Services for Elsie May Dawkins, 92, who died Saturday, Dec. 16, 2006, at Natchez Community Hospital, were held 1 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2006, at Laird Funeral Home Union Street Chapel with the Rev. Dr. John Larson officiating.

Burial followed at Union Church Cemetery under the direction of Laird Funeral Home.

Mrs. Dawkins was born Nov. 10, 1914, in Chase, La., the daughter of Henry Imon and Martha Eveline Coulter McDuff. She taught school for several years in Crowville, La. She retired as director of Jefferson County Welfare Department in 1980, after 31 years of service. She was a member of Friends Five O and served as a volunteer at Natchez Community Hospital. She was a member of First Presbyterian Church of Natchez and was a docent of the Gandy collection at Stratton Chapel.

Mrs. Dawkins was preceded in death by her parents; and her husband, Ernest E. Dawkins Sr.

Survivors include four sons, Ernest E. Dawkins Jr. of Picayune, Imon McDuff Dawkins and his wife, Betty, of Vidalia, Stephen Fairley Dawkins and his wife, Brenda, of Vicksburg and Walter E. Dawkins II, M.D. of Natchez; eight grandchildren, Dwight McDuff Dawkins of Memphis, Tenn., Penny Ables of Vicksburg, Barrie Ann Dawkins of Picayune, Walter E. Dawkins III of Memphis, Tenn., Tammy Steed and her husband, Ray, of Vicksburg, Laura Dawkins of Nashville, Tenn., Stephen Imon Dawkins and his wife, Emily, of Baton Rouge and Michael Dustin Dawkins and his wife, Tori, of Vidalia; five great-grandchildren; and two sisters, Grace Arnold of West Monroe and Katie Christensen and her husband, Jim, of Temple, Texas.

Pallbearers were Ernest E. Dawkins Jr., Imon McDuff Dawkins, Stephen Fairley Dawkins, Walter E. Dawkins II, M.D., Dwight McDuff Dawkins and Walter E. Dawkins III.