BERNARD F. COCKRELL

SIKESTON -- Funeral service for Bernard Franklin (Willie Bee) Cockrell of Sikeston will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Nunnelee Funeral Chapel. The Rev. Dolan Rogers will officiate, with burial in Memorial Park Cemetery.

Friends may call at the funeral home after 5 p.m. today.

Cockrell, 82 years old, died Sunday, March 17, 1991, at his home.

He was born May 20, 1908, at Blodgett, son of Walter William and Lelia Fisher Cockrell. He and the former Mildred C. Carter were married Aug. 4, 1950, in Piggott, Ark. She died July 26, 1990.

Cockrell was assistant manager of Kroger Grocery Co. here 28 years. He was a member of First Baptist Church at Morehouse, and Sikeston VFW. He was a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army during World War II, and received a Purple Heart and the Middle Eastern Theater Campaign ribbon with six Bronze Stars.

Survivors include two sons, Darrell Jones of Somerset, Calif., Don Jones of Sacramento, Calif.; a daughter, Patricia Ross of Morehouse; three brothers, Raymond Fisher of Golconda, Ill., Herman Cockrell of Denver, Colo., Russell Cockrell of Independence; three sisters, Mildred Greenley of Papillion, Neb., Vernita Thomas of Cahokia, Ill., Ruth West of Jackson, Miss.; seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by three brothers.