ETHEL STARKS

CHARLESTON -- Ethel Starks, 85, of Charleston died Wednesday, Jan. 14, 1998, at home after an extended illness.

She was born May 10, 1912, in Shelby, Miss., daughter of Zeb and Amethie Spears and had lived in Missouri for more than 70 years.

She was a retired cook and a member of the Mercy Seat Baptist Church in Charleston, where she was in the choir and a member on the mother board.

She is survived by a daughter, Evangeline Mitchell of Country Club, Ill., four sons, Richard Charles Jones and Adolph Jones of Grand Rapids, Mich., Donald David Jones of Dayton, Ohio, and Sylvester Jones of Buffalo, N.Y.; a sister, Alice Arthur of Portageville; three grandchildren whom she raised, Terry Jones and Rose Mary Prude of Charleston and James Jones of Harvey, Ill., and a host of other grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Ed Starks, who died Aug. 12, 1996; a son; and 10 brothers.

Visitation will be Saturday from 11 to noon at Mercy Seat Baptist Church. Funeral service will be at noon at the church, with the Rev. J.L. Posey officiating. Burial will be at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in the National Cemetery at Mound City, Ill. Sparks Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.