Herbetta Bennett "Herbie" Mann
June 6, 1943 - March 12, 2025

She was a full-hearted lover of her life and her children—which she saw as synonymous—and, in the face of painful adversity, a steel-willed fighter for both.

But Tulsa, Okla. native Herbie Mann, who went to Heaven at age 81 in March after bravely battling a lengthy illness arising from a debilitating spine injury, often chose humor and laughter over tears—even cracking up ICU nurses and doctors while enduring and overcoming several critical health challenges over five years. "We all loved your mom and grandma," one ER/ICU physician told her son and 24/7 caregiver, Chris, and grandson Jared Holzer, who also helped care for her in the family's Lompoc home.

Her "kids" were honored to return even a fraction of the lifetime of care, affection, and encouragement their beloved matriarch gave them. This included supporting her daughter, Tisha's, and Chris's childhood interests and lifelong dreams while navigating life as a virtually single parent, and through her sixties helping raise and support Tisha's children, Chelsey and twins Jared and Jason. "Grams" even helped Jared walk again with daily pool therapy after a traumatic injury partially paralyzed him at age 6.

From a young age, Herbie learned to "just keep swimming," laughing, nurturing, loving, working, and sacrificing to help others.

Born Herbetta Bennett Hancock on June 6, 1943, Herbie (as her family and friends called her) began shining her inner light while growing up in Sand Springs, Okla., the daughter of Elmer Bennett Hancock, a World War II U.S. Navy veteran and electrician, and Elizabeth "Bettye" Gill-Hancock, a homemaker and crafter. From her earliest years, Herbie took after her outdoorsman dad, loving to camp, learning to swim and fish at lakes and creeks, and later becoming a lifeguard. All while being a Girl Scout, maintaining mostly straight A's and juggling extracurricular activities at Charles Page High School, and helping care for her beloved younger brother, Scotty.

At age 18, she ventured out to the West Coast to live with her loving Uncle Ken and Aunt Marie and cousin Ann, then zigzagged cross country via train with Ken and Marie to live in Washington, D.C. There, she met and married musician and entrepreneur Garry Hinn. The couple welcomed baby Tisha Rene one year later, in 1963, soon settling in Westport, Conn., and enjoying life on the East Coast. As Herbie would say in her later years, Garry was the right person at the wrong time in her young "Okie" life.

In 1971, Herbie remarried and moved back to Tulsa. The next year, baby Christopher Scott Mann was born. Herbie, Tisha, and Chris spent many of their happiest times together during summers at Grandma Bettye's Airstream trailer at Grand Lake (and camping at Spavinaw and Littlefields at Spring Creek) and at Marie and Ken's Hollywood Hills home.

As a beloved troop leader and band booster, Herbie jovially guided Tisha through her years as a Girl Scout and later a flag girl in Catoosa, Okla's then-award-winning marching high school band. A proud band booster, Herbie traveled with Tisha to many band performances and was known to holler, "That's my kid!" She also enthusiastically attended every band event, childhood sports game, theater production, and talent show Chris participated in—and was she ever proud to hear his tongue-in-cheek high school valedictory speech, which a local journalist likened to a stand-up comedy routine. (Like mother, like son.)

Herbie combined her innate creativity and natural leadership abilities in a number of career fields. In 1976, she and her mom opened their handmade crafts and artsy home goods store The Selective Eye. She later served as a department manager at Hobby Lobby while creating and selling her own seasonal crafts from her home studio. In 1986, she became Social Services Director at a Tulsa-based senior and disabled living facility, but serious injuries from a car wreck and TMJ surgery sidelined her.

After Tisha graduated and left home, it became clear Herbie and Chris were put together to protect and care for each other. The duo traveled often to experience happier horizons. They became "thrifters" before the term was en vogue, and Mom put boundless energy and love into helping Chris collect and sell pop-culture memorabilia in a pre-ebay era. She loved working at Harper's Catoosa Auction during his high school years and likewise enjoyed thrifting (and crafting) with Tisha and the grandkids after relocating them from Ohio to Oklahoma in 1992.

Following Herbie's liberating divorce and Chris's graduation from college, Chris moved to Los Angeles to pursue writing and art direction. A few years later Herbie moved to live with Chris on Venice Beach's boardwalk—she got a kick out of next-door-neighbor Robert Downey Jr. waving to her from his kitchen and was on cloud nine the day Brad Pitt yelled up, "Hey, Baby!" when she called to him from her balcony—only to return to Tulsa to drive Tisha and the grandkids to a new life in Venice with them.

More than anything, Herbie loved and treasured being a mom and grandma—whether socializing on the beach and boardwalk or managing three woodcraft furniture stores and Tulsa's department-size Goodwill Store, overseeing record sales and growth.

Herbie and Chris kept traveling and California dreamin' after moving with their family to Santa Barbara county in 2005. Her favorite destinations: Big Bear, San Francisco, Yosemite, Solvang, Lake Cachuma, Coronado and Catalina islands, Morro Bay, Cambria, Cayucos, Jalama Beach, SLO, Mammoth, Vegas ... and any thrift store. She loved collecting trinket boxes and vintage curios.

In her final years, she, Chris, and Jared enjoyed the simplest things in life. They watched endless movies, classic game shows, and YouTube thrifter and "picker" shows. Her favorite films: Pretty Woman; Dr. Zhivago; old westerns; Salt; any Angelina Jolie, Liam Neeson, Jean Claude Van-Damme, Melissa McCarthy, or Madea movie; Christmas Vacation; and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. She also loved playing and laughing along with The Newlywed Game, Bill Cullen's Price is Right, High Rollers, Card Sharks, The Joker's Wild, Sale of the Century, Name That Tune, Match Game, Treasure Hunt, Shop 'til You Drop, Jeopardy!, Three's Company, and Mom.

And for this golden-aged foodie, nothing beat Lot-a-Burger and Billy Ray's barbecue in Tulsa, Mao's Kitchen in Venice, KFC's coleslaw, her own meatloaf and chicken & dumplings, O'Cairns' fish & chips, Coke Zero, and a bag of her beloved Cheetos Puffs.

She was preceded in transitioning to Heaven by her parents and brother of Tulsa; grandparents Herbert and Marion Gill and uncle Rev. Kenneth and aunt Marie Watson of Hollywood; aunt Becky Shoemaker and cousin Larry Silas of Nevada; uncle Harry and aunt Carol Ekiss of Tulsa; many friends; and her beloved pet dogs, Judy, Poopie, Pelé, Cupcake, Punkin', and Popcorn.

She is survived by her children, Tisha Hinn and Chris Mann of Santa Barbara county; grandsons/"bookends" Jared Holzer of Santa Barbara country and Jason Holzer of Albert Lea, Minn.; granddaughter Chelsey Holzer and great-grandchildren Baron and Daylanti of Lancaster; cousins Ann Owen and Annette Silas of Wadsworth, Nevada; and her chiweenie baby, Peewee Mann.

A tulip-filled "Sea of Love" celebration of life for this beloved Momma and life of the party is being planned for a future date, likely in Oklahoma. Herbie lives on in spirit and in the hearts of her children and grandchildren, who love and miss her profoundly.