Beverly Forrest, 78

A celebration of the life of Beverly Forrest, 78, of Gainesville will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, 2017, at The Center on Highway 5 north at the Gainesville city limits. Mrs. Forrest died Oct. 11 at Cox South Hospital in Springfield. 

She was born Dec. 17, 1938, in West Frankfort, Illinois, the daughter of William and Hattie McCollum. She graduated from high school in West Frankfort and later worked for more than 20 years for the Federal Aviation Administration in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 

In 2009, she married Lewis Miles, and a few years later they moved to Gainesville to be closer to Mrs. Forrest’s sisters, Opal Bearden of Gainesville and Joyce Cooper, who lived in West Plains at the time.

She loved to crochet and made many baby hats that she gave to the Ozark County Health Department for the Newborns in Need program. Her favorite thing in recent years was volunteering at The Center in Gainesville.

Survivors include her husband, Lewis Miles; five children, Mary Morgenstern and husband Bruce of Pinckneyville, Illinois, Barbara Barnett and husband James of Byhalia, Mississippi, Jimmie Saunders and wife Paula of Benton, Illinois, Jerry Saunders and wife Kim of California and Billie Forrest of Illinois; four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren; two sisters, Opal Bearden of Gainesville and Joyce Cooper of Evansville, Indiana; and many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband Jimmie Saunders and husband Wilbur Forrest; one brother, Billy McCollum; and one sister, Sharon Swafford.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Cystic Fibrosis Association and may be mailed to Barbara Barnett, 116 Vance Cove, Byhalia, MS 38611.

Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

Phone: (417) 679-4641
Fax: (417) 679-3423