Preston Mackey
Preston Mackey, 92, Chatsworth, Calif., formerly of Bolivar, died Wednesday, May 19, 1999, in his home. Survivors include his wife, Stella; two children, Jeri Grabb and Larry Whitehouse; two grandchildren and one great-grandchild. He was preceded in death by his parents; a brother, Boyd Mackey, and a sister, Cora Perryman; and his first wife, Iola. The body was cremated. Memorial services will be at a later date.
Wayne Matthews
Wayne Matthews, 48, High Ridge, died Monday, May 3, 1999, in St. Joseph Hospital, Kirkwood, following a sudden illness. He was born April 23, 1951, in Bolivar to Henry F. and Gladys L. Mathis Matthews. He was of the Assembly of God faith. He was employed by Chrysler Corporation, building Dodge trucks. Survivors include his wife, Beverly, of the home; a son and daughter-in-law, Robert Wayne and Christy Matthews of Fort Leonard Wood; two stepsons and daughters-in-law, Stacey Allen and Jennifer Sikes of Climax Springs and Jason Eugene and Robyn Sikes of Bolivar; three daughters and sons-in-law, Valerie Marie Cotter-Falcon and her husband, Randy, of Springfield, Malinda Sue and Dr. Brian Hackelman of Pleasant Hill and Jessica Matthews of Pleasant Hope; three brothers, Ray Hooper, state of Texas, Kenny Hooper of St. Louis and Jerry Matthews, state of Florida; three sisters, Ardena Stokes and Mary Coursey, both of Springfield, and Dixie Moucheron of Pittsburg; three grandchildren, Chante Falcon of Springfield, Brianna Sikes of Bolivar and Casey Sikes of Forest, Ark.; parents-in-law Lige and Joyce Williams of Bolivar and Jim and Betty Hall of Morrisville; brothers- and sisters-in-law Hollis and Denise Hall and Danny and Trish Hall, all of Bolivar; as well as numerous nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. Services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 8, in Pitts Chapel with the Rev. Lyle Shullis officiating. Burial will follow in Rondo Cemetery. Visitation hours will be announced by Pitts Chapel.
Olen W. Mundy
Olen W. Mundy, 78, Brighton, died Monday morning, May 10, 1999, after a short illness. He was born in Buford, Ga., on March 30, 1921, the son of William A. and Jodelia Magness Mundy. He was reared and attended school in the Buford, Ga., area. On March 22, 1944, he was united in marriage to Ella Marie Cross, who preceded him in death in 1995. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in the 101st Airborne Division during WWII as a paratrooper and medical corpsman. Following his discharge in 1945, he joined the U.S. Air Force and served as a medical technician and hospital administrator, both in Europe and the U.S., until his retirement in 1961 as a chief master sergeant. Upon retirement from military service, he began farming at Brighton. He was employed with Coffey and Rhodes Plumbing at Morrisville and the Bolivar Lumber Company. In later years he was a carpenter and did custom mowing and hay baling in Polk County. He was a member of the Grand Lodge No. 467, A.F. & A.M., in Pleasant Hope, Joplin Valley Scottish Rite of Freemasonry and American Legion Post No. 138. Survivors include a son, James W. Mundy, Pleasant Hope; two daughters and a son-in-law, Barbara and Sam Stephens of Bolivar and Dorothy Pace of Jefferson City; four sisters and two brothers-in-law, Christine Ridgeway, Lorene and Lennie Roebuck, Willie and Herbert Hosch and Audrey Dalton, all of the state of Georgia; five grandchildren and their spouses, Kathryn and Capt. Mark Brady of Fort Riley, Kan., Sam and Barbara Stephens of Brighton, Angelique and Brian Foster of Seminole, Fla., William A. Mundy of Pleasant Hope and Bobby Stephens of Springfield; and three great-grandchildren, Derrik and Gabrielle Stephens and Shelby Mundy. Graveside services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, May 13, in Brighton Cemetery. Military honor guard will be the 509th Bomb Wing from Whiteman Air Force Base. Arrangements are under the direction of Pitts Chapel. Friends may call at their convenience at the funeral home.
