Maxine Creel Cutshall

Maxine Creel Cutshall, 88, of Iuka, Mississippi, died Monday, December 28, 2009, at Southern Magnolia Estates in Iuka. She was born in Golden, MS to John Franklin and Florence Alice Underwood Creel, early educators in Itawamba and Tishomingo Counties. As a very young lady, she married Iuka businessman, Everett Cutshall, and joined him in working in the family furniture business, while also operating a funeral business in the back of the furniture store beginning in 1935. They opened Iuka's first funeral home in l944 in its present location. She had participated in all phases of the earliest forms of funeral service, including preparing bodies for burial in homes to how funerals are conducted today. Her daughter Dianne and grandsons Bo and Brett have been inspired by her to continue in the family funeral business. She was a past President of the Twentieth Century Club, the Eastern Star, the Mississippi Funeral Directors Association, and National Funeral Directors Association, and the Iuka United Methodist Church. Visitation is scheduled for Wednesday, December 30, from 4-7 pm at Cutshall Funeral Home in Iuka. Funeral services are scheduled for Thursday, December 3l, at 1 PM, at Iuka United Methodist Church, officiated by Rev. Jon Kaufman. The eulogy will be presented by Mrs. Betty Dexter. Interment will follow in Oak Grove Cemetery. Serving as pallbearers will be her trusted and loyal employees, Mack Wilemon, Greg Woodruff, Jackie Grisham, Bro. Jimmy Rich, and her grandsons. Her funeral home, Cutshall Funeral Home of Iuka, MS is entrusted with arrangements. Survivors include her daughter, Dianne Biddle (Rick) of Iuka; 3 step daughters, Ellene Nelson of Memphis, TN, Nellie Jo Lewis (Bob) of Ohio, and Sarah Blaylock (Roy) of Memphis, TN; 1 sister, Carmel Barbour of Birmingham, AL: 4 grandchildren, Bo Murphy (Robin), Brett Brewster (Elizabeth), both of Iuka, MS, Max Brewster, her namesake who shared her birthday, of Haymarket, VA, and Brian Biddle of Florence, AL: 4 great grandchildren, Johnathan Murphy, Wheeler Brewster, Everett Brewster, and Nellie Biddle; 12 step grandchildren, Monta Earl Lind, Carolyn Densmore, Jack Nelson, Jr., Jimmy Grisham, Martha Jane Diana, Ricky Grisham, Talmadge Wright, Mary Jo Wright, Earl Wright, Laura Donovan, Roy Blaylock, Jr., and Linda Moore; and several step great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband Everett E. Cutshall; her parents John Franklin and Florence Alice Creel; and two sisters, Lois Bostick and Bernice Mink Ware. Memorial contributions may be made to Heritage Hospice, 301 E. Waldron St., Corinth, MS 38834, or the Iuka United Methodist Church.