BARBARA JEAN FALLS

LAMAR-Graveside services will be held at Moore Cemetery in Nevada for Barbara Jean Falls, 76, Lamar, who died Sunday, Oct. 25, 2015, at Mercy Hospital in Joplin.

Arrangements areunder the direction of Ferry Funeral Home, Nevada.

Visitation will be held from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, at the funeral home.

Memorial contributions may be made to the family, in care of the funeral home.

Mrs. Falls was born July 5, 1939, in Rayville, to George Lee and Dorothy Mildred (Raw) Phillips. She had spent the last 28 years with her companion and the love of her life, George Leroy Puckett and he survives of the home. Also surviving are her children, Deborah and Steve Stockman, Bobby Gene Johnson, Jr. and Kimberly Sue Haire; siblings, Mildred Sanderson, Katherine Abshire and husband Frank, Patty Staples and husband Jerry, Donald Leon Phillips and wife Lisa, Ronald Dean Phillips and wife Ria and Delbert Phillips and wife Emily; numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by siblings Betty Hickman, Karen Dallas and George Edward Phillips; two daughters, Tammy Jo Johnson and Trudy Lynn Crews and a son, George Lee Johnson.

Mrs. Falls grew up in central Missouri and after her school years enjoyed living in Illinois and Indiana, where she worked as a nursing home caretaker. She was later employed at the state hospital in Marshall before relocating to Nevada, where she worked at the Nevada State Hospital until her retirement. She then decided to return to work for a time and spent several years employed at Thorco in Lamar.

When time allowed, she enjoyed flower gardening, music and always had a special place in her heart for horses.