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<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nCressa Phillene Daum, 86, of Tulsa, Oklahoma passed away on August 17, 2025. She was also known as Kay Riffe and by her stage name Sunny McVale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cressa was born to Ava Irene Wilson and Rolland Daum in a Depression-era work camp in Houston, Texas, on February 28, 1939. She was a dreamer, a hopeless romantic, a singer-songwrter, a storyteller, and a woman of exquisite beauty, compassion and down home values. To know her was to witness a life lived on her own terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of her earliest memories was hammering tin cans to support the war effort in the 1940s. As an only child to a single mother, Cressa enjoyed spending her time reading books. As a teenager in Portland, Oregon, she and her mother earned money by picking strawberries. At age 17, after attending secretarial school, she lied about her age and said she was 18, and that\u2019s how she got her job at Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix, Arizona, where she stood shoulder to shoulder with top gun fighter pilots, including the legendary Tuskegee Airmen. In courtrooms, she worked alongside judges as a legal secretary and paralegal. But her real passion was writing and singing country songs. In bars and honky-tonks, she sang her heart out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1959, she relocated to Los Angeles, where she met and later married John Mortimer Riffe, the love of her life. Together, they had two children, Jennifer Kay Riffe (known today as Jessica Tudzin) and John Wilson Riffe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1991, she moved to Tulsa to be closer to her son who was attending Rhema Bible College, training for the ministry. With tenacity, thrift, and an eye for opportunity, she purchased a duplex near downtown Tulsa that needed a lot work. A $10 deposit was all it took to get started. She spent her time painting, repairing, and upgrading, making frequent visits to her neighborhood Home Depot. She then set out to purchase more properties in need of loving care as they became available in her neighborhood. From there, she bloomed a wild and wonderful chapter full of hard work, tenants, mishaps, triumphs, and plenty of stories. She did all this while working as a legal secretary at Hall Estill in downtown Tulsa, while learning once again to drive a car after decades without.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2000, she enjoyed working as a crossing guard at Monte Cassino Catholic Elementary School, where the children often brought her cards and small gifts each holiday. Her hobbies included singing karaoke, watching classic movies, and studying her family genealogy, where she discovered a passion for British, Scottish, and Irish history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her expression of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ grew more earnest and frequent over her many, later years arriving at its fullest and purest voluntary profession of trust and love for Jesus Christ in her second to last night, around 4 AM, alone with her son John, (who is among the strictest), whom she fully satisfied, filling him with joy that prevented sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cressa is survived by her daughter, Jessica Tudzin; her son-in-law, Allan Tudzin; son, John Riffe; daughter-in-law, Viena Mae; and grandchildren, Solomon and Twila. She is preceded in death by her parents; her mother-in-law, Eva May Mortimer Riffe; her lifelong best friend, Patricia Anne Lindeman; dear friend Vivian Rogers; and her soul-dog, Willie, whom she absolutely adored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was laid to rest under a mature oak tree on August 20, 2025, at Rolling Oaks Memorial Gardens in Jenks, Oklahoma, across the street from the Elementary and Middle schools there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dear friends, now we are God\u2019s children. What we will be isn\u2019t completely clear yet. We do know that when Christ appears to us we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is. ~1John 3:2<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cressa February 28, 1939 \u2014 August 17, 2025 Cressa Phillene Daum, 86, of Tulsa, Oklahoma passed away on August 17, 2025. She was also known as Kay Riffe and by her stage name Sunny McVale. Cressa was born to Ava Irene Wilson and Rolland Daum in a Depression-era work camp in Houston, Texas, on February… Continue reading Bio<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cressa.music\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cressa.music\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cressa.music\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cressa.music\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cressa.music\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=310"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/cressa.music\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":418,"href":"https:\/\/cressa.music\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions\/418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cressa.music\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cressa.music\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cressa.music\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}