Melba Lee Hillis, 79, of Gideon, Mo., died Friday, Dec. 8, 2006, at the Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center in Poplar Bluff, Mo.

Born Dec. 19, 1926, in Clarkton, Mo., daughter of the late A.D. and Nettie Langston House, she was a member of the New Life Fellowship Church in Campbell, Mo.

On May 28, 1943, in Campbell, Mo., she married Clarence Hillis, who survives of the home.

Survivors also include two sons, Danny Hillis, of O'Fallon, Mo., and James Hillis, of Jackson, Mo.; five daughters, Brenda Riddle and Carol Gray, both of Malden, Mo., Sandra Holt, of Clarkton and Diane and Jan Ray, both of Gideon; one sister, Pauline Payne, of Qulin, Mo.; 19 grandchildren and 36 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services were held at 4 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 10, at the Bradshaw Funeral Home Chapel in Malden with the Rev. Raymond Ledbetter officiating.

Burial was in the Mt. Gilead Cemetery at Clarkton.