Mary Lou (Ferguson) Bennett, 85, Leawood, Kansas, died Wednesday, June 27, 2012 at Kansas City Hospice House in Kansas City, Missouri. Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, June 30, 2012 at the Calvary Baptist Church in Odessa, Missouri with visitation from 1:00-2:00 p.m. Saturday at the church. Burial will be in Greenton Cemetery in Odessa. Memorial contributions may be made to the Missouri Society Colonial Dames 17th Century, c/o Atkinson Funeral Home, 600 West Wall Street, Harrisonville, MO 64701.

Mary Lou was born October 9, 1926 in Odessa, Missouri to Leonard Jennings and Allie Clifton (Lamme) Ferguson. She graduated from Paseo High School in Kansas City in 1943. She attended Central Missouri State College in Warrensburg, Missouri and William and Mary College in Virginia. She was a member of the First Baptist Church in Odessa, MO.

Mary Lou served as City Clerk of Odessa from 1961 to 1971. She was a member of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Missouri Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Clan Ferguson Society of North America, United States Daughters of 1812, James Kearney Chapter and the Society of Washington's Army at Valley Forge. She served as State President of Missouri Society Colonial Dames XVII Century from 2009-2011.


Mary Lou was preceded in death by her father in 1973 and her mother in 1972. She is survived by two daughters and sons-in-law, Janie (Bob) Sanders, Lee's Summit, MO and Marcella (Rob) Green, Leawood, KS; three grandchildren, Dr. Bryan (Marta) Green, Mountain View, MO, Jennifer Green, Overland Park, KS and Craig Sanders, Kansas City, MO; one brother, Raymond Ferguson, Lee's Summit, MO.