Extracted from the Pine Bluff Commercial (Pine Bluff, AR)
Friday, March 12, 1959

M. J. Anders, 84, Football Pioneer

Special to The Commercial

WARREN -- M. J. Anders, 84, a former school superintendent and attorney at Eudora, died Wednesday at Warren. He was born in Jersey in Bradley County and taught school and coached football at Warren for several years.

Mr. Anders was one of the men who introduced football in this area. He had been superintendent at schools in Hermitage and Dermott and was superintendent at the schools in Eudora in the 1930s. He practiced law in Eudora for many years after retiring from the teaching profession.

He attended Washington and Lee University at Lexington, Va., and while there met Judge D.A. Bradham of South Carolina who came to Warren because of Mr. Anders' influence. Judge Bradham is a retired chancellor of the 10th Judicial District.

Mr. Anders was a member of the Chicot County and Arkansas Bar Associations. He was a charter member and deacon at the Eudora Baptist Church and had taught Sunday school there for more than 40 years.

Survivors include one son, John Anders of Crossett; five daughters, Mrs. John Elliott of Henderson, Tex., Mrs. Ray Weatherall of McGehee, Mrs. Buford Bracy of Sarasota, Fla., Mrs. William Spratlin of Dermott and Mrs. R. W. Eddland of Madison, Wis.; two brothers, F. O. Anders of Osceola and W. F. Anders of Warren; and two sisters, Mrs. Harvey Rowland of Warren and Mrs. James Johnson of Jersey.

Funeral services were held this afternoon at Eudora Baptist Church. Burial was in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Eudora by Gay Funeral Home.