FLORENCE HARPER

SIKESTON -- Funeral for Florence Mae Harper of Sikeston will be held at 1 p.m. today at McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston. The Rev. Mitchell Jackson will officiate, with burial in Armer Cemetery.

Harper, 88, died Sunday, Oct. 18, 1998, at Miner Nursing Center in Miner.

She was born July 3, 1910, in Bertrand, daughter of Charles and Cora Brooks Hicks. She and Orville Thurman were married July 16, 1927. He died March 21, 1973.

Harper lived in the Bement community most of her life, and was a member of Miner Baptist Church.

Survivors include two sons, Russell Harper of Birmingham, Ala., Howard Harper of Sikeston; two daughters, Louise Crook of East Alton, Ill., Helen Hilliard of Edwardsville, Ill.; 17 grandchildren; 30 great-grandchildren; and 16 great-great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by a son, four brothers and a sister.