This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Willard Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/hkB.2ACE/8665 Message Board Post: Rockdale Reporter, Thur., 26 May 2005 Services for Elizabeth M. Willard, 91, of Florence were held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 25, 2005, at Phillips & Luckey Funeral Home in Rockdale with Rev. Doug Springer officiating. Burial was in Black Jack Cemetery near Rockdale. Mrs. Willard died Saturday, May 21, in Rogers, AR. A resident of Florence for the past two years, she moved there from the Pleasant Grove community in Lee County where she lived since 1976. She was born March 1, 1914, in Traverse City, MI, to Thomas H. and Myrtle Harris. She married John William Willard on March 12, 1938, in South Bend, IN. Mrs. Willard, affectionately known as “Snibitz,” was a teacher and artist, retiring from teaching in 1977. She graduated from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI, in 1938 with a degree in elementary education and English. Mrs. Willard taught in Central Texas in a two-room schoolhouse. After having her children, she returned to teach in 1956 in Crossett, AR, where she taught elementary until 1977. Mrs. Willard also gave private art lessons and was an accomplished artist who was commissioned to produce several works of art for public and private institutions. In 1959 she was listed in Who’s Who in Arkansas and produced material on art for the book Art Week in America. She was preceded in death by her husband, John William Willard, on June 23, 1991; a son, Tommy Willard, on April 22, 2003; a daughter, Dorothy Lee Estell; a grandson, Jason Willard, on June 12, 2004; her parents; and two brothers, Fred Harris and Wilford Harris. Survivors are a son, John W. Willard Jr. and wife Linda of Florence; a daughter, Mary Ford and husband James of Rogers, AR; a son-in-law, Julian Estelle of Hamburg, AR; a sister, Dorothy Petertyl and husband Julius of Traverse City, MI; and a sister-in-law, Arlene Harris of Traverse City, MI; also, six grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and a great-great-grandchild.