WILMA LONG

LAMAR- Services were held at 11 a.m. Thursday at Daniel Funeral Home for Wilma Irene Long, 92, Lamar, who died Saturday, Dec. 22, 2018, at her home. Burial was in Memory Gardens Cemetery.

Memorial contributions are suggested to Hospice Compassus Living Foundation, in care of the funeral home.

Condolences may be left online at www.dfhlamar.com.

Survivors include four daughters, Reba Faye Blades Phipps and husband Carl, Lamar and Deborah Mitchell, Rebecca Mitchell and husband Doug and Diane Neely and husband Dennis, all of Joplin; three sons, Earl Ray “Butch” Blades, Camdenton, Larry Hilburn and wife Jo, Greenfield and Greg Long and wife Fay, Nevada, Mo.; 14 grandchildren, 33 great-grandchildren and 12 great-great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by a sister, Bernice Welborn and a brother, Charles Edwin “Bud” Waits.

Mrs. Long was born Oct. 9, 1926, in Lamar, to Forest Edward “Kelly” and Reba Irene Waits. She was a 1943 graduate of Lamar High School and a graduate of Southwest Baptist Bible College. Her first job was with the family dairy, delivering milk, then she worked at the Corner Drug Store, that was owned by her parents. Following graduation from college she was a certified school teacher at Anderson, Pleasant Hill and Rockdale country schools. She worked for several years in the law offices of City Attorney Gordon Boyer before serving in accounting at the Nevada State Hospital for 21 years.

She married Earl William Blades in Kansas City, Kan. on Nov. 17, 1945. They had two children, daughter Reba Faye Blades Phipps and Earl Ray “Butch” Blades; four grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren. She married James Howard Long on Nov. 6, 1971, in Nevada, Mo., embracing his five children.

Mrs. Long lived her life to serve others. She dedicated her life to her family and loved spending time with her 59 grandchildren. She had a strong faith and was baptized into the fellowship of the First Baptist Church of Lamar on May 24, 1953. She enjoyed taking her grandchildren to church and teaching vacation Bible school and Sunday school at Sheldon Baptist Church. She cared for her mother, Reba Waits, who lived to be 91. She enjoyed playing cards and liked to go out dancing.