Palestine High School Alumni Association

00 00 / 0000  –  10 / 06 / 1980

Funeral services for Mrs. W. D. “Melza” Woodard, 62, of Palestine will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in the Bailey Funeral Home Memorial Chapel with the Rev. Bill Leediker and the Rev. Roy Williamson officiating.  Burial will be in Land of Memory Cemetery.  Mrs. Woodard died Sunday in Anderson County Memorial Hospital.

Mrs. Woodard was born in Hobart, OK, a daughter of the late N.R. and Prudence Shaddock Thurman.  She graduated from Palestine High School and was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Palesine.  She had lived abroad with her husband in Pakistan, Spain, and England.  While in Pakistan, she was manager of the USAID Staff House.

Survivors include her husband, Willie D. Woodard of Palestine; daughter, Mrs. J. C. “Jan” McDowell of Austin; brother, Col. Ret. Duke Thurman of Dallas; sister, Mrs. Elton “Margaret” Myers of Athens; grandchildren, Cole and Duke McDowell, both of Austin.

Pallbearers will be Jim Crook, Jimmy Dickey, Bubba Mitchell, Weldon Bynum, Julian Hunt, Harold Kennedy, Alton Rushing and Jack Bradsher.

Honorary pallbearers are Judge Tate McCain, Chester Hendricks, Jack Bussey, Joe Alexander, Dr. Fred Felder, and Dr. L.R. Mathis.