Doris Burrell Abels
(January 20, 1926 - October 4, 2011)

Graveside funeral services for Doris Burrell Abels of Carrollton will be at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, October 7, at the Evergreen Cemetery in North Carrollton with burial following. Rev. Diane Lemmon will officiate the service.

A visitation will be held on Friday, from 9:30 until 10:30 a.m., at Lee Funeral Home in Winona.

Mrs. Abels died at her residence, with her children by her side, on Tuesday, October 4, 2011. She was 85 years old.

Mrs. Abels was born in Sallis, Mississippi, to Oliver C. and Ada Lula Burrell on January 20, 1926. She was married to her high school sweetheart, Carlton Abels, also of Sallis, for 60 years. She graduated from Holmes Jr. College and Draughns Business School. She worked for many years as a secretary, teacher, and an administrative assistant for her husband. Moving many times in their lifetime she made many friends in residences in Durant, MS, Van Dale, Wynn, Rosebud and Knobel, AR, Flora, Belmont, Madison, Marks, Ethel, Tchula and Carrollton, MS.

Mrs. Abels will always be remembered for her unsinkable spirit and joie de vivre. A devoted and loving wife and mother, her talents and qualities were indescribable, but it is universally agreed that her spirit was the glue that held the family together. From a large completely musical family, she sang and played in her family stringband in the late 1930‘s around Attala and Holmes County. Doris taught her family how to sing 3-4 part
harmony and passed on her love of music family and life. She was a member of Carrollton United Methodist Church and a former member of the Order of the Eastern Star.

In addition to her parents and husband, Mrs. Abels was preceded in death by a grandson, Sterling Paine Jones; and a great-granddaughter, Natalie Lynn Jones.

Survivors include three daughters, Mary Lou Lane and her husband, Don, of Flora, Glenda Jones and her husband, Sterling of Carrollton, and Carla Shackelford and her husband, Pate, of North Carrollton; one son, Cecil Carlton Abels II; two sisters, Bess Stauch and Clydie Dickerson; one brother, Trent Burrell; twelve grandchildren; eighteen great-grandchildren;
and many nieces and nephews.

Her grandsons will serve as pallbearers.

Memorial contributions may be made to Carrollton United Methodist Church, Carrollton, MS 38917; or to Natalie's Memorial Playground, c/o Peoples Bank and Trust Company, P. O. Box 397, North Carrollton, MS 38947.