple moved to Americus, Georgia in 1989 and Mr. Markley began his first faculty position as Technical Director and Adjunct Instructor at Georgia Southwestern College and remained there until funding was pulled for the position. In 1991 Jeffrey accepted a temporary appointment as interim-chair of the theater program at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, while the chair of the program took sabbatical to obtain her MFA degree. Arts funding dwindling across the country, their next employment was at the University of Missouri at Rolla Missouri who was expanding their liberal arts program. Mr. Markley served as Managing Director of the Leach Theater located in Castleman Hall. There Mr. Markley was chief coordinator of the Campus Performing Arts Series, the Family Series and Leach Special Events as well as a full calendar of other events and touring companies. Between Nashville and Rolla, the couple gave birth to their first child in 1994, a daughter they named Hannah Lucille, after both fraternal and maternal grandmothers. In Rolla, the couple welcomed their second child in 1998, a son, they named James Isaac after his father. At just three months of age, Isaac, as he was called, was viciously and callously murdered. After a lengthy trial and so devastated by their loss, Mr. Markley resigned his position and the family returned to Mr. Markleys home town of Sapulpa, Oklahoma where Mr. Markley hoped to find rejuvenation in the arms of his extended family and friends for much needed emotional support. Mr. Markley eventually found employment in his field at Tulsa Community College as the theater departments set designer and carpenter. Later his vast knowledge of theatre would lead him to sound design for the Van Trease Preforming Arts Center for Education. He would become the departments first instructor for sound design, recording and sound reinforcement as the P.A.C.E. opened its first sound recording studio. He was also welcomed as P.A.C.E. staff and the house sound technician for the Tulsa Signature Symphony and all local and national events to the P.A.C.E venue. Over his sixteen years with TCC, Mr. Markley has worked with numerous national and international recording artists. He has worked with artists from David Gates, Danny Glover, and the Manhattan Transfer to Tulsas own Sam Harris. His most recent accomplishment was doing the live sound recording for Kristen Chenoweth's PBS nationally broadcasts special that ushered the opening of her theater in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. He loved his wife and daughter dearly and told them so, often. His greatest love, after family was his students throughout the years and his complete avocation to teaching. He Loved baseball, His team was the K.C. Royals. He had a passion for Sooner football, making his wife agree to memorize the school fight song before hed marry her, they joked. He loved to travel, great literature, fishing, the outdoors, canoeing, antique collecting and selling. He loved domestic pets and animals and he fostered many strays over the years with his wife. And he wanted it said, he loved women. They were a wonderful, beautiful part of his world. His greatest achievements in and his life-long love and passion were language and the humanities. He stressed clear communication and a willingness to compromise and he and his wife credit that to their brief 32 years of marriage. He is survived by his wife, Karen Kelley (Greene) Markley; his daughter, Hannah Lucille (Markley) McNee his; grandson, James Alexander McNeelis. His parents, Mother, Saran Ann (Powell) Markley Secrist and her family; his Father, James Hilton Markley and his family; and one brother, Raymond Paul Markley and his family. He is predeceased by his only son, James Isaac Markley and both his maternal and paternal grandparents. There will be two Memorial Celebration Services held for Jeffrey. A casual gathering from 3-6 pm will be held at the McDonough Home at 503 Main sr., Parkville, Missouri, 64152 on July 22nd with music, mingling and memories. The second service is set for Tulsa and will be held at the Van Trease Performing Arts Center for Education on the Southeast Campus of the Tulsa Community College on August 4, at 4:00 pm. There will be light refreshments and a remembrance gathering in the little theater after the service. These are simply the facts and do not do justice to the incredible humanitarian and intellect that is lost and was Jeffrey Alan Markley. Service: 08/04/2017 00:00 4:00 PM Van Trease Performing Arts Center for Education Southeast Campus of the Tulsa Community College