OLIVE PYATT

LAMAR- Services will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at Daniel Funeral Home for Olive Elaine Pyatt, 94, Lamar, who died early Thursday morning, Jan. 26, 2017, at Mercy Hospital in Carthage. Rev. Leland Howard will officiate. Burial will be in Iantha Cemetery.

Memorial contributions are suggested to St. Jude Children's Hospital, in care of the funeral home.

Condolences and memories may be shared at www.danielfuneralhome.net.

Survivors include two daughters, Marilyn Howard and husband Lee and Garalene Pyatt, who were her next-door neighbors in Lamar; five grandchildren, Theron McDaniel and family, Dallas, Texas, Danelle Howard, Lamar, Sheree McDaniel Bales and family, Colorado Springs, Colo., Dr. Galen Howard and family, Flower Mound, Texas and Danae McDaniel Theleman and family, Olathe, Kan.; 12 great-grandchildren and two sisters, Reba Jones Simmons, Irwin and Sarah Jones White, Boerne, Texas.

She was preceded in death by her husband; her oldest daughter, Rose Ann Pyatt McDaniel; her son-in-law, Leonard E. McDaniel and five siblings, Madeline Phipps, Curtis “Jack” Jones, Mary Williams, Alma Reaves and Wanda Jones.

Mrs. Pyatt was born Dec. 12, 1922, to Claude W. and Sarah Opal (Palmer) Jones in Knob Noster. The family moved to Barton County when she was very young. She graduated from eighth grade at Anderson Rural School, then started working as a housekeeper for families who could afford it during those hard times after the war.

She married Garald Elmer Pyatt on March 22, 1942. She was his true helpmate – running fur trap lines, milking cows, driving tractors, assembling new farm equipment, growing and preserving most of their food, raising chickens and hogs and cattle. Although she much preferred to be outside working, she found the time to teach her three daughters how to cook, clean and sew and many other important life skills. An accomplished quilter, she hand-pieced and hand-quilted beautiful quilts for each grandchild. She was a very hard worker and derived much pleasure from her bountiful gardens and beautiful flower beds. People would stop in the street to admire her beautiful flowers. When she “retired” from farming, she volunteered as a “transplant specialist” at the Lamar Greenhouse during the spring months. She was also a breast cancer survivor, not once, but twice.

She was a lifelong member of Hopewell Cumberland Presbyterian Church.