Funeral Services for Mary Lou Hart are 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014, at First Baptist Church in Brookhaven with burial in East Haven City Cemetery. Brookhaven Funeral Service, 894 Natchez Drive, is in charge of arrangements.

Visitation is Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014, from 12:30 until time of service at First Baptist Church.

Mrs. Hart died Sunday, Dec. 28, 2014, at Hattiesburg Health and Rehab where she had lived for the last seven years of her life suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. She was born on June 13, 1926, in Bogue Chitto to Pink and Glydis Brister Smith.

Mrs. Hart grew up in Bogue Chitto attending Bogue Chitto Baptist Church, Bogue Chitto schools and Bogue Chitto High School in 1944.

In April 1944, Mary Lou married Robert Dedrick Hart “RD” of the Hog Chain community outside of Brookhaven. After a few years of marriage, Dedrick and Mrs. Hart settled in the Hog Chain community to raise their four children. During her years in Lincoln County, she spent her life loving, nurturing and providing for the needs and care of her family, friends, and others.

Her true heart was cooking delicious food, gardening vegetables for her tasty dishes and her pride and joy – a beautiful rose garden and day lily bed along Hog Chain road. During Mrs. Hart’s lifetime, she taught Sunday school lessons, was an active member of her church’s ministries, was a member of King Daughter’s Ladies Auxiliary and was a member of Brookhaven Garden Club.

Preceding her in death were her parents; husband, Robert Dedrick Hart; son, Robert Keith Hart; grandson, Clay Hart; and sister, Nevon McGehee.

Survivors are her two daughters, Mary Patricia Penny and Sarah Carolyn Clark, both of Petal; one son, Richard Dedrick Hart of Aberdeen, Scotland; eight grandchildren; and ten great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, family has requested donations be made to Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation, 110 East 42nd Street, 16th Floor, New York, New York 10017 and Wounded Warriors of Mississippi, ATTN: Cheryl Bruce, 1357 Wade Patrick Road, Brandon, MS 39042.