Funeral services for Mrs. Katie Mae Howard were held on Saturday, Dec. 12, 2015 at noon from First Missionary Baptist Church. Rev. Lionel Davis officiated. Burial followed in Magnolia Cemetery. Hudson Funeral Services of Greenville, Ala., directed.

Mrs. Katie M. Howard was the oldest of 16 children born in Greenville, Ala., on Sept. 19, 1919 to the union of Alice Stone and Jessie Peagler and raised by her stepfather, the late Arasher Stone. At an early age she confessed Christ and joined First Missionary Baptist Church of Greenville, Ala.

Katie later moved to Mobile, Ala., and united in holy matrimony to the late Mr. Willie B. Howard and to this union two children were born. While in Mobile, she joined Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church, where she served faithfully as an usher and a deaconess. She was employed by Meyercord Compound until her retirement. She then moved back to Greenville and served faithfully again with the First Missionary Baptist Church until her health began to fail her serving as a deaconess and on the usher board. On Monday evening, Dec. 7, 2015 at around 5:30 p.m. at Crowne Nursing Home, God whispered softly and Katie responded quietly and peacefully she slipped into eternity.

She was preceded in death by her daughter, Ida Mae Ransom; sister and brothers, Nelson (Minnie) Stone, Richard, Lee, Walter Sr., Lewis and James Stone, Curtis McCoy, Lula (Eugene) Roshell and Lucille (Ellis) Grace; and brothers-in-law, Comer Allen and Bob Dale.

She leaves to cherish her memories her son, Willie Jr., (Dorothy) Howard, Phoenix, Ariz.; six grandchildren, brother, Willie Stone, Greenville, Ala.; six sisters, devoted caregiver, Daisy (Elijah) Palmer, Greenville, Ala.; Mary Alice, Lola Allen, Loree Crenshaw and Lobea Stone, all of

Birmingham, Ala.; Jesse Lynn Peagler, Cincinnati, OH; devoted cousin, Willie Mae Robinson, Greenville, Ala.; loving extended Meyercord family, Champ (Anne), Susie (Pat), Duff (Bonnie), Pam (Tom) a host of great-grandchildren, nieces, one special, Loletta (Cornelius) Palmer-Kemp,

Greenville, Ala.; nephews other relatives and friends.