Mary Beth Melson
Mary Beth Melson, 92, of Mexico, passed away peacefully Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at her home.
Services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 20, at Arnold Funeral Home in Mexico. Interment will follow in East Lawn Memorial Park in Mexico. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Arnold Funeral Home. The family suggests contributions in Mary Beth’s memory to Mexico United Methodist Church, where Mary Beth was a life-long and active member.
A sweetheart from the day she was born, Mary Beth arrived on Feb. 14, 1917, the only daughter of Virgil and Josephine Elizabeth Nicholas Pearl. Following graduation from Mexico High School in 1935, Mary Beth and several of her girlfriends were hired by Southwestern Bell to be telephone operators - the perfect job for a woman who loved to talk on the phone! Mary Beth continued as an operator until her retirement in 1982, with a break for child-rearing. The last three years of her career were spent at Southwestern Bell in Kansas City, following the closure of the Mexico office. And who better to bunk with during the week in Kansas City in those last three years before retirement than her girlfriend Crystal, who also started her career as a telephone operator along with Mary Beth back in 1935.
A flat tire brought Mary Beth to the service station in Mexico owned by the Melson family in 1936, and there to help this damsel in distress was George N. “Shorty” Melson, the handsome teenage son of the station’s proprietors. A date to the skating rink quickly followed, starting a love affair that ended only with Shorty’s death in 2006. Shorty and Mary Beth were married at the Mexico United Methodist Church on August 27, 1941. While on their honeymoon, a draft notice came for Shorty and he was off to the war, leaving Mary Beth home to continue her job as a telephone operator. After the war, Shorty returned from Europe to the United States and his bride, taking up residence in Mexico. Even in the last months of her life, looking at a picture of Shorty in uniform evoked a playful grin on Mary Beth’s face.
Partners in all they did, Mary Beth and Shorty owned and operated service stations in Mexico, as well as Melson’s Hardware Store in Centralia and Melson’s Drug Store in Auxvasse. They lived on a farm north of Mexico, and for a number of years they raised the sweetest strawberries around, a major u-pick destination. But the best of the berries were used by Mary Beth herself, as an ingredient in her rich, creamy home-made ice cream, or sliced as an accompaniment to her out-of-this world home-made angel food cake.
Mary Beth is survived by her children, Ginny Melson Collinsworth and husband Dan of Dallas, Texas, Robert Melson and wife Barb of Columbia, and India Melson of Cheyenne, Wyo.; grandchildren, Marachel Citarello of Mexico, Joseph Plummer of Long Beach, Calif., Mattson Plummer of Dallas, Ally and Peter Tarter and daughter Samantha Tarter of Dallas, Texas, Jason Collinsworth of Dallas, Brooke Melson Schutte and husband Jim of Austin, Texas, and Lindsay Melson Robb and husband Aaron of Columbia; and many beloved nieces and nephews.
Mary Beth Melson was one of a kind. She was a wonderful combination of cute, sweet, caring, and fun, and she is going to be greatly missed but fondly remembered by all who knew and loved her.
The only girl in a family of boys, Mary Beth was preceded in death by brothers, Donald, Theodore and Fred Pearl, her parents, and the love of her life, George N. “Shorty” Melson.
Condolences at
www.arnoldfh.com
June DeLaney Popkes
Edna June DeLaney Popkes, 93, of Paris, passed away on Sunday, June 14, 2009 at the Monroe Manor Nursing Home in Paris.
Mrs. Popkes was born on Oct. 31, 1915, in Monroe County, the daughter of Marion Dean and Ruth Jane Gray DeLaney. On Nov. 21, 1937, she married Lyle Harmy Popkes in St. Charles. He predeceased her on Aug. 27, 1985. Mrs. Popkes retired from teaching in 1986 after teaching 40 years in several rural Monroe County Schools and the Paris R-II School District. She graduated from Paris High School and obtained a Bachelor of Elementary Education in 1960 from Northeast Missouri State Teachers’ College, now known as Truman University, in Kirksville. She was a member of the Paris First Christian Church, the Sigma Laureate Chapter of Beta Sigma Phi sorority, a charter member of the James Monroe Chapter of DAR, a 50-year member of the Paris Chapter No. 216 Order of the Eastern Star before its closing in 2008, Double I, the Monroe-Shelby Counties Retired Teachers Association, and the Missouri Retired Teachers Association.
Mrs. Popkes is survived by a daughter, Annis Jane (Charles) Callis of Paris, five grandchildren, Christopher Dean (Carrie) Popkes of Paris, Jennie Elizabeth (Frank) Johnson of Columbia, Chad Alan (Shannon) Callis of Hohenfels, Germany, Colleen Elizabeth (Richard) Huffman of Corinth, Texas, and Bridget Leigh (Bruce) Weimer of Macon; seven great-grandchildren, Kayla Danielle and Kyle Dean Popkes of Paris, Emily Michelle and Madison Danielle Callis of Hohenfels, Germany, Richard Alec Huffman of Corinth, Texas, Brooke Elizabeth and Payton DeLaney Weimer of Macon; a sister, Joyce Gray DeLaney (Don) VanderLinden of Peoria, Ariz.; and several nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her husband and a son, Larry Dean Popkes, on Feb. 5, 1983.
Funeral services will be held at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, June 19, at the Agnew Funeral Home in Paris with Reverend Donna Scott and Reverend B.T. Mitchell officiating. Visitation will be held from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Friday. Burial will be in Walnut Grove Cemetery at Paris.
The family suggests memorials may be made to the Paris First Christian Church, the Paris Public Education Fund (PPEF), or the donor’s choice.
Arnold Lucas
PERRY – Arnold Junior Lucas, 74, of Perry, died at 3:15 a.m., June 16, 2009, at his home.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, at Bienhoff Funeral Home in Perry. Burial will be in Lick Creek Cemetery, Perry.
Visitation is from 5-7 p.m., Thursday at the funeral home.
Dora Gomez
Dora Gomez, 44, of rural Montgomery City, died Monday, June 15, 2009, at her home.
Visitation will be held from 5-8 p.m., Thursday at Schlanker Funeral Home in Montgomery City. Ms. Gomez will be cremated after visitation.
Mexico, Mo. —
