Erma L. Irwin

Erma L. Irwin, 90, Springfield, formerly of Liberal, Mo., died Thursday, Dec. 16, 2004, at St. John's Regional Health Center, Springfield, following a lengthy illness. She was born Nov. 4, 1914, in Barton County, Mo., to Jesse Roy Thornton and Edna Lennie Thomas Thornton. She married Herbert Anson Irwin in July 1936 at the United Methodist Church in Nevada. He preceded her in death in 1986.

Erma graduated from Liberal High School and then attended Southwest Missouri State. She taught grades first through eighth at Shiloh School in Barton County for two years. She was a homemaker and farm wife most of her life. She was a member of the Liberal Methodist and the Bronaugh Methodist churches.

Survivors include one daughter, Peggy Scheloski, Garfield, Ark.; one son, Ray Irwin, Springfield; five grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; one sister, Ethel Hoffman, Webb City, Mo.; one brother-in-law, Don Irwin and his wife, Evelyn, Bronaugh; one sister-in-law, Ann Wolfe, Nevada; and numerous nieces and nephews. In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by one son-in-law, Jim Scheloski, in 1996; and one daughter-in-law, Connie Irwin, in 1984.

Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 20, at the Bronaugh Methodist Church, Bronaugh, with pastors Bill Radford and John Swatosh officiating. Interment will follow in Worsley Cemetery, Bronaugh. Friends may call now and until 9 a.m. on Monday at Ferry Funeral Home, Nevada. The family receives friends 5-6 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 19, at the funeral home.

Those who wish may contribute to the Liberal Methodist Church or the Bronaugh Methodist Church in care of Ferry Funeral Home, Nevada.