VELA HOPKINS

PUXICO -- Funeral for Vela Hopkins of Puxico will be held at 11 a.m. today at Watkins and Sons Funeral Home in Puxico. The Rev. Kenneth Lambert will officiate, with burial in Puxico Cemetery.

Hopkins, 84, died Saturday, Aug. 29, 1998, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau.

She was born Jan. 16, 1914, near Puxico, daughter of Clayton D. and Lucy Pearl Maddox Smith. She and Roy "Chub" Hopkins were married Nov. 30, 1934, at Poplar Bluff. He died Jan. 23, 1998.

Hopkins received a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Southeast Missouri State University.

She taught school in the Puxico area 43 years. Hopkins was a member of Stoddard County Retired Teachers Association, Missouri State Retired Teachers Association and Order of Eastern Star.

Survivors include a daughter, Roena Reasons of Dudley; three sisters, Nadine Barnett of Pontiac, Mich., Jeanette Elmore of Springfield, Lois Dudley of Cahokia, Ill.; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by a brother and sister.