Funeral services for Tava Mildred Summers, 96, West Plains, Missouri, will be held at 2:00 p.m., Sunday, June 2, 2013, in the Rose Chapel at Robertson-Drago Funeral Home.

Mrs. Summers died at 10:27 a.m., Wednesday, May 29, 2013, at Brooke Haven Health Care.

She was born July 11, 1916, at Gunter's Valley in Howell County, Missouri, to Walton Samuel Gilliam and Blanche Lea Bennett Gilliam.  She attended the Barnett School and on May 18, 1941, she was married at West Plains, Missouri, to Byron Rayborn Summers, who preceded her in death on July 15, 1998.  She was a homemaker and worked with her husband on their farm as cattle breeders; and together, they were the owners/operators of Summers Grocery on St. Louis Street in West Plains.  She had been a member of the PTA at Carmichael School and loved to garden and raise flowers.  Mrs. Summers became a Christian as a young girl and had been a member of Bennett Chapel and later Elk Creek Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

She is survived by two daughters, Janice Faucett, Arlington, Virginia and Kay Lang, husband, Gus, Granite City, Illinois; two grandchildren, Tony Roome, Springfield, Missouri and Susan Lang, Granite City, Illinois; one aunt, Madge Herndon, Tulsa, Oklahoma; one brother-in-law, Everett Summers, wife, Pat, West Plains, Missouri; and several nieces and nephews.

Her parents, husband, one infant grandson, Joseph Lang, two sisters, Vida Burk, husband, Doyle Burk and Alta Lee Gilliam, and two brothers-in-law and their wives, Waymon and Verda Summers and Cecil and Louise Summers , precede her in death.

Visitation will be held from 7:00 until 8:00 p.m., Saturday at Robertson-Drago Funeral Home.  Burial will be in the Barnett Cemetery.  Memorial contributions may be made to Barnett Cemetery or Hospice Compassus, and may be left at Robertson-Drago Funeral Home.