COMO–Pedres Finley, 29, died Wednesday, February 9, 2011, from injuries received in an automobile accident.

Services will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. at Cistern Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Como. Visitation will be held today from 5 p.m. – 8 p.m. in the Haraway Center.

Finley taught computer information systems classes at Northwest Community College Desoto Center. He graduated from North Panola High School before receiving his A.A. in computer information systems from Northwest in 2002. He held a B.B.A. from the University of Mississippi and an M.B.A. from Keller Graduate School of Management at DeVry University. He began his career at Northwest as an adjunct instructor and began teaching on a full time basis in Aug. 2009.

Survivors include: his mother, Teresa Finley and grandmother, Katie Mae Robinson.

Evelyn Hays Gordon

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.–Evelyn Hays Gordon, 64, formerly of Sardis, died Thursday, January 20, 2011, at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

Memorial services were held at Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church where she was a member and devoted volunteer in lay ministries.

Mrs. Gordon was born in Oxford and grew to adulthood in Panola County where she graduated from high school and attended Sardis United Methodist Church. She received her undergraduate degree from Mississippi University for Women and her master’s degree from Louisiana State University. She worked as a librarian for the Birmingham Public Library, Riverchase Middle School, and Vestavia Hills High School until leukemia forced her to retire in January 2011.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Myrtle and Nathan Hays of Sardis and her brother, Nathan.

Survivors include: her husband of 39 years, Curtis Gordon Jr.; two sons, David Gordon and his wife, Rachel and Jonathan Gordon; two grandchildren, Emma and Sarah Gordon; one brother, David Hays and his wife, Jeannette; two sisters, Frances Thomas-Dillender and her husband, Sam and Mary Lipscomb and her husband Bobby.

Her family requests memorials be directed to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (100 Chase Park South, Suite 220, Birmingham, Ala. 35244) or to the Vestavia Library in the Forest, 1221 Montgomery Hwy., Vestavia, Ala. 35216.

Winfred W. Keen

SALINAS, Calif.–Winfred W. Keen, 70, died Saturday, Feburary 12, 2011, at SVMH.

Local services are Friday at 2 p.m. at Dickins Funeral Home. Burial is in Magnolia Cemetery. Dickins Funeral Home has charge of local arrangements.

Keen, born Jan. 19, 1941, to the late Homer W. Keen and Eunice C. Snyder, was a veteran who serviced in the Army and National Guard during the Vietnam  era. He was a certified welder for 47 years and owned Winfred’s Welding and worked as a welder for Grower’s Ice, Tanimura and Antle, Post Harvest Tech, Dole, Fresh Express and numerous other companies.

Survivors include: his wife, Retha Jordan-Keen; one son, Ronald Wayne of Courtland; one daughter, Connie Keen-Hudspeth of Sarah; two brothers, Jimmy Keen of Batesville and Lacey Keen of Pope; seven sisters, Joann Macey, Betty Hyland, Janie Robinson, Judy Johnson, Patsy Mason, Sandra Harmon and Debbie Goforth, all of Batesville; six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.