GEORGE FIELDS

CHARLESTON -- George Fields, 78, of Charleston, died Friday, Sept. 12, 1997, at the Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston.

He was born Jan. 27, 1919, in Wyatt, son of the late Albert and Bertha Mason Fields. On Aug. 3, 1946, he married Mary Rita Hequembourg, who survives the home.

He had lived in Mississippi County his entire life. He was a member of St. Henry's Catholic Church in Charleston, the Knights of Columbus and was employed with Valley Steel Company in Cairo, Ill., until his retirement in 1975.

A U.S. Army veteran of World War II, he was the recipient of a Purple Heart for his service in northern France, where he also served time as a prisoner of war.

He is survived by his wife; two daughters, Peggy Hart and Nancee Fields, both of Charleston; two sisters, Dorothy Jackson of Diehlstadt and Virginia Kimble of East Prairie; and one granddaughter, Penny Boulnois of Sikeston.

One sister preceded him in death.

Friends may call from 6 p.m. until 8 a.m. today at McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston, where prayer service is scheduled at 7 p.m. Funeral services will be conducted at 10 a.m. Monday in McMikle Funeral Chapel, Father Rich Lause officiating. Interment will follow in the Calvary Cemetery near Charleston.