March 2016, Vol. 243, No. 3

General

Obituaries

Retha Laird Williams, 91, died Jan. 11 in Conroe, TX. She was the mother of Tambra Shell, wife of Gary Shell, CFO of PE BEN USA Inc. Williams leaves Kenneth Williams, Gerald Williams and three grandchildren. Services were held in Summit, MS; interment at Mt. Zion Baptist Church Cemetery in Smithdale, MS. Thomas (Earl) Tise, Jr., 89, died Jan. 13. He and his wife, Paula May Farley, moved to Houston where he started to work with his father-in-law, well-known pipeliner, Lloyd “Mizzou” Farley, who owned a pipeline construction firm. This turned into a 50-year career for Tise. He later joined Bechtel and was one of the first sent to Alaska in 1973 to start work on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Syste