BATESVILLE — Judith Howard, 50, died Monday, December 3, 2012, at Baptist Memorial Hospital – Desoto.

Services were held Wednesday at Wells Funeral Home. Rev. Terry Caine officiated. Burial was in Forrest Memorial Park Cemetery. Wells Funeral Home had charge.

Howard, born July 17, 1962, in New Orleans, La., to Hubert W. and Maxine L. Ainsworth Burns, was a Baptist and a homemaker.

She was preceded in death by her father who raised her, Paul Robert Perkins.

Survivors include: one daughter, Kyra Bell Tyson of Batesville; her mother, Maxine L. Perkins of Oakland; her father, Hubert W. Burns of Bassfield; three sisters, Gwendolyn McMahon of Slidell, La., Rosanna Moore of Horn Lake and Janice Tramel of Oakland; and two grandchildren.

The family asks anyone wishing to give memorial donations, to forward them to American Heart Association, P.O. Box 840692, Dallas, Texas, 75284 or The American Lung Association, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Suite 800, Washington, D.C. 20004.

SALTILLO — Opal Workman Hales, 90, died Thursday, December 6, 2012 at her daughter’s home in Saltillo. She was the widow of Raymond Hales.

Services were held Sunday at Wells Funeral Home Chapel, with Rev. Howard Beam officiating. Burial was in Longtown Cemetery. Wells Funeral Home had charge.

She was born in Harrisburg, Ark., on May 28, 1922 to  the late Robert F. Workman and the late Lola Burrow Workman. Opal married Raymond Hales in 1942. She spent most of her life in the Mississippi Delta living in Sledge, Marks, Lambert and Sardis.

Mrs. Hales helped manage and work the family farm, worked as a seamstress in a clothing factory; and served as a nanny for two grandsons in Sardis. She ended her career as an adult caregiver at the age of 82.

Mrs. Hales was preceded in death by her parents, one brother, David Workman, and a sister, Geneva Davis.

Survivors include three daughters: Carolyn (Bobby) Crouch of Saltillo, Linda (Jimmy) Crouch of Pontotoc, Brenda Hales of Sardis, and one son, Dr. Randy (Margaret) Hales of Minden, La.; seven grandchildren: Rodney, Michael, Chuck, Nathan, Christy, Jonathan Crouch and Bethany Hales Sharp; 18 great-grandchildren; sister, Lorena Bronson of Sardis, one brother, Robert F. (Mabel) Workman, Jr. of Sledge, and her sister-in-law, Joyce Workman of Crenshaw.

Memorials may be made to First Baptist Church, 108 West Lee St., Sardis, Miss. 38666

POPE – John Mark Pickett, age 52, husband of Rachel Pickett, died on Monday, 12/10/12, at his residence.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, December 12, at Wells Funeral Home Chapel. Interment to follow in Chapel Hill Cemetery, Pope. Visitation will be held Wednesday from 11 a.m. until service time. Wells Funeral Home has charge of arrangements.

John Mark was born to Joseph Barney and Elizabeth Jones Pickett on July 5, 1960, in Memphis. He graduated from South Panola High School then Northwest Community College. Afterwards he enrolled at The University of Tennessee-Martin, where he received his Agricultural Economics degree. John Mark was a Cattleman, Roper and Bulldogger. He received the Rookie of the Year Award in 1981 from The Professional Rodeo Cowboy’s Association (P.R.C.A.)

Survivors include his wife, Rachel Callahan Pickett of Pope, two children, Elizabeth Grayson Pickett and John Cade Pickett, his mother, Elizabeth Jones Pickett of Pope and two brothers, Joseph Rodney Pickett also of Pope and Joel Stanton Pickett of Greenville, IL.

In John Mark’s memory, the family asks that memorials be sent to The NWCC Foundation, Rodeo Scholarship Fund, 4975 Hwy 51 North, Senatobia, MS 38668 or The University of Tennessee-Martin, Office of Development, 554 University St., Martin, TN 38238.