SYLVIA SIFFORD

DEXTER -- Funeral for Sylvia Sifford of Dexter will be held at 1 p.m. today at Corinth General Baptist Church near Dudley. The Revs. Earl Coats and Bob Bradford will officiate. Burial will be in Smith-Stevenson Cemetery near Dexter.

Watkins and Sons Funeral Home in Dexter is in charge of arrangements.

Sifford, 82, died Monday, Nov. 1, 1999, at Crowley Ridge Care Center.

She was born Dec. 8, 1916, in Bernie, daughter of John Henry and Flora Alice Keller Coats. She and Carmen Edward Sifford were married Feb. 25, 1933. He died May 29, 1991.

Sifford lived in Carlinville, Ill., from 1938 until moving to Dudley in 1950, and then to Dexter in 1979. She was a member of Sweet Prospect General Baptist Church.

Survivors include five sons, Joe Sifford of Geneseo, Ill., Jerry Sifford of Carlinville, Jim Sifford of Decatur, Ill., John Sifford of Dexter, J.D. Sifford of Dudley; three daughters, Joy Scott of Tuscola, Ill., Jane Loftin and Janet Alsup of Dexter.

Also surviving is a brother, Earl Coats of Poplar Bluff; a sister, Goldie Gotcher of Carlinville; 19 grandchildren; and 23 great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by three brothers and five sisters.