BESSIE E. CLEAVES

CHARLESTON -- Funeral service for Bessie Evelyn Cleaves of Charleston will be held at 2 p.m. today at Mercy Seat Baptist Church. Burial will be in Oak Grove Cemetery.

Friends may call at the church from 11 a.m. to service time.

Sparks Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Cleaves, 64, died Saturday, Feb. 18, 1995, at Miner Nursing Center in Miner.

She was born June 16, 1930, in Triplett, daughter of John and Iva Farmer Benson. She and Armstead Cleo Cleaves were married Nov. 23, 1950.

Cleaves taught in rural Mississippi County schools and at Charleston Schools for 31 years. She was a member of Holy City Church of God in Cairo, Ill.

Survivors include her husband; two daughters, Evelyn Cleaves and Beulah Scott of Jonesboro, Ark.; a son, Darriel Cleaves of Charleston; a sister, Mable Mullins, and seven grandchildren.