ALMA NISWONGER

PATTON -- Funeral service for Alma Irene Niswonger of Patton will be held at 2 p.m. today at Liley Funeral Home in Patton. The Rev. Howard Hardeman and Dr. Larry Gallamore will officiate, with burial in Post Oak Cemetery.

Niswonger, 91, died Sunday, March 16, 1997, at Jackson Manor in Jackson.

She was born April 1, 1905, on a farm in Hamilton County, Ill., daughter of Wesley and Alice Pool Robinson. She was reared by an aunt, Sarah Reed of Cabool, after her parents died when she was 5. She and Oscar D. Niswonger were married Nov. 20, 1924. He died Oct. 22, 1972.

Niswonger worked at Fred Harvey Restaurant in Union Station in Kansas City. Her husband became a pastor and they were appointed to churches in Marquand, Ironton, Lutesville, Van Buren, Labadie, Oran, Campbell, Advance, Linn, Maple Avenue United Methodist in Cape Girardeau, Patton, Perryville, Potosi and Sullivan. After 50 years of service to the church they retired to the family farm in Patton.

She is survived by three sons, O. David Niswonger of Cape Girardeau, Ivy Wesley Niswonger of Patton and Paul R. Niswonger of San Diego, Calif.; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.