Ruby C. Millard

Ruby Christine Millard, of Miami, Okla., died Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009, at Integris Baptist Regional Health Center in Miami. She was 89. Mrs. Millard was born Oct. 7, 1919, in Adams, Okla., to James Harvey and Mary Alabama (Cross) DeWeese. She had lived in the Picher, Commerce area most of her life. She graduated from Picher High School in 1938. She was a member of the First Free Will Baptist Church of Miami. She had worked at Northeastern Oklahoma A and M College, cleaned houses, Glenn Berrys and was a foster grandparent at Picher. She was preceded in death by her parents; her first husband, James Harvey Lawhead, on April 14, 1976; her second husband, Roy Edward Millard, on March 15, 2001; and a grandson, Richard Wayne Lawhead. Survivors include two sons, Jerry L. Lawhead, of Baxter Springs, Kan., and James R. Lawhead, of Baxter Springs; six daughters, Janis A. Turner, of Monkey Island, Okla., Mary A. Purscelley, of Quapaw, Okla., Emily Buchanan, of Twin Bridges, Okla., Dorothy Bennett, of Colcord, Okla., Faye Marlene Boyd, of Tulsa, Okla., and Deborah Sargent, of Joplin, Mo.; 23 grandchildren; 40 great-grandchildren; four great-great-grandchildren; and many cousins, friends and relatives. Funeral services will be Friday, Sept. 25, at 2 p.m. at the Paul Thomas Funeral Home in Miami. Pastor Bruce Thurman and Pastor Mark Goode will officiate. Grandsons will serve as Pallbearers. Interment will be in G.A.R. Cemetery in Miami. The family will receive friends from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24, at the Paul Thomas Funeral Home in Commerce, Okla. Online condolences may be made at paulthomasfuneralhomes.com