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Katie Hanna Townsend, 81, a resident of Park Place Manor in Belton, Texas, died on Friday, July 4, 2008.

Katie moved to Belton in 2006 to be near her son, Bill Townsend. Funeral will be held in Jackson, Miss., with the Chancellor Funeral Home in Byram handling the arrangements. Burial will be in Lakewood Memorial Park South.

She was born Katie Jean Hanna on Dec. 2, 1926, in Hampton. She graduated from El Dorado High School and worked for Pan American Oil Co. Katie married William Rex Townsend of El Dorado in 1949.

After her only child was born she worked as a homemaker and mother in Monroe, La. Rex’s job took Katie from North Louisiana back to South Arkansas, then to Georgia, Central Arkansas and finally to Jackson, where she lived for nearly 40 years.

Katie was heavily involved with her church, Daniel Memorial Baptist Church in Jackson, where she taught Sunday School, was active in the WMU, served on numerous committees, and volunteered for several years as an office worker. She was an inspiration to many during her life and will be remembered by many for her courage and determination in the face of crippling rheumatoid arthritis.

She was preceded in death by her parents, John and Bulah Hanna, and her husband, Rex Townsend, and is survived by her only child, Bill Townsend, her daughter-in-law, Cindy Townsend, and two grandchildren, Taylor and William Townsend III, all of Temple, Texas, and Jackson.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Mississippi College in Clinton, Miss.