Joella May Simpson

Joella May Marshall

98, a resident of Prairie Grove went peacefully in her sleep from this tired world into her new adventure with her Lord and Savior, Saturday, April 7, 2018 in Prairie Grove. She was born July 14, 1919 in Topsy, TX, the daughter of Williiam Hutsie and Abner Druecilla Pierce Simpson.

From the age of about five years old and into her twenties, Joella and family worked the cotton fields of west Texas and east New Mexico. Planting, chopping, picking or pulling cotton was her daily life. Unable to afford one of the new-fangled automobiles, Joella’s father, mother, two brothers and six sisters traveled by covered wagon from one farm job to the next along the Texas and New Mexico state line. Picking up work where they could during the Great Depression and later through the Dust Bowl years, their team of horses, Brownie and Big Boy, got them where they had to be. At night the women would sleep inside the wagon and her father and brothers would sleep under it. Joella often had her meals cooked over cow chips which she and her sisters had to search around for.

In the later ‘30s and now married with small children, still pulling cotton, she would often lay a child on top of her 14 foot cotton sack to allow the child to nap while she continued to drag the ever heavier sack down one mile long rows.

Moving from New Mexico to Prairie Grove, Arkansas in 1951, she worked many years at Bear Brand Hosiery in Fayetteville, AR. Then, she worked 30 years for Baldwin Piano and Organ Company retiring as a Lead Supervisor.

She absolutely loved to work her garden and was extremely proficient at her second favorite pastime of playing dominos.

During her final days at Prairie Grove Health and Rehabilitation, her nick name among her many friends there was, Smiling Jo. In her 98 years Joella witnessed the advent of the automobile to the Space Station.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Charles Carroll Marshall, two brothers, Richard Simpson and Wenford Simpson; six sisters, Sarah Glen Simpson, Jewell Strain, Bell Heflin, Winnie Green, Johnnie Howard and Gwenn Kaiser; two grandchildren, Steven and Michael Ledbetter; one great grandchild, Elisabeth Ledbetter;

Survivors include two sons, Howard Marshall and wife Nadine of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, and Carroll “Ed” Marshall and wife Mary Jean of Cane Hill, Arkansas; three daughters, Betty Shamberger of Blue Ridge, Texas, La Nelle Davis of Jonesboro, Arkansas, and Kay Mayes and husband Preston of Paradise, Montana; one sister, Patsy Jean Lee of Albuquerque, New Mexico; fifteen grandchildren, Randy Ledbetter, Kerri Sampson, Dwayne Shamberger, Ceila Torres, Pamela Westberg, Debbie Hillman, Paula Brister, Howard Edwin Marshall, Danny Wade Marshall,Van Quincy Marshall, Wesley Edwin Marshall, Scott Alan Marshall, Jowana Buckner, Tina Jennings, and Bobbie Hall; thirty-one great grandchildren and twenty-two great-great children;

Family will receive Monday afternoon from 7:00 P.M. until 8:00 P.M. at the Luginbuel Chapel in Prairie Grove.

Funeral Service will be held Tuesday April 10, 2018 - 10:00 A.M. at the Luginbuel Chapel in Prairie Grove. Graveside services will not be held at the cemetery.

The service will be live streamed at www.luginbuel.com