REV. ARLON AYERS

BERNIE -- Service for the Rev. Arlon Ayers of Poplar Bluff will be held at 1 p.m. today at Rainey Funeral Home in Bernie. The Revs. Bob Sparkman, Jimmy Gilbert, Robert Edwards and Tommy Knodell will officiate. Burial will be in Bernie Cemetery.

Friends may call at the funeral home from 10 a.m. until service time.

Ayers, 72, died Sunday, March 5, 2000, at his home.

He was born May 8, 1927, in Lepanto, Ark., son of Prather and Ubera B. Clark Ayers. He and Esther Gray were married Jan. 27, 1947, in Piggott, Ark.

Ayers pastored Southern Baptist churches 42 years, the first being Powe Southern Baptist Church west of Bernie.

He was a veteran of the U.S. Navy.

Survivors include his wife; a daughter, Lorretta Stone of Bell City; two sons, Gary "Bud" Ayers of Poplar Bluff, Ricky Ayers of Thibodaux, La.; a sister, Beaunita Smith of Memphis, Tenn.; seven grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.

He was preceded in death by his parents, stepfather, three brothers, and a sister.