Jo Ann Watson Yates

View Funeral WebcastMrs. Jo Ann Watson Yates, 71, resident of Kimberly Drive, died Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at NHC Columbia. Funeral services will be conducted at 1 p.m. Friday at Oakes & Nichols with John Vaughan and Michael Knox officiating. Entombment will follow in Polk Memorial Gardens Mausoleum. The family will visit with friends Thursday from 4 - 7 p.m. and Friday from 12noon until time of service at the funeral home. Memorials may be made to Holt International Children's Services, 1195 City View, Attn: Jack Wharfield, Eugene, Oregon, 97402 or Freed Hardeman Associates, c/o Freed Hardeman University, 158 E. Main St., Henderson, Tennessee, 38340. Notes of sympathy may be sent to the family at www.oakesandnichols.com. The Parma, Missouri native was the daughter of the late William Watson and Willie Oliver Watson. She was a graduate of Parma High School in Missouri and a member of Freed Hardeman Associates. Mrs. Yates was a member of Graymere Church of Christ. Survivors include her husband of fifty-two years, Thomas Alexander Yates of Columbia; daughter, Cary (Michael) Haggard of Ft. Benning, Georgia; two sons, Wan (Brenda) Yates of Madison, Alabama, Kendle (Carmen) Yates of Brentwood; grandchildren, Seth Haggard, Sydney Haggard, Sable Haggard, Titus Haggard, Luke Yates, Heath Yates, Alec Yates; three sisters, Dorothy (M.J.) Reaves of Searcy, Arkansas, Venita Woods of St. Louis, Missouri, Terry Hudgens of Paragould, Arkansas; and brothers, Paul (Ann) Watson of Enville, Curtis (Ruth Ann) Watson of Clio, Michigan. She was preceded in death by a sister, Dean Belew. Pallbearers will be Steven Watson, Mark Crisp, Harold Pirtle, John Bentley, Tracy Ring and Melvin Reaves.