RUTH MARIE HARRIS

SPRINGFIELD- Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at St. Agnes Cathedral in Springfield for Ruth Marie Harris, 95, Springfield, a former Lamar resident, who died Friday, Aug. 10, 2018. Private family burial will follow at Lake Cemetery in Lamar.

Rosary will be held at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Daniel Funeral Home in Lamar. The family will receive friends following the Rosary, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Contributions are suggested to Lamar Guardian Angels for children in need, in care of the funeral home.

Condolences may be shared at www.danielfuneralhome.net.

Survivors include a son, Gregory Harris, rural Lamar; two daughters, Carol Harris, Lamar and Cheryl Scholze and husband Randy, San Antonio, Texas; three grandchildren, Alexandra Scholze, Wyatt Davis and Morgan Davis and one brother, John Deragowski.

She was preceded in death by two husbands, Dwain Hunter Harris and Richard E. Alexander, five brothers and three sisters.

Mrs. Harris was born Jan. 30, 1923, in Racine, Wisc., to August and Annetta (Lui) Deragowski. She was a 1941 graduate of Lamar High School. She married Dwain Hunter Harris on April 16, 1949 and together they reared three children. She taught many years in rural schools and then taught fourth and fifth grade in the Lamar School System for over 30 years, while working on her master’s degree in education from Pittsburg State University. After her first husband’s death in 1999, she married Richard E. Alexander on Dec. 31, 2000. He died Dec. 17, 2007.

She was a member of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Lamar, Missouri State Teacher’s Association, Missouri Retired Teachers Association and Business and Professional Women’s Association.