Michael Ray Avant

CRENSHAW-Michael Ray Avant, 50, died Thursday, April 2, 2009.

Services are Saturday at 11 a.m. at McIvor M.B. Church in Sardis. Burial will be in McIvor Cemetery. Dr. Eugene Whiting will officiate. Visitation will be from 9 a.m. until service time at the church. Delta Burial has charge.

Avant was born Oct. 20, 1958.

He was preceded in death by his brother, Robert Avant.

Survivors include: three sons, Martez Avant of Knoxville, Tenn., Michael Ray Avant Jr. and Marcus D. Avant, both of New York; one daughter, Adrian Avant of Memphis; two brothers, Edward Avant of Jacksonville, Ark. and Willie Avant of Crenshaw and two sisters, Shirley Graham of Memphis and Joyce Russell of Jacksonville, Ark.

Mary Jerdan Sappington Britt

CLEVELAND–Mary Jerdan Sappinton Britt, 94, died Tuesday, April 7, 2009, at Bolivar Medical Center. She was the grandmother of Melissa Dawn Haney Sullivant and her husband Stan of Batesville.

Services will be held today at 11 a.m. at Ray Funeral Home in Cleveland. Burial will follow in Beulah Cemetery. Ray Funeral Home of Cleveland has charge.

Britt, born Dec. 13, 1914, in Pontotoc, to the late Listle Calvin Sappington and Linda Luvell Little Sappington, married Alton Haywood Britt October 1937 in Gunnison.

She was preceded in death by her husband.

Survivors along with her granddaughter include: one son, Alton Haywood Britt Jr. of Melbourne, Ark.; one daughter, Linda Sue Britt Haney of Cleveland; three grandchildren, Alton “Woody” Haywood Britt III, Latham O’Neal Britt and Teressa Denise Haney Oakes and seven great-grandchildren, Alton “Hayes” Haywood Britt IV, Shelby Victoria Britt, Sidney Claire Sullivant, Matthew O’Neal Britt, Joseph Lamar Britt, Erin Britt Oakes and Olivia Wells Oakes.

James Lee Jones

OXFORD–James Lee Jones, 46, died Sunday, April 5, 2009. He was the son of Eugenia Jones of Batesville and the late Willie Lewis Jones.

Services will be held Saturday at noon at Harrisonville M.B. Church in Oxford. Rev. Elton Jones will officiate. Burial will be in the church cemetery. Hodges-Serenity Funeral Home has charge.

Survivors along with his mother include: three sisters, Willie Jean Boyd of Michigan, Mary Pearl Jones and Dorothy Jones, both of Batesville and three brothers, David Jones of Tupelo, Charles Jones and Jimmy Jones of Oxford.

Elmer Neal Rape’

POPE–Elmer Neal Rape’, 77, died Monday, March 23, 2009, at Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi.

Services were Thursday, March 26 at Eddie Robinson Funeral Home in Batesville. Burial was in Forrest Memorial Cemetery. Eddie Robinson Funeral Home had charge.

Washington Sandford

COURTLAND–Washington Sandford, 81, died Wednesday, April 1, 2009, at Memorial Hospice in Clarksdale.

Services were Thursday at Pope Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church. Rev. Nehemiah Martin officiated. Burial was in Shiloh Cemetery. Cooley’s Mortuary had charge.

Sandford, born Oct. 20, 1927, in Pope, to the late G.W. Sandford and the late Lizzie Lee Blackburn, was a member of Pope Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church. He was a retired factory worker.

Survivors include: two sons, Harry James Ware of Pope and Wydell Shegog of Detroit; three brothers, Layron Sandford of Courtland, Leveron Sandford and Johnathan Sandford, both of Detroit; one sister, Dorothy Coleman of Detroit and one grandchild.