NATCHEZ — Services for Yvonne “Ivon” Hall Loflin, 89, who died Friday, Feb. 4, 2011, a day after a massive stroke, at Natchez Community Hospital, will be at 4:30 p.m. today at Greenlawn Memorial Park Cemetery under the direction of Laird Funeral Home with the Rev. Jeff Brewer officiating.

Ms. Loflin was born on June 26, 1921, in Franklin County, the daughter of William Green Hall and Ruth Ravella Martin Hall.

Ivon was born into a family of nine other children. Her parents were farmers who presided over their large family with firmness and generosity of spirit. Ivon’s husband, James, worked in the oil fields for more than 20 years. After a disabling stroke that took his ability to speak clearly and limited his mobility, they lived on Edgewood Road in Montebello for many years. Stanley passed away on Dec. 31, 1979, and is buried in Greenlawn Memorial Park, where Ivon will be placed next to him.

After Ivon’s health declined and she sold her home in Montebello, she lived for two years with her son, Mack Loflin and his partner John DeTore Jr. in West Palm Beach, Fla., and subsequently for 10 months with her daughter and her husband, Lavonne and Keith Searing, in Baton Rouge, but nothing could keep her away from Natchez where she returned to reside at Glenburney Convalescence Center for the past two years. Although she traveled to her ancestral home in Ireland and throughout the United States and Canada with her son, Ivon called Natchez her home for most of her adult life. She was a founding member of Parkway Baptist Church and active in her Sunday school class there for as long as she was able to live alone and drive her car. As anyone who knew her can tell you, she was a happy soul who delighted in making others smile. The “life of the party,” she never faltered in reaching out to those around her throughout her life.

Of course, Ivon’s greatest joy was her family and her little dogs, Coco then Jake. Sadly, over the years, the children grew up and moved away, the grandchildren seldom came around anymore and the great grandchildren were little more than Christmas cards and photographs. Quick to make friends, Ivon was seldom alone but in later years she yearned to return to her heavenly home and to be reunited in spirit with her entire family who had gone on before. Nevertheless, her spirits were seldom down and she had a quick joke in response to most any adversity. Throughout her hard working life as a sharecropper, factory worker and devoted mother, she displayed courage and determination worthy of a field general. Her nickname at Glenburney was “she-needs-a” and she had a T-shirt printed to display that name together with her little wiener dog, Jake. This was typical of her usual scene of fun. Many will miss her.

Ms. Loflin was preceded in death by her husband.

Survivors include her two children, Mack Loflin and his partner John DeTore Jr., and her daughter Lavonne and her husband Keith Searing; four grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; well-loved sister-in-law, Guynel Hall; and a host of nieces and nephews.

Honorary pallbearers will be Mark Griffin, Jim Griffin, Jon Loflin, Paul Loflin, Nathan Calhoun, Lynwood Easterling and Glenn Mizell. Online condolences may be sent to www.lairdfh.com.