Buford Ayers

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Funeral for Thomas Buford Ayers of Sikeston will be held at 11 a.m. today at Miner Baptist Church. The Revs. Mitchell Jackson, Joe McCullough and Carl Addison will officiate. Burial will be in Garden of Memories Cemetery, with full military honors.

Ponder Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Ayers, 65, died Sunday, Oct. 7, 2001, at Missouri Delta Medical Center.

He was born Aug. 25, 1936, in Sikeston, son of Thomas Wylie and Violet Lee Wilburn Ayers. He and Freeda Naomi Reeder were married Aug. 30, 1958.

Ayers was manager at Barton Lumber Co. from 1967 until retiring in 1995. He was a member of Miner Baptist Church, board member of Community Sheltered Workshop in Sikeston, and board member of E.C. Barton Lumber Co. in Jonesboro, Ark.

He served in the Missouri National Guard.

Survivors include his wife; two sons, Thomas Buford Jr. and Kendall Ayers of Sikeston; three brothers, Ralph Ayers of Sikeston, Eugene Ayers of St. Charles, Mo., David Ayers of Maplewood, Mo.; a sister, Melba Cannon of Lake of the Ozarks, Mo.; and three grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents.