ILLA CROUTHERS

SIKESTON -- Funeral service for Illa Irene Crouthers of Sikeston will be held at 1 p.m. today at Murray Lane Baptist Church, with the Rev. Kelly Grubbs officiating. Burial will be in Mounds Park Cemetery at Lilbourn.

Ponder Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Crouthers, 91, died Saturday, April 12, 1997, at Missouri Delta Medical Center.

She was born Sept. 30, 1905, in Hattiesville, Ark., daughter of Bertie and Katie Muirhead Bixler. She and Paul Burwell Crouthers were married Dec. 5, 1925. He died Dec. 22, 1957.

The Crouthers owned and operated Catron Farms, a gin, general store, and other businesses. She was a member of Murray Lane Church and its Women's Missionary Union and Golden Age Choir.

Crouthers was a charter member of Catron Baptist Church and New Madrid First Baptist Church. She directed fund raising for New Madrid County Heart Fund, New Madrid County Crippled Children's Fund, had been a Girl Scout leader, and was a volunteer more than 30 years at Missouri Delta Medical Center.

Survivors include a son, Paul "Collie" Crouthers of Parma; two daughters, Margaret Noe and Emma Blanton of Sikeston; a brother, Jack Bixler of Jackson; two sisters, Lillian Dooley of Chaffee, Berdine Hampton of Lansing, Mich.; 12 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by a son and seven brothers.