Arletha Tilson, daughter of the late J.B. McBride and Ecelner Moncrief McBride was born on May 28, 1926 in Newton, Mississippi and departed this life on March 23, 2017 at her residence in Parma, Missouri at the age of 90.

Mrs. Tilson worked as a payroll clerk for Brown Shoe Company in Bernie for over twenty years.  She also worked at Yorks Department Store in Chicago for twenty years.  She was a member of the Church on the Rock in Sikeston and was a resident of Parma.

In January of 1978 she was united in marriage to Robert Tilson in Bloomfield.  Mr. Tilson preceded her in death on July 30, 2012.

She is survived by two sons, Larry J. Williamson of Memphis, Tennessee and George Jackson of McDonough, Georgia; by one daughter, Maudessa Rose of Naperville, Illinois; by three sisters, Costina Patrick, Rosie Johnson and Emma Evans; by three half-brothers, J. C. McBride, John McBride and Alexander McBride; by three half-sisters, Dorothy Midkiff, Susan Hooks and Patricia “Jones” McBide; by twenty-seven grandchildren and many great-grandchildren; by one very special niece, Evelyn Perkins.

Besides her husband and parents she was preceded in death by three sons, Robert Williamson Jr., Otis Johnson and Lewis Jackson; by nine brothers, Theodore “MAC” McBride, Henry McBride, Levester McBride, Perry McBride, Purvis McBride, B.J. McBride, J.D. McBride, Leo McBride and one baby boy, James Lee McBride and by one sister, Mary Beal.

Friends may call at the Rainey-Mathis Funeral Home in Dexter on Saturday, April 1, 2017 from 11:00 A.M. until 12:00 P.M. (NOON). 

Funeral services will then be conducted on Saturday, April 1, 2017 at Noon in the Rainey-Mathis Funeral Chapel with Christopher Johnson officiating. 

Interment will follow in the Macedonia Cemetery near Malden.