DEXTER -- Funeral for Joe Hunter of Dexter will be held at 2 p.m. today at First Baptist Church, with the Rev. Wayne Dismuke officiating. Burial will be in Dexter Cemetery.

Watkins and Sons Funeral Home at Dexter is in charge of arrangements.

Hunter, 74, died Wednesday, April 1, 1998, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston.

He was born Sept. 7, 1923, in Memphis, Tenn., son of Joe Abner and Essa Elizabeth Mosley Hunter Sr. He and Beverly Webb Greer were married Sept. 30, 1966, at Marble Hill.

Hunter owned and operated Dexter Sales and Service more than 40 years. He had been a resident of Dexter the past 52 years.

He was a member of First Baptist Church, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, Dexter Elks Lodge 2439, and Masonic Lodge 532. He served in the U.S. Air Force.

Survivors include his wife; six sons, Tom and Lance Espey, Stacy and Matt Greer, all of Dexter, Joey Hunter of Omaha, Neb., Tracy Green of Lakenheath, U.K.; two daughters, Melinda Hunter of Las Vegas, Nev., Debbie Hunter of Colorado Springs, Colo.; four sisters, Floy Bedgood of Rex, Ga., Betty Hunter of Huntsville, Ala., Edna Helluns of Middleton, Tenn., Shirley Cogbill of Ashland City, Tenn.; a brother, James Hunter of Panama City, Fla.; and 12 grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by a daughter and a brother.