A memorial service for Bettie Jane Clark Lefort of Brookhaven will be held at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, March 18, 2015, at the Summit Seventh Day Adventist Church. Pastor Robert Meneses and Bro. Tom Burris will officiate. Hartman Funeral Home of McComb is in charge of arrangements.

Ms. Lefort, 85, died March 8, 2015, at McComb Nursing and Rehabilitation. She was born on July 26, 1929, in Onawa, Minnesota to Harvey Delbert Clark and Julia Josephine Ross.

Though she grew up in many places throughout the central United States, Ms. Bettie always referred to southern Missouri as her home. She raised her family in and around St. Louis, Missouri. She was a retired nurse anesthetist, whose career touched many lives. She was known for her exceptional bedside manner and for her unique ability to calm her patients before surgery. While in Mississippi, Ms. Bettie worked at King Daughter’s Hospital in Brookhaven from 1976 up until she retired in 1983 after practicing anesthesia for almost 30 years.

Ms. Bettie was known for her many artistic talents, including handmade porcelain dolls, sculpted to look like her children and grandchildren. She also was known as a talented seamstress, making designer outfits using homemade patterns. She loved to travel, criss-crossing the United States, Europe, Mexico and Canada, well into her senior years, until such time as her health failed.

Preceding her in death were her, her husband, Gerald Moise Lefort of California; three brothers, Harvey and Max of California and Howard of Nevada; and one sister, Mary Clark of Illinois.

Survivors are her four children, daughters, Susan G. Peterson and husband, Allen, of Holton, Michigan, Peggy J. Smith of Muskegon, Michigan, and Sharon J. Honea and husband, Jeff, of Glading, and her only son, Gerald (Jerry) R. Lefort of Columbia, Missouri; two brothers, Robert Clark and Ross Clark, both of Tennessee; six grandchildren, Eric Owen, Heather Lemmer and Calvin Smith, all of Michigan, Monica Andrews of Missouri, Miranda Rayborn of Hattiesburg and Christina Floyd, of San Antonio, Texas; as well as numerous great-grandchildren.