M. Gail Wilkerson, 74, of House Springs, Mo., and a former Benton resident, died at 6:18 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 19, 2010, in St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Louis.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 26, in the Leffler-Poulson Funeral Home, with the Rev. Karl Barnfield officiating. Burial will be in the Franklin Cemetery near Whittington. Visitation will be from noon to 2 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home.
Mrs. Wilkerson was born on Dec. 20, 1935, in Benton, the daughter of Kenneth H. Hill and Effie M. (Loucks) Hill. She married Joseph W. Wilkerson on Sept. 12, 1959, in Benton.
Mrs. Wilkerson was a secretary, having last worked and retired from the Special School District in St. Louis. She enjoyed the many friends and acquaintances she made through the Iris Club, the Rock Garden Club, Herbal Society, Friends of the Library (where she was a volunteer), the Dining Damsels, the International Travel Club, and the Oakland House Group.
When she lived in Benton, she attended and got married at the First Church of the Nazarene.
Survivors include her husband of 50 years, Joseph W. Wilkerson of House Springs, Mo.; a son: John Wilkerson and wife Susan of College Park, Md.; a daughter: Kimberly and husband Chuck Valdaz of Anaheim, Calif.; four grandchildren, Maxwell Nishimoto, Hanna Nishimoto and Phebe Nishimoto, all of Anaheim, Calif., and Ginger Wilkerson of College Park, Md.; one brother, Kenneth Dale "Red" Hill and wife, Pat, of Benton; and a niece, Jamie and husband Jimmy Neal and family of Benton.
She was preceded in death by her parents.
