Mattie Byars

Marietta Monitor

October 8, 1993, page 4

Submitted by: Martha N. Reddout

Services for Mattie Byars, 99, were Saturday at 2:00 p.m. in the Nazarene Baptist Church, Burneyville. Officiating was Rev. Elmo Toles, Jr.

Mrs. Byars was born April 16, 1894, in Berwyn, Indian Territory, and died September 28, 1993, in Oklahoma City. She was the daughter of Pinkney and Mary Wells Pitts.

She had lived in Marietta and Burneyville before moving to Oklahoma City in 1972. Mrs. Byars was a homemaker and a member of the Nazarene Baptist Church at Burneyville. She married Rayford Byars on February 6, 1913, at Burneyville.

Survivors include three sons, Willie Byars of Jamaica, New York, Henry Byars of Oklahoma City, and Rayford Byars, Jr.of Gainesville, Texas; a daughter, Eva Downey of Oklahoma City; 21 grandchildren, 37 great-grandchildren, 6 great-great-grandchildren, and a host of step-grandchildren.

Services were under the direction of the Anderson-Kennedy Funeral Home with interment in the Dunbar Cemetery, Burneyville. Grandsons served as casket bearers.