Bertha Pierce

Bertha M. Pierce, 102, died Monday, March 26, 2007, at Chateau Girardeau Health Center.

Formerly of Naylor, Clarkton and Sikeston, Mo., she had resided at Chateau Girardeau since soon after its opening in 1980.

The funeral will be at Ford and Sons Mount Auburn Funeral Home at 11 a.m. Thursday, with the Rev. Paul Kabo and the Rev. Dr. Tom Bass officiating. Burial will be in Cape County Memorial Park.

Visitation will be 5:30 to 7 p.m. today at the funeral home.

Memorials requested to Chateau Girardeau Foundation or Southeast Missouri Hospital Foundation.

She was born Dec. 23, 1904, at Naylor, Mo., to Zack Marvin and Viola Morton Jenkins.

Mrs. Pierce attended Naylor schools through its 11th-grade program, then graduated at Doniphan, Mo., the nearest complete high school. She graduated from Southeast Missouri State University and did graduate work at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She was a member of Kappa Delta Pi, honorary education society, at Southeast.

As Miss Bertha Jenkins, she taught and was principal at the high schools in Neelyville, Naylor, Marston and Clarkton.

On Nov. 9, 1944, she married Andy Ray Pierce of Clarkton. He had just retired as superintendent, after 25 years with the Clarkton Consolidated School District. They made their home in Clarkton until Mr. Pierce died March 28, 1971.

Also preceding her in death were her parents; a sister, Blanche Kennedy; two brothers, Glenn and Denver; five infant siblings; a stepson, Norman Pierce and his wife Christine; and a stepson-in-law, Max M. McMahon.

Surviving Mrs. Pierce are two sisters, Melba McCord and Olivia McClure Moll, both of Sikeston; a stepdaughter, Maxine McMahon of Clarkton; several nieces and nephews, their children and grandchildren; six stepgrandchildren, their children and grandchildren. All were very dear to her and she to them.

Mrs. Pierce was a member of First Presbyterian Church of Cape Girardeau. Having transferred from the Naylor and Clarkton chapters, she was a member of Sikeston Chapter Order of Eastern Star.