BETTY JO LATHROP

SHELDON- A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, at Daniel Funeral Home, Lamar, for Betty Jo Lathrop, 89, who died Monday, Nov. 12, 2018, at Freeman Hospital in Joplin, after a short illness. Burial will follow in Sheldon Cemetery.

The family will receive friends from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday, at the funeral home.

Contributions are suggested to Sheldon Cemetery Association, in care of Daniel Funeral Home.

Condolences may be shared at www.danielfuneralhome.net.

Survivors include three sons, Gene Lathrop and wife Sandy, Lamar, J.D. Lathrop and wife Cindy, Nevada and Charles Lathrop and wife Angie, Irwin; two daughters, Barbara Thrasher and husband David, Lamar and Kathy Clampett and husband Robert, Statesboro, Ga.; grandchildren, Ronnie, Lana, Lance, Skyler, Travis, Kyle, Phil, Brent, Tai and Donovan; 22 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband Shorty; two brothers, James and Billy Wilson and a grandson, Donald Gene Lathrop.

Mrs. Lathrop was born April 30, 1929, to James Murvy and Mildred (Combs) Wilson, in Polk County, near Aldrich. As a young woman she began working at the Big Smith Factory in Lamar, where she proved to be an accomplished seamstress, specializing in zippers.

She married H.C. “Shorty” Lathrop on Nov. 14, 1951, in Bentonville, Ark. While he was in the service she maintained the farm and milked the cows by hand. She was a full-time homemaker and mother. She then began a career in the Walmart jewelry department in Lamar until her retirement in 1992. She took great pride in her garden, canning, home cooked meals, to which anyone who showed up was invited to partake, and her cream pies. She and her husband celebrated their 66th anniversary before his death. To this union five children were born. Some of her greatest memories were spending time with friends and family!

Mrs. Lathrop was an active member of the First Baptist Church in Lamar and the Naomi Sunday School Class, active in the Sheldon Jolly Senior Citizens and she and her husband were avid supporters and honorees of the Sheldon Picnic.