Lois, as she was known, was born in Los Angeles, California, at Angelus Hospital on July 5, 1937. Her parents were Clyde David Burney and Alma Easter Jones Burney. Her early years were spent attending public schools in the Los Angeles area, caring for her beloved dogs and looking for tamale stands on Alvarado Street.
Growing up in southern California during the years of WWII, she remembered how her family showed hospitality to many soldiers stationed there. She also remembered how her parents, native Missourians, picked up hitchhiking soldiers on their annual family trips to the Everton area. She did not mind, although she did like it when she and her chihuahua Tiny had the backseat to themselves. Her family moved back to the Everton area permanently in the early 1950s.
She began attending Everton High School as her mother became a teacher in the Everton grade school. While in high school Lois loved running around with her friends Billy, Juanita and Delores, but she also worked hard to help establish the family farm.
Initially they tried raising cattle but there was drought, then goats and turkeys and later cattle again. She enjoyed the farm, although she found raising turkeys really quite dreadful. She also met her future husband Willis DeClue at Everton High School. He was also new to Everton, relocated from the Herculaneum, Missouri area and Festus High School. She graduated from Everton High School in 1955, a year after Willy. Lois then attended Southwest Missouri State College, now MSU. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Education by the spring of 1959 and was certified to teach home economics and art for grades 7-12.
After Willy returned from two years in the US Army, they were married on March 27, 1959, at the Everton Christian Church. They moved into and managed the Hickman-Mills apartment building on Elm Street in Springfield, adjacent to the college campus. Lois began teaching at the nearby St. Agnes High School as Willy returned to classes on campus, all while they continued to invest in the family farm.
In July of 1961 their first child, David Clyde, was born. They had moved out of Hickman-Mills which did not allow children, and into a house on Woodbine Road in Ash Grove that Lois' grandparents had lived in previously. Lois continued to teach school at St. Agnes until the birth of their second child, Ann Katherine, in December of 1962.
The year that David started school Lois was most blessed to meet her lifelong friend Twyla Langley. That began a decades long era of friendship between the two families that had great effect. Lois and Twyla helped each other raise their children, and Lois was to be a mother one more time when her third child, Lemyra Lynn, was born in August of 1971.
After Willy returned from two years in the US Army, they were married on March 27, 1959, at the Everton Christian Church. They moved into and managed the Hickman-Mills apartment building on Elm Street in Springfield, adjacent to the college campus. Lois began teaching at the nearby St. Agnes High School as Willy returned to classes on campus, all while they continued to invest in the family farm.
In July of 1961 their first child, David Clyde, was born. They had moved out of Hickman-Mills which did not allow children, and into a house on Woodbine Road in Ash Grove that Lois' grandparents had lived in previously. Lois continued to teach school at St. Agnes until the birth of their second child, Ann Katherine, in December of 1962.
The year that David started school Lois was most blessed to meet her lifelong friend Twyla Langley. That began a decades long era of friendship between the two families that had great effect. Lois and Twyla helped each other raise their children, and Lois was to be a mother one more time when her third child, Lemyra Lynn, was born in August of 1971.
Lois was a wonderful, devoted, self-sacrificing mother. She made most of her children's clothing, not to mention piles and piles of Barbie clothes. Dinner every night had to have "at least one green vegetable." She always served, often alongside Twyla, as a room mother for school parties, taught sewing to Lemyra's 4-H group, and was just always available for whatever you needed. She was usually driving kids to and fro in her big blue Pontiac station wagon, often giving a ride to extra kids who needed a lift because their family didn't have transportation. Lois was also a kind and loving aunt, always willing to help. She went above and beyond to make sure dresses and outfits were perfect for weddings and special occasions, pulling off some impressive last minute saves. She absolutely loved being "Grannie" to Karis and Rylie, they only had to call or come by to make her whole day. She had a sharp wit and liked to say surprising things to make them laugh.
A family business was born one year when Willy, who was teaching school and working as the Willard High School vice principal at the time, built a fence around the family home. He asked Lois if she thought she could sell an extra bundle of posts if he left them out in the yard. She sold the posts and DeClue Lumber was established. In November of 1977 the family moved from the house on Woodbine to the location of the original Burney homestead in Dade County. Willy gave up teaching as they invested in their lumber business and of course the farm, and Lois continued to work hard to make the lumber business a success, even after Willy's death from cancer in 1987.
After several years of continuing the lumber business, Lois decided to do something else. She tried substitute teaching but quickly discovered it wasn't for her. She put her exceptional seamstress skills to use instead, going to work for Barclay's Bridal in Springfield doing fittings and alterations. On September 6 of 1994, Lois was married for a second time to Linnie Scally. He had an automotive business in Ash Grove and they had known each other as friends for some time. Linnie moved his business out to the country and Lois continued in the bridal industry. For a time, she and Lemyra worked together at Barclay's when Lemyra was employed there as a sales girl. At some point Barclay's sold to Secret Garden dress shop, which eventually sold to Karl's Tuxedo. Through all those changes Lois stayed on with each business, spending a total of about 20 years in the bridal industry until retiring sometime around 2010.
Lois was preceded in death by her parents, her first husband Willis, and her children David and Lemyra.
She is survived by her husband Linnie Scally of Ash Grove, daughter Kathy Wilson and son-in-law Joe of Rogersville, grandson Karis Wilson of Springfield, granddaughter Rylie Shoemaker of Willard, brother-in-law Leonard DeClue and wife Marlene of Everton, sister-in-law Dorothy Adams and husband Pete of Mt. Vernon, and a number of nieces and nephews.
Visitation will be held on Friday, September 6, from 6-8pm at Wilson-Griffin Funeral Home in Ash Grove. Graveside services will be on Saturday, September 7, at 2pm in Sinking Creek Cemetery near Everton with Pastor Hosea Bilyeu officiating. There will be a gathering of friends and family afterward at the Everton Community Center, all are invited to attend.
In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to Sinking Creek Cemetery.
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