MARY LAY

EAST PRAIRIE -- Funeral service for Mary Nell Lay of Memphis, Tenn., will be held at 2 p.m. today at Shelby Funeral Home in East Prairie. Larry Smith will officiate, with burial in East Prairie Memorial Park Cemetery.

Lay, 87, died Sunday, March 1, 1998, at Methodist Central Hospital in Memphis.

She was born May 4, 1910, in Stuart County, Tenn., daughter of Oscar and Laura Hayes Lewis. She and Jack Lay were married Nov. 1, 1924, in Ridgely, Tenn. He died May 19, 1978.

Lay had lived most of her life in Mississippi County, and was a member of First Church of God in East Prairie.

Survivors include four sons, Robert Lay of East Chicago, Ind., Allen Lay of West Frankfort, Ill., Freddie Lay of East Prairie, James Lay of Chesterfield; two daughters, Shirley Williford of West Frankfort, Vivian Hellums of Memphis; a sister, Anna Murray of Memphis; 23 grandchildren; 31 great-grandchildren; and several great-great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by a son and a daughter.