Jason and Robert Murphey
Jason Lei Murphey II and Robert Dale Murphey died Saturday, May 22, 1999, in their home as a result of an accidental fire. Jason was 3 years, 8 months and 10 days old and Robert was 1 year, 2 months and 14 days old. Jason was born Sept. 12, 1995, and Robert was born March 8, 1998. They were the sons of Jason and Billie Murphey. They are survived by their parents, Jason and Billie Murphey of Bolivar; grandparents Ronnie and Karen Murphey of Bolivar and Bob Altic and Tammy Burks of Brighton; a great-grandmother, Hazel Walker of Urbana, and a great-grandfather, Robert Altic of Brighton. A host of other relatives and friends also mourn their passing. Graveside services were Tuesday, May 25, in Slagle Cemetery with Pastor Terry Caldwell officiating. Casketbearers were Michael Murphey, Patrick Murphey, Andy Altic and James Dilday. Arrangements were under the direction of Butler Funeral Home.
Anna Marie Pierce
Anna Marie Pierce, 90, Brighton, formerly of Bolivar, died Wednesday, May 12, 1999, at her daughter's home following a long illness. She was born Oct. 12, 1908, in Thayer to Edward and Anna Marie Varone Bauer. She was united in marriage to James O. (J.O.) Pierce, who preceded her in death. She was a homemaker. Survivors include two sons, John Robert Pierce of Houston, Texas, and Joseph Glen Pierce of Strousberg, Ill.; four daughters, Betty DeArman of Brighton, Jacqueline Watson of Overland Park, Kan., Adele Tallman of Kansas City, Kan., and Patsy Beatty of Springfield; a brother, Alex Bauer, and a sister, Emma Woolridge, both of Tulsa, Okla.; 26 grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and six great-great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; a daughter, Virginia; a granddaughter, Linda; two brothers and one sister. Graveside services were Saturday, May 15, in Thayer City Cemetery, Thayer, with the Rev. Paul Coltharp officiating. Arrangements were under the direction of Pitts Chapel.
William E. Rader
William E. Rader, 80, Hemet, Calif., formerly of Bolivar, died Tuesday, May 5, in Hemet, Calif. Arrangements are pending and will be announced by Pitts Chapel.
Helen M. Reed
Helen M. Reed, 87, Bolivar, died at 1:23 p.m. Sunday, May 30, 1999, in Cox Medical Center South following a sudden illness. She was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 14, 1912. She married Darrel Reed in 1934 and they lived in Des Moines until 1974, at which time they moved to Bolivar. Darrel passed away in 1977. She had lived alone in their Bolivar home, enjoying good health and being active and alert until her sudden death. Helen graduated from East High in Des Moines and worked for many years in accounting and secretarial jobs. Her last position was with the Des Moines school district, from which she retired in 1974. She loved to travel and took many trips over the years in the West, especially through the Rocky Mountains. She was also active in her church and was a regular bowler in the Seniors League up until her death. Most of all, Helen loved spending time with her family. Her two sons, their wives and her four grandchildren were the delight of her life. She enjoyed a special relationship with Oral and Francis Yancy of Stockton and Jim and Glenda Yancy of Wichita, Kan. Helen will be greatly missed. She is survived by her two sons and daughters-in-law, Darrel Jr. and wife Patty of Ketchum, Idaho, and Jim and wife Terri of Des Moines, Iowa; and four grandchildren, David, Heather, Greg and Jennifer. Services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, June 3, at the Church of the Nazarene with Pastor Rod Campbell officiating. Burial will be in Hillcrest Cemetery, Mountain Grove. Arrangements are under the direction of Pitts Chapel. Visitation will be open all day today (Wednesday) in the funeral home with formal visitation this evening from 7 to 8 p.m. Memorial contributions may be made to the Church of the Nazarene or the American Heart Association.
