You have left quite an imprint on our lives. I loved to hear your laughter and your smile was contagious like that of a yawn. It made my day when I got a chuckle from you. I will miss calling you of the mornings the most and our country drives. You are the best example I know of showing love and kindness to others. May we lead by your example. A joke from Mary Lou: one day we passed a work out center. She said I need to go there. Then she corrected herself and said I dont need a work out center i need a fix it center. One of her famous sayings to add was "Every day is a good day. Some are better than others." You were loved by so many and my heart has been blessed to call you my friend. With fond memories, Your Great Neice, Carrah Tiffany

You left quite an imprint in our lives. I always loved hearing your laughter and getting a chuckle from you, it made my day. Your smile was quite contagious like that of a yawn. I am so grateful to have gotten to know you over the years it has done my heart good to become such good friends. I will miss calling you of the mornings the most and traveling the country side on our drives. You are the best example i know for showing love and kindness to others, may we lead by your example. A joke of Mary Lou's I will not forget: driving one day we passed a work out center. She says I need to go there. Then she corrected herself and said I dont need a work out center, I need a fix it center. You will be missed more than words can say. With lots of love and fond memories, Your Great Neice, Carrah Tiffany

Aunt Mary Lou was such a blessing to Vickie and Me the past few years. She was always eager to hear what was going on in our lives and I enjoyed our many phone conversations so much. I never realized how much her and I had in common until after the passing of Uncle Curtis, Uncle Bill, my Mom, and other family, which I think prompted a need in us both to have someone to talk too anytime there was something interesting to share. She was always anxious to here about any auctions I was conducting, or other auctioneer's sales or estate sales I had attended and what kinds of goodies I had come across. Occasionally I was privileged to show her a few of my interesting finds in person. One time in particular Vickie and I stopped in for a visit and I showed Mary Lou a collection of porcelain thimbles I had purchased and she was thrilled as she had collected thimbles for many decades herself. Through the influence of seeing her collection of marbles, hen dishes, glass rolling pins, and other collectibles I began collecting the same. One special memory was when Carrah chauffeured Mary Lou to a Bob Kollmeier auction at his gallery in Springfield and we all sat together and Mary Lou couldn't resist to bid on and buy some items being offered. What was interesting about this auction was that the items had come out of an estate in Nixa just a few blocks from Mary Lou's house. Mary Lou and I had another interesting auction experience which occurred back in the 90's sometime. I had an estate auction in Springfield near SMSU and the auction had on it some Fiesta dinnerware, or so I thought. I had advertised a certain number of pieces of Fiesta, probably 40 or 50, and early the morning of the auction when my helpers and I began emptying out the kitchen cabinets I realized the dishes in the cabinets were Lu-Ray pastels by Taylor-Smith-Taylor. I knew I was going to have some disappointed auction attendees in a matter of a couple of hours. It didn't take long to think of Mary Lou as I knew she had accumulated much Fiesta through the years. I gave her a phone call and told her of my predicament. Within an hour and a half or so she loaded up enough spare Fiesta pieces that she was willing to part with and showed up at the auction and allowed me to sell it and make good on my advertising mistake. It actually worked out well for Mary Lou as well as she was very pleased with the prices the Fiesta realized. Thank you Aunt Mary Lou. On a much more important note, one of my fondest memories was one evening a year or so ago when Vickie and I stopped in for a visit with Mary Lou and she asked me to get out a couple of her photo albums and we all began to do some browsing and reminiscing. There were many black & white photos from decades gone by and soon I came across a photo of when Mary Lou was baptized in a river when she was a young lady. I don't remember the year or how old she was but I would guess it was after Uncle Curtis had come into her life. It did my heart good to come to know of her baptism. The first time or two Vickie and I visited Mary Lou and shared a meal together with her she asked me to offer a prayer before the meal. Any meals we had with her thereafter I knew that praying before the meal was expected. We held hands many times in a circular fashion, the three of us, and shared fellowship together with her and with God our father. Mary Lou expressed her faith so well by her love of family and friends, her kindness, her generosity, her always smiling face, her open door, and so much more. Her conversation and discussion about other individuals always seemed to positive and if not completely positive it was tempered with love and a non condemning and forgiving attitude. She was a special person and will be greatly missed by many. I wish I had come to know you better and realized how much we were alike years sooner. Thank you Aunt Mary Lou for loving me in such a special way. Your nephew, Allen

Please accept our deepest condolences for your family's loss.