Memorial for area Iraq veteran held today in Portageville

PORTAGEVILLE, Mo. -- Memorial services for Maj. Gloria Dean Davis, 47, of Portageville, will be conducted at 11 a.m. today at DeLisle Funeral Home Chapel, 209 W. Main St. in Portageville.

The Rev. Kirk Dunvan will officiate. Military rites will be held in the Portageville Cemetery, with DeLisle Funeral Home of Portageville in charge of arrangements.

Services will begin at 10:30 a.m. today at Portageville High School, where people are invited to line the funeral route from the school to the funeral home chapel about 12 blocks away.

DeLisle expects a large turnout including family and church members, and representatives from Bootheel police and fire departments, the Missouri National Guard and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Davis died Dec. 12 while stationed at Camp Victory in Iraq. A military funeral was held Dec. 22 in Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington, D.C.

Davis was an 18-year Army veteran, serving in numerous positions of increasing responsibility from platoon leader to company commander and assistant professor of military science to contracting officer in California, Albania, Korea, Kuwait and Iraq.

Davis was assigned to the Defense Security Assistance Agency in Washington, D.C., the Defense Department said. She was deployed to Iraq in September and had been stationed in Baghdad.