Gertrude Josephine Miller Downing

Funeral services for Gertrude Josephine Miller Downing, 93, Lawrence, will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home. Private burial will be in Bethel Cemetery in Springdale. Mrs. Downing died Sunday, Feb. 11, 2007, at Pioneer Ridge Retirement Community in Lawrence.She was born Sept. 16, 1913, in Kansas City, Kan., the daughter of George Leroy and Gertrude Transue Miller. She attended school in Lawrence, where she was a lifelong resident.Mrs. Downing was a homemaker and attended Lone Star Church of the Brethren.She married Elmer Pine on April 23, 1934. They divorced. She married Elmer Leslie Downing on Jan. 1, 1963. He died Jan. 16, 1985. A stepson, Leslie Downing, also died earlier.Survivors include a daughter, Nancy Burchett, Lawrence; two stepsons, Marlen Downing, Prescott, Ariz., and Clifford Downing, Lawrence; two stepdaughters, Arletta Flory, Lawrence, and Lois Gaines, Overbrook; a brother, Richard Miller, Lawrence; six sisters, Helen Smith and Frances Wales, both of Lawrence, Arlene Poe, Woodland Hills, Calif., Dorothy Cox, Sacramento, Calif., Edith Wilcox, Topeka, and Margaret Roark, Broadview, Mont.; two grandchildren; 16 stepgrandchildren; two great-grandchildren; 31 stepgreat-grandchildren; and 22 stepgreat-great-grandchildren.Friends may call from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday at Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home, where the family will receive them from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday.The family suggests memorials to Lone Star Church of the Brethren or the Lawrence Humane Society, sent in care of the funeral home.Online condolences may be sent at www.rumsey-yost.com.