Services for Willie Beard of Brookhaven are 2 p.m., Sunday, Feb.24, at Damascus M. B. Church with burial in Ebenezer ChurchCemetery.

Visitation is Saturday from 1-7 p.m. with family hour from 6-7p.m. at Williams Mortuary.

Mr. Beard, 81, died Feb. 19, 2002, at King’s Daughters MedicalCenter. He was born in Lincoln County on March 23, 1920, to GeorgeBeard and Ellen Smith Beard.

He was retired from Columbus/Hill Behan Lumber Company with 35years service. He was a member of Damascus M. B. Church. He was anArmy veteran of WWII.

Preceding him in death were his parents; his wife, Dessie ReeStapleton Beard; his brothers, Matthew, Frank, Luke and LenyonBeard; his sisters, Ruthie Beard, Pinkie Wallace, Mattie Owens,Dora Upkins, and Ada Humphrey; his sons, Willie Lee Beard and JohnCurtis Beard; and his daughter, Lurline Beard.

Survivors are his son, Lawrence Lee Beard of Brookhaven; hisdaughters, Dorethen Holman of Brookhaven, Tyrethis Penrice ofChicago, Willie Ann Benjamin and Carolyn Humphries, both ofBrookhaven, and Alberta Leach of Lansing, Mich.; his brothers,Lucien Beard and Lindsay Beard, both of Lansing; his sister,Florence Steward of Lansing; and 13 grandchildren and 13great-grandchildren.