Marcine D. Reed
Anita Marcine Davison Reed, 77, Bolivar, died at 9:25 a.m. Thursday, May 20, 1999, at Citizens Memorial Hospital's Parkview Health Care Facility, of complications from pneumonia. Marcine was born March 1, 1922, in Half Way, the daughter of Melvin McGurman and Eunice May Standley Davison. Her parents and elder sister, Karleen Richner of Bolivar, preceded her in death. As a child she attended Half Way Baptist Church and Mt. Olive, living in Polk County until her marriage in Bolivar on Aug. 21, 1940, to David Wooderson Reed. David was a member of the Christian Church and the youngest son of Arthur Clyde and Dixie Wooderson Reed of Bolivar and San Antonio, Texas. Marcine and David have three children: Bettyann, Susan and David Alan ("D.A.") Reed. Marcine was intensely interested in every person whose life touched hers. She had an enormous zest for and an insatiable curiosity about life. She loved the outdoors and vividly remembered climbing trees as a girl, looking at the horizon and longing to know what was "out there." She was able to fulfill these dreams by traveling to all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries with David during their nearly-59-year marriage. Marcine was elected president of her senior class at Bolivar High School, was the founding editor of BHS's first newspaper, Tiger Tracks, and was a soloist in the BHS Glee Club and Chorus. When David earned his doctoral degree at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1948, he accepted a position with the English department of the University of California, Berkeley. During the family's cross-country move, they were visiting in Bolivar at the time of the first Simón Bolívar celebration on July 5, 1948, an especially meaningful festival for Marcine, since they had previously lived in Latin America for nearly two years. Marcine and David chose St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Albany, Calif., as the family's place of worship. Marcine was contralto soloist in the Senior Choir, directed the Junior Choir and sang on the church's monthly radio program. In 1951, after three years of formal training, she gave a public concert. She was invited to audition for the San Francisco Opera chorus, but felt she must decline this honor because of family responsibilities. As a homemaker she was an unusually inventive and adventurous cook and a highly accomplished seamstress and tailor. Her family honors Marcine's special personal symbols, the red rose and the cardinal, or redbird. Marcine developed exceptional volunteer skills, organizing several successful fund-raising events for her church. For many years she was the volunteer librarian at her children's elementary school. Later, she accepted the paid position of assistant manager of the children's department at Sather Gate Book Shop in Berkeley, Calif., where she worked for five happy and enriching years. In 1970, Marcine and David moved to Evanston, Ill., where David had accepted the chairmanship of Northwestern University's Linguistics Department. There they joined St. Mark's Episcopal Church; Marcine joined the University Women and the Episcopal Church Women groups. Marcine became a trained volunteer for Evanston Hospital's "Care Corps" and for years was on 24-hour call to calm, soothe and listen to frightened, often terminally ill, patients. She voluntarily extended her role to that of patient advocate, a pioneering concept then, and provided loving intercession between patients and the medical community, helping to create a more humane quality in her patients' care plans. She joined the Evanston Mental Health Association and the Nursing Home Association to help follow her Care Corps patients' progress after they left the hospital. Soon Marcine became Director of the Care Corps and trained other volunteers. She delivered a paper entitled "Maintaining the Patient's Human Dignity" at the Human Rights Workshop of the Illinois Nurses' Association's annual meeting in May 1975. In 1976 she was named "Volunteer of the Year" by the Evanston Mental Health Association, and she received a service commendation from the Nursing Home Association. On her retirement from Care Corps in 1986, Evanston Hospital honored Marcine with a going-away tea, the first time the hospital had ever extended such an honor to a volunteer. Marcine was an avid reader, and she attended classes at the University of Missouri (Columbia), University of California (Berkeley) and DePaul University's School for New Learning (Chicago). She wrote several papers on the topic of volunteerism, one notably titled, "Them As Gives, Gets!" (December 1977). In Bolivar, she became the second president of the Polk County Library chapter of Friends of the Library and coordinated bringing a Chautauqua to the Bolivar community in 1991, under the sponsorship of the Missouri Humanities Council. In 1997, Marcine organized the return visit to Bolivar of two outstanding authors (also through the MHC), to lecture on The Role of Women in the Westward Movement. Marcine and David helped found St. Alban's in the Ozarks Episcopal Church in Bolivar. In the February 1998 church newsletter, Marcine said, "My...affiliation with St. Alban's in the Ozarks has been one of immense wonder and gratification, watching it grow...and it has been an honor to serve it in any way I can. Such a diversity of people-there is great strength in that! I give