Mearl Keith Mills, 87, Harrisonville, Missouri, died Monday, June 17, 2013 at Crown Care Center in Harrisonville. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, June 22, 2013 at the Reser Funeral Home in Warsaw, Missouri. Burial will be in Turkey Creek Cemetery in Warsaw. Visitation will be from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Friday, June 21 at the Atkinson Funeral Home in Harrisonville. Memorial contributions may be made to the Harrisonville American Legion.

Mearl was born July 29, 1925 in Warsaw, Missouri, the son of Arthur Thurman and Amy German (Walthall) Mills. He was a 1943 graduate of Warsaw High School and a graduate of The University of Missouri in Columbia with a degree in agricultural chemistry. He was a WWII Army veteran. He married Ethel Hester Upton on June 19, 1955 at the Lawndale Baptist Church in Kansas City, Missouri.

Mearl worked for Armco Steel as a chemist for 30 years before his retirement in 1981. He had lived in Lee's Summit, Missouri for 42 years before moving to Harrisonville in 2002. He was a member of the First Baptist Church of Harrisonville, a former member of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Lee's Summit, Missouri and the Harrisonville American Legion.

Mearl was preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by his wife, Hester, Harrisonville, Missouri; two sons, Ronald "Ron" Keith Mills and his wife, Cathy, Stanwood, Washington and Randall Mills and his wife, Susan, Plano, Texas; one daughter, Linda Mills, Belton, Texas; and 4 grandchildren, Brad and Christina and Amanda and Stephanie.