McGraw, Claudia Myrtle

Funeral services for Claudia Myrtle McGraw, 101, of Longview, 
will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, December 16, 2006, in the 
chapel of Rader Funeral Home of Longview, with the Reverend 
Leon Veasey officiating. Burial will follow in Gum Springs 
Cemetery. Myrtle passed away peacefully on December 13, 2006, 
at a nursing facility in Kilgore. Mrs. McGraw was born August 
20, 1905, in the "Irish Ridge" Community near Talty of Kaufman 
County, the fifth of 12 children to Claude and Della Wooten 
DeGaugh. She was married to Joe McGraw on December 19, 1925 in 
Forney. Together, they celebrated 65 years of marriage. She was 
a devoted farm wife, help-mate, homemaker, and mother of three 
children. They moved to Kilgore in 1937, where her husband 
worked for an oil field trucking company, later transferring to 
Nebraska for several years. In their later years, they owned 
and operated Gum Springs Grocery and Service Station until 
retiring. There, they became members of Little Flock Baptist 
Church, where she had maintained her membership. She loved the 
Lord and her church, and she enjoyed attending her Sunday school 
class as long as she was able. After the death of her husband in 
1990, she lived alone and maintained her home until her vision 
failed. In 1997, she moved into an apartment where she lived with 
assisted care until moving into a nursing home in March of 2005. 
A loving wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and 
great-great-grandmother, Myrtle will be missed by her children, 
Joe McGraw Jr., and wife, Bonnie of Longview, Jim McGraw and wife, 
Doris of Longview, and Margarette Allison and husband, Buck of 
Kilgore; a sister, Altena Hancock of Stephenville; sister-in-law, 
Evelyn Shores of Kilgore; eight grandchildren; 23 great-grandchildren; 
and 11 great-great-grandchildren. If desired, memorial contributions 
may be made in honor of Mrs. McGraw to Little Flock Baptist Church, 
14206 W. FM 968, Longview, TX 75602. The family will receive friends 
from 6-8 p.m. Friday evening, December 15, 2006, at the funeral home. 
A memorial guestbook may be signed online at www.raderfh.com.

Published in the Longview News-Journal on 12/15/2006.