thanks daily for our good fortune, and I will continue to try to be worthy of God's many blessings in the very full and happy life I've had....I have said, since childhood, 'I want to live to be 100 and turn to whetrock!' Now, God hasn't told me yet whether or not He agrees with my game plan, but since He's in charge, He'll make the call. And I accept that. Meanwhile, I will continue to give thanks for every day that is mine, and to live as joyously as I know how. And by the way, I'm still a kid at heart, too: I climbed a tree last June 10th! I like to think God smiled when, at age 75, I proved I could still do that!" Marcine is survived by her husband, David W. Reed of Bolivar, and by their children, Bettyann Reed of Bolivar, Susan Reed of Portland, Maine, and D.A. Reed of Oakland, Calif. She is also survived by six grandchildren: Rachel Reed Dushoff Hess of North Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Anita Marcine Reed of Bolivar; David Charles Bird of Euless, Texas; Jennifer Diane Reed of San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Michael Wise Reed and Alexander David Reed of Oakland, Calif.; two great-granddaughters, Sarah Marcine Reed and Mariah Nicole Reed of Bolivar; one sister, Mary Vevelle D. Lodge of Muskogee, Okla.; one brother, Jack Davison of New York, N.Y.; one brother-in-law, Ralph Richner of Bolivar; and numerous other relatives and friends. Marcine Reed never met a stranger. A Celebration of the Holy Eucharist and Burial of the Dead was conducted by Father John West of St. Alban's in the Ozarks on Monday, May 24, at Butler Funeral Home. Sage, Jennie, Anita and D.A. Reed did lay readings of scriptural passages; Bettyann, Susan and D.A. Reed read poetry selections. Music was provided by Jack Davison's early recording of The Lord's Prayer; and by Kathy Brown, St. Alban's organist, including the final hymn, "The Strife is O'er." Marcine's white burial robe with appliqued red roses was handmade by Bettyann Reed. Pallbearers were D.A. Reed, David Bird, Rod Hooper, Robert Richner, John McGaughey and Raymond Robertson. Honorary pallbearers were Ralph Richner, Charles Neuhart, Howard Bassett and Dennis Watkins. Interment was at Greenwood Cemetery, where Brahms' Lullabye was played to close the brief graveside ceremony. Donations to the Polk County Library Building Campaign, earmarked for the Marcine D. Reed Memorial Children's Book Fund, would be gratefully appreciated as an ongoing honor to Marcine's lifelong devotion to children, books and reading.
George R. Samek
George Raymond Samek, 43, Bolivar, died Monday, May 10, 1999, in his home. He was born Aug. 30, 1955, to Frank C. and Vera Pauline Jones Samek. He graduated from Bolivar High School with the class of 1973. He was a farmer and of the Catholic faith. Survivors include a daughter, Jayme Samek of Bolivar; a son, Eric Samek of San Diego, Calif.; a granddaughter, Taylor Samek of Bolivar; four brothers, Charles Samek of New York, N.Y., Frank J. Samek and his wife, Sandra, of Bolivar, James E. Samek and his wife, Patsy, of Springfield, and Michael Samek and his wife, Tamara, of Bolivar; five sisters, Frances Mowles and her husband, Dan, of Springfield, Martha Wolf and her husband, Danny, of Bolivar, Mary Wakefield and her husband, Bruce, of Aldrich, Barbara Miller and her husband, Jim, of Springfield, and Jeanne Furgerson and her husband, Dave, of Springfield; as well as numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, a brother, John Samek, and a sister, Joan Hall. Mass of Christian Burial was Friday, May 14, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church with Father David Hulshof presiding. Burial was in St. Wenceslaus Cemetery. Cantors were members of the parish. Lector was Jeff Wolf. Altar server was Jim Otradovec. Organist was Helen Stander. Pallbearers were Eric Samek, Johnny Hall, Andy Hall, Chris Zanatta, Charles Samek and Jim Miller. Honorary pallbearers were Danny Wolf, Mark Jones, Roger Brown, Jeff Meador, Matthew Wakefield and Dennis Hancock. Arrangements were under the direction of Pitts Chapel.
Ruth M. Taylor
Ruth M. Taylor, 77, Aldrich, died at 2:49 a.m. Thursday, May 6, 1999, in St. John's Regional Health Center, Springfield. She was born July 23, 1921, near Aldrich to Elmer and Carrie Boyd Rowan. She was married to Keith N. Taylor on April 19, 1940, in Greenfield. She was a member of the Aldrich Christian Church. She was preceded in death by her parents and her two brothers, Thea and Leslie. Survivors include her husband, Keith, of Aldrich; a daughter and son-in-law, Judy and R.J. Serls of Bolivar; a son, Gene Taylor of Aldrich; a daughter, Cindy Taylor of Clarksville, Tenn.; four grandchildren and their spouses, Beth and Tim Francka of Bolivar, Brian and Sonya Taylor of Aldrich, Amy and Brian Thompson of Bolivar and Natalie and Paul Gilmore of Aldrich; six great-grandchildren, Samantha and Tabitha Francka of Bolivar and Tiffany, Keith Elliott, Michael and Bryant Taylor of Aldrich. Services were Saturday, May 8, in Butler Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Lon Killingsworth officiating. Music was provided by Doris Neely, who sang "Roses Will Bloom Again." Additional music included recorded versions of some of Ruth's favorite songs, including "Amazing Grace" and "The Old Rugged Cross." Casketbearers were Brian Thompson, Paul Gilmore, Brian Taylor, Tim Francka, Randy Hall and David Phillips.
