THOMAS BENTON STROUP

BENTON -- Funeral service for Thomas Benton Stroup of Benton will be at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the United Methodist Church in Benton.

The Rev. John Gregory will officiate, and burial will be in Morgan Memorial Cemetery in Advance.

Mr. Stroup died Thursday at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was 71.

He was born Sept. 13, 1919 in Bloomfield, the son of Harvey Daniel and Nellie Maud Keating Stroup. He married the former Geraldine M. McLane in 1949. She survives.

He was a graduate of the University of Missouri at Columbia and did post-graduate study at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins.

He worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Extension Service in Scott County most of his life, and served as the balanced farming agent for New Madrid and Scott Counties from 1948-1960. He was the Bootheel-area associate director for the agency from 1965 until his retirement in 1979.

Mr. Stroup was a veteran of World War II, where he served in the U.S. Navy. He was a past chairman of the Benton Planning Commission and a past Benton City Council member.

He was a member of Epsilon Sigma Phi, a national honorary extension fraternity, and a former president of the Benton Chamber of Commerce. He also was a member of the Benton United Methodist Church, where he was the Sunday School superintendent for many years and a member of the church administrative board.

Survivors include three daughters, Judy Lockwood of Santa Rosa, Calif., Jana Jateff of Cape Girardeau and Joyce Tummins of Dickson, Tenn.; two sisters, Miza Eisenhart and Norma Bennett, both of Dexter; a brother, June Stroup of Bloomfield; and seven grandchildren.

Friends may call after 4 p.m. Saturday at the Amick-Burnett Funeral Home in Benton.