Arkie Lee Messer

Graveside funeral services for Arkie Lee Messer, 89, Eudora, will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Pleasant Valley Cemetery in Stanley.Mrs. Messer died Friday, June 8, 2007, at Eudora Nursing Center.She was born Oct. 23, 1917, in Ashland, the daughter of John Wesley and Mary Brooks Stapleton. She moved to Olathe as a youth and later lived in Gardner before she moved to Eudora to be with her family.Mrs. Messer owned a secretarial company that made labels for seed catalogs. She was a member of the Big O Square Dancers and Docey Dandies. She also enjoyed reading.She married Ervin Franz. He died in 1980. She married Vernon Messer. He died in 2003.Mrs. Messer also was preceded in death by her parents; a son, William Victor; and siblings William, Owen, Perry, Ellis, Harry, Mary and Minnie. Survivors include a son, Harold Richard “Dick” Victor, Gardner; two daughters, Sandra Louise Hagman, Mound City, and Laura Janette Eddings, Olathe; a brother, Andy Stapleton, Tacoma, Wash.; 13 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren. The family will receive friends from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday at Bruce Funeral Home in Gardner.The family suggests memorials to Eudora Nursing Center or Heart of America Hospice, sent in care of the funeral home, P.O. Box 192, Gardner 66030.