GLADYS BILYEU

ANNA, Ill. -- Funeral for Gladys Hood Bilyeu of Huntsville, Texas, will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Anna United Methodist Church. The Rev. Richard Sullins will officiate. Burial will be in Masonic Cemetery at Metropolis.

Friends may call at the church from noon until service time.

Crain Funeral Home in Anna is in charge of arrangements.

Bilyeu, 100, died Friday, Feb. 4, 2000, at Fair Park Nursing Home in Huntsville.

She was born April 14, 1899, in McLeansboro, daughter of Robert and Mary Ella Jones Merrell. She and Jasper Sharp Hood were married March 26, 1919, in McLeansboro. He died in 1942. She later married Tom Bilyeu in 1961. He died in 1971.

Bilyeu was formerly of Anna. She was a dress designer and seamstress, later retiring from the former Anna State Hospital in 1964.

She was a lifelong member of Anna United Methodist Church.

Survivors include three daughters, Merrell Baker of Upland, Calif., Lucille Lillie of Scottsdale, Ariz., Mary Lou Graman of Huntsville; a son, Jasper Hood of West Hills, Calif.; a sister, Helen Austin of McLeansboro; numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.