Jeffries, Mary Elizabeth 'Liz'

Mary Elizabeth “Liz” Jeffries passed away at her home in Sherman, Texas, on Friday, May 18, 2012, at age 88. Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, May 25, at Runge Mortuary, Davenport. Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday at Runge Mortuary. Burial will be at Rock Island National Cemetery.

Memorials can be made to the Salvation Army.

Online condolences can be made to the family at .

Liz was born July 1923, in New London, Mo., the youngest of six children and the only girl. In 1947, she married Raymond E Jeffries of Hannibal, Mo. In 1948, she gave birth to a son, Richard, in Davenport, Iowa. Liz was widowed in 1987 when Raymond succumbed to cancer. She moved to Texas in 2001, to be near her son Richard.

Liz was a Cub Scout Den Mother. She and Ray managed a Dad's Club Baseball team at Sudlow Junior High. In the early 1960s she worked at Suburban Lanes and eventually became general manager. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she worked as cook at the Plaza Bowl Restaurant in Bettendorf. In the mid-1970s, Liz and Ray moved to an acreage north of Long Grove and raised vegetables, chickens, pigs and steers, cats and dogs.

Liz's hobbies included gardening, baseball, bowling, pistol and rifle shooting. She joined the LeClaire Sportsmen Pistol Club in 1979. She was a member of both the Arsenal Marksmen Pistol Club and the Milan Rifle Club, and was an NRA Certified Firearms Instructor. Liz competed in National Championship rifle and pistol tournaments between 1981 and 1988 in New Mexico, Pennsylvania and California and received several trophies. She continued competing at local shooting events until 2004.

Mary is survived by her son, Richard of Sherman, Texas.

Preceding her in death were her parents, Paul Gilbert and Mary Stuart Lake; husband, Raymond Jeffries; and five brothers Stuart, Thomas, John, Louis and Richard Lake.

Published in The Gazette May 22, 2012.