Louretta Lee Kelly Southerland

Louretta Lee Kelly Southerland, age 99, passed away Saturday, June 23, 2012 in Conway. She was born November 30, 1912 in Vinita, Oklahoma to the late Alonzo Harrison and Loella Grace Lee Kelly. Her parents moved by covered wagon into Indian Territory before it became the state of Oklahoma. She married Carl Southerland in Muskogee, Oklahoma February 15, 1934 and they celebrated their 67th anniversary before his passing in 2001. Mrs. Southerland was a member of Pickles Gap Baptist Church since moving to Arkansas in 1938. As the oldest member of the church, she was able to recall over seventy years of church events and recently wrote a History of the Pickles Gap Baptist Church. Copies of the history were placed in the Faulkner County Library, the Church Library, and copies were distributed throughout the congregation. She enjoyed crocheting and writing poetry, and had several poems published in the Log Cabin's poetry section.

She is survived by her three daughters and their husbands: Carleta and Harvel Wright of Knoxville, Tennessee, Helen and Herbert Clements of Sherwood, and Audrey and Jerry Bartley of Conway. Also surviving are seven grandchildren:
Michael Wright and Nancy W. Grady of Tennessee, Sherry C. Carroll of Wooster, Greg Clements of Jacksonville, Jeannie B. Haas and Janet B. Kirsch of Georgia, Jill B. Hutchins of Maumelle, fourteen great-grandchildren, and one great great grandchild.
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Services are 10:00 am Wednesday, June 27, 2012 at Pickles Gap Baptist Church. Interment will be at Macedonia Cemetery. Serving as pallbearers will be Mel Hutchins, Ethan Hutchins, Greg Clements, Jimmy Carroll, Tanner Carroll, and Michael Wright. Honorary pallbearers will be Billy Hightower, and Charles Day.

Visitation will be from 6 to 8 pm Tuesday with the family receiving friends at Roller McNutt Funeral Home in Conway with Brother Laramie LeQuien officiating.