HARNESS, Mary Louise 1914-1995

HARNESS, PAYTON, RHYNAS, SHOTT, HOWARD

Posted By: Sherri (email)
Date: 6/12/2012 at 09:49:29

The Faifield Ledger
Monday, November 20, 1995

Mary Louise HARNESS

Mary Louise HARNESS, 81, 809 W. Washington Ave., died at 12:47 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 18, 1995, at Jefferson County Hospital.

The service will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Burch-Raymond Funeral Home in Birmingham, with Phil Campbell, pastor, officiating. Burial will be in Maple Hill Cemetery at Birmingham. Visitation is open at the funeral home, with the family present from 7 to 8 p.m. tonight. Memorials have been established to Birmingham Public Library, Birmingham United Methodist Church and Brimingham First Responders.

Mrs. HARNESS was born July 31, 1914, in Stockport, the daughter of James an Alice PAYTON RHYNAS. She grew up in Stockport, graduated from Stockport High School and attended Parsons College. On June 2, 1939, she married Bob E. HARNESS at Lancaster, Mo. He died Oct. 19, 1985. She lived in the Birmingham community most of her life. In the late 1930s, she worked for the government office in Keosauqua which was the precedessor to the current Farmers Home Administration. She worked as clerk in the Birmingham Post Office in the late 1950s and early 1960s before being named Birmingham postmaster, a position she held from 1967 until her retirement in 1985. She was a member of Birmingham United Methodist Church, Retired Postmasters Association and the Birmingham Library Board. She was instrumental in planning the building of the Birmingham Library. She had been a resident of Fairfield for the past 10 years and had worked at the Jefferson County Hospital Auxiliary Gift Shop.

Surviving are a daughter, Marjean SHOTT of Fairfield; two sons, Robert of Birmingham, Richard of Ottumwa; seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. A sister, Mildred HOWARD, preceded her in death.

(I research the HARNESS lineage. Connection is through my LAWSON lineage.)