Mary Elizabeth Jeffries

Mary Elizabeth “Liz” Jeffries passed away at her home in Sherman, Texas, on May 18, 2012 at age 88. Funeral services will be held 10:00 am Friday May 25, 2012 at Runge Mortuary. Visitation will be Thursday May 24, 2012 from 4-7 pm at Runge Mortuary. Burial will be at Rock Island National Cemetery. Memorials can be made to the Salvation Army. Online condolences can be made to the family at www.rungemortuary.com.

Liz was born July 1923 in New London, Missouri, the youngest of six children and the only girl. In 1947 she married Raymond E Jeffries of Hannibal, Missouri. In 1948 she gave birth to a son, Richard, in Davenport, Iowa. Liz was widowed in 1987 when Raymond succumbed to cancer. She moved to Texas in 2001 to be near her son Richard.

Liz was a Cub Scout Den Mother. She and Ray managed a Dad’s Club Baseball team at Sudlow Junior High. In the early 1960s she worked at Suburban Lanes and eventually became General Manager. In the late 1960s and early 1970s she worked as cook at the Plaza Bowl Restaurant in Bettendorf. In the mid-1970s Liz and Ray moved to an acreage north of Long Grove and raised vegetables, chickens, pigs and steers, cats and dogs.

Liz’s hobbies included gardening, baseball, bowling, pistol and rifle shooting. She joined the LeClaire Sportsmen Pistol Club in 1979. She was a member of both the Arsenal Marksmen Pistol Club and the Milan Rifle Club, and was an NRA Certified Firearms Instructor. Liz competed in National Championship rifle and pistol tournaments between 1981 and 1988 in New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and California and received several trophies. She continued competing at local shooting events until 2004.

Mary is survived by her son, Richard, of Sherman, Texas.

Preceding her in death were her parents Paul Gilbert and Mary Stuart Lake, husband Raymond Jeffries, and 5 brothers Stuart, Thomas, John, Louis, and Richard Lake.