Atha Faye Welch

Atha Faye Welch, age 84, passed away on March 12, 2010 in Springfield after a short illness. The daughter of Maude and Ewing Halliburton, she was born November 19, 1925. She grew up in the Fowler community in Texas County, Missouri and graduated high school from Gravel Point, a local rural community school. On July 3, 1949, she married Bernal Welch in Mtn. Grove, MO., who preceded her in death September 6,1982. Atha and Bernal were the parents of three children, Russell, Leta, and Letha.
She lived all of her adult life in Mountain Grove, MO., with the exception of the last two years of her life, when she moved to Springfield, MO. to be closer to her daughters. She worked briefly for Brown Shoe Company before becoming a fulltime homemaker and mother. Atha accepted her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, at an early age and was baptized in a creek when she was young. She later became a long-time member of the First Freewill Baptist Church in Mountain Grove, MO where she occasionally taught Sunday School and helped out with vacation Bible school when her children were young. She was a loving wife and mother and her family was everything to her. She was always the happiest when providing for them and being with them. She loved sewing, cooking and fishing. She was known at family reunions for making delicious gooseberry and strawberry-rhubarb cobblers. She also liked making homemade banana ice cream for church and family socials. Later in life she enjoyed vacationing and traveling with her family and visiting places like DisneyWorld, the Great Smokey Mountains, the Grand Canyon, the Badlands of South Dakota, and Hawaii. Besides her parents and her husband, Atha was preceded in death by a daughter: Letha Welch in June 2009, one brother: Leland Halliburton; two sisters: Wilma Riley and Fern Elliott; and an infant sister: Betty Lou Halliburton.
She is survived by her son: Russell Welch and his wife, Margot, of Highland Village, Texas; her daughter: Leta Sapp and her husband, Ron, of Strafford, Missouri; four grandchildren: Jenna Wheat, Ryan Wheat, Alex Sapp, and Chris Lehman; a great-granddaughter: Emma Lehman; one brother: Richard Halliburton of Washington, Iowa; one sister: Ineta Barker of El Dorado, Kansas; and several nieces and nephews.


Funeral Services: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 11:00 AM at the First Freewill Baptist Church in Mountain Grove. (South Main and Harker)
Visitation: Monday, March 15, 2010 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM in the Craig-Hurtt Chapel.
Burial: Hillcrest Cemetery
Memorial Contributions: Freewill Baptist Missions c/o the funeral home.