HALE CENTER - J.P. Stevens, 87, died Tuesday, March 18,
 1997.

   Services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday in First United
Methodist Church with Silas Short of Post officiating. 
Graveside services will be at 3 p.m. in Rose Hill Cemetery 
at Merkle. Arrangements are by Freeman Funeral Home.

   Mr. Stevens was born in Trent and attended school there.
He married Dorothy Lorraine Dodson in 1930 at Trent. She died 
in 1984.

   He moved to Plainview from Trent in 1943 and then moved 
to Hale Center in 1977. He was a farmer and owned Steven's 
Trucking in Plainview until retiring in 1972.

   He married Essie Ware in 1992 at Plainview.

   Mr. Stevens was a member of the Woodmen of the World and 
First United Methodist Church of Trent. He was a charter 
member of the Hale Center Senior Citizens Association and 
the Hale County Farm and Ranch Museum.

   He also was preceded in death by two sons, Charles 
Stevens in 1937 and Tommie Stevens in 1994.

   Survivors include his wife; two daughters, Frances 
Peterson of Mesa, Ariz., and Linda Hall of Baku, 
Azerbaijan; four stepsons, Jim Ware of Rowlett, David
Ware of Amarillo, Ronnie Ware of Alamogordo, N.M., 
and Randy Ware of Plainview; a stepdaughter, Gail Cox 
of Plainview; nine grandchildren; 18 great-grandchildren; 
12 stepgrandchildren; and two stepgreat-grand-
children."

Source:  Potter Co. TX - Obits from Amarillo Online 
Newspapers 13 March 1997