Extracted from The Brookhaven Daily Leader (Brookhaven, MS)
Sunday, March 5, 2006

Elease Hutchinson Deer

Elease Hutchinson Deer, 89, of McComb, died March 1, 2006, at her daughter's home in Bogue Chitto.

Visitation is 5 to 9 p.m tonight at Jones Family Funeral Services and continues Friday at Navilla Baptist Church from 10 a.m. until services at 11 a.m., with the Rev. Brent Parker officiating. Burial will be in the church cemetery.

Mrs. Deer was born Feb. 7, 1917, in Amite County, to Robert and Velma Whittington Hutchinson. She was a homemaker, and her family said she was a loving, wonderful mother who was always happiest when with her family.

Being deaf all of her life, she played a major roll in starting a Sunday school class for the deaf at First Baptist Church of McComb in the early 1960s. The Rev. Wyatt Hunter gave the class a room in the old First Baptist Church building that was located in downtown McComb. They also had a ministry for the deaf at Navilla Baptist under the Rev. Robert Hughes.

Mrs. Deer loved the Lord and loved being involved in the ministry for the deaf. It was a very wonderful time in her life when the church allowed them to have a room of their own, a place where they could meet and fellowship with one another. She had truly missed being with her deaf friends through her recent illness.

Mrs. Deer was preceded in death by her parents; her husband of 67 years, Hebert Marion Deer; two brothers, Nolen and J.R. Hutchinson; two sisters, Donis May and Florence Gatlin; three grandsons, David and Jeffery Deer and Mark Kent; a son-in-law, Tommy Kent; a daughter-in-law, Delilla Spears Deer; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Survivors include a son and daughter-in-law, Hubert and Doris Brown Deer of Smithdale; two daughters and a son-in-law, Hazel Deer Kent and Patsy Deer Dillon McInnis and Billy, all of Bogue Chitto; two sisters and a brother-in-law, Eileen Cato of McComb and Audrey and Woody Wilson of Byron, Ga.; five grandchildren, Keith Deer and wife Tracy, Kevin Deer, Roger Kent and wife Robin, Michelle Teague and husband John, and Stacy Dillon; great-grandchildren, Jess Kent, Kaile and Kyle Young, Dale Kent, Kodie Kent, Meloni Stewart, Summer Teague, Luke Teague, Natalie Grace Deer, Brittney, Taylor and Hailey Dillon; and four great-great-grandchildren, Ariana Young, Autumn Teague, Shanna Teague and Jacob Teague.

Pallbearers are Mike, Jimmy and Harrell Deer, Kenny Gatlin, Greg Maxwell and Gene Nunnery. Honorary pallbearers are Billy Nunnery, Jack Gatlin, Tom Bently and Even Lee Barron.