Interment for Helen Sexton Mann took place Saturday afternoon, June 9, at the Russell and Helen Mann Memorial Gravesite at Englewood Cemetery.

Mrs. Mann was the wife of Russell A. Mann Jr., formerly of Clinton. The couple resided at the time of her death in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Mrs. Mann died May 27 from complications incurred during treatment following a surgical operation at Lourdes Hospital in Lafayette.

Mrs Mann was born August 8, 1935, in Kennett, Missouri, the only child of Glenn and Gertrude Sexton. Her father was a businessman and landowner.

She grew up in Kennett and graduated from Kennett High School. She attended Christian College (now Columbia College) in Columbia, Missouri, for two years and went on to graduate from the University of Missouri with degrees in Education and Psychology. She was a member of the Alpha Gamma Chapter of Alpha Delta Phi Sorority a the University.

Following graduation she began a teaching career teaching history and social studies. She taught at Petosi, Mo, High School and continued in South St. Louis County.

Russell and Helen were married June 26, 1964, in Lompoc, California, where Russell was news editor and reporter-photographer for the Lompoc Record newspaper. Their first child, Sharon, was born in Lompoc.

While residing in Lompoc, Mrs. Mann was active in civic affairs. Among her civic activities was the Junior Alpha Club where she and a friend decided as a project to promote the construction of a new public library. Their campaign for the library drew wide support in the town and that support included the Lompoc Record where Russell was assigned to cover the story. Within a year the City Council voted to fund the library and it opened two years later.

The family moved to Kennett where Russell and Helen assumed management of her father's business upon his retirement. The couple's son, Gregory, was born in Kennett.

They subsequently moved to Carbondale, Illinois, where Russell entered the doctoral program in journalism at Southern Illinois University. Upon his receiving the Ph.D. in journalism, the family moved to Lafayette where Dr. Mann headed the journalism program at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

In Lafayette, Mrs. Mann taught for 15 years in the three-year-olds program at her church. She also was a charter member of a P.E.O. chapter in Lafayette.

Dr. Mann taught at the University for 20 years. Upon his retirement in 1997, the couple traveled widely, visiting Europe on several occasions and also returning from time to time for visits to California and the West Coast as well as Clinton.

Mrs. Mann is survived by her husband; her daughter, Mrs. Michael Felterman, of Patterson, Louisiana; her son, Gregory, of Searcy, Arkansas; three granddaughters, Ashlynne (Mrs. Terry Joe McIntosh), and Michelle and Chloe Felterman; and grandchildren, Sebastian and Elizabeth Mann.

Dr. Mann wrote the following poem for her upon her death:

"The angels crowded around your bed.

The angels lifted you on high.

The angels carried you to His waiting embrace.

Frolic with the angels, my dearest heart,

Play amongst the angels while He watches smiling."

Services have been entrusted to Vansant-Mills Funeral Home, Clinton, Missouri. Fond memories can be left online at www.vansant-millsfuneralhome.com.