1929-2025
Lois Mae Mahurin was born March 12, 1929, to Monie Mae Hickey and Clarence James Mahurin, in Oden, Arkansas. When she was in the fourth grade, her family moved to Mena, Arkansas, where they attended the Baptist Church located at Jannsen Park. The Mahurin family moved back to Oden in 1940. They relocated to Dumas, Arkansas, in 1941, when she was in the sixth grade. She eventually graduated with highest honors from Dumas High School in 1947, where she was captain of the girls’ basketball team and homecoming queen. In 1947 and 1948, she worked at Meadors Drug Store and the Merchants and Farmers Bank in Dumas. Later in 1948, she began a lifetime career as bookkeeper for the R.A. Pickens and Son Company.
On March 25, 1951, she married World War II veteran Kenneth Brantley. Two daughters were born to them, Karen Renee and Lois Nanette. Joining the family were Nan’s children, Emily Brantley Greer (Bodiford) and Morgan Kenneth Greer. Eventually, a most welcome member was born to the family, a great-grandson, Grover Thurston Bodiford IV. Uniting her family are devoted sons-in-law Paul Guidry and John McCann.
Lois M. Brantley was past regent of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution for the General Henry Lee Chapter of Arkansas.
After a 67-year employment with the R.A. Pickens and Son Company, she retired in 2015.
She is survived by one sister, Carolyn Mahurin Ballard; also niece Kathryn Hall Norris and her husband, Mike Norris.
Mary Wilkerson, from the R. A. Pickens and Son Company, said, “We appreciate all the good times we shared and the good deeds she did for all of us. She was loved by so many and we will always love her, and think about her often, even though we haven’t seen each other as much as we would like.”
A worthy quote from November 17, 1998, by the late Fred Henry Gordon, Sr, is this: “There’s one person in my life who has made a big difference to me and my family. Her name is Lois (Mahurin) Brantley. She came to the Pickens Farm as a bookkeeper about two years after I got back from the war. Three years later, her father, Clarence Mahurin, became the Pickens Farm Manager. Miss Lois was always nice to us, just like a family person. She did us so many favors and helped us when we really needed it. She even did things for my dad. Anything about business my dad didn’t understand, he went to Miss Lois. Whatever she told you, it would be so. She voluntarily took our problems on her own. I could never thank her enough for everything. She was a woman no one could fool, really something else. One of my daughters is named for her. Miss Lois is someone we all look up to. And both Miss Lois and I are still right here on Pickens Farm. It’s been more than fifty years....”
The late journalist Bob Sallee, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, wrote in April 1999, “Lois Brantley is an extraordinary woman. She was proclaimed the touchstone of the Pickens operation in November at a harvest party in honor of her 50th anniversary as the company’s bookkeeper.”
Mike Brown, who was with her 40 years at the company, enjoys the memory of their enjoying a fistful of Laffy Taffys after lunch, and laughing at all the corny jokes revealed in the candies. He emphasizes about those years together, saying warmly, "We were family."
Lady M. (Mrs. Andrew) Pickens wrote to her in 2009, “You just think of everything— don’t know how I’ve gotten along most of my life without you…."
An admirer since 1991, former Pickens farm manager Greg Hillis said, “She told me when she was twelve years old she gave her life to Christ. She made that decision so very long ago at the Baptist Church in Dumas. She even recalled the room she was in. It was real to her then... and even more real to her now! Heaven will receive a beautiful soul that’s been influential, not only in my life, but in the lives of many others.”
Lois Mae Mahurin Brantley stepped into the immortal realm on January 16, 2025. Visitation will be Monday, January 20, 2025,from 1:00-2:00 pm at First Baptist Church, Dumas, AR with service to follow at 2:00 pm. Burial will be at Walnut Lake Cemetery, Pickens, AR with Rev. Dubs Byers officiating.
