Wanda Pauline Longston (Seymour)'s Obituary
Wanda Pauline Longston, 94
Long time Seymour resident and business owner Wanda Pauline Davidson passed away September 2, 2018 at Glenwood Healthcare in Seymour, where she had been residing for the last seven years. She was born to Marcus and Mary Edna Davidson March 19, 1924 in Arkansas.
During the Great White River Arkansas flood of 1927 her parents stuffed their belongings into sacks used for picking cotton as the water was rising and threw the sacks from the second-floor windows into a boat and left the area, which was prone to flooding. They traveled to Black Oak area east of Marshfield in a covered wagon. Pauline, as she was known, grew up around Seymour and went to grade school at Black Oak and Teagues, east of Marshfield and to High School in Marshfield and Seymour
She married Joseph McAnally and they had two sons, David Alan McAnally and Larry Dean McAnally. Pauline accompanied Joseph to his various stations while he was in the Navy as an Airplane Mechanic during World War II. After the war they moved back to the Seymour area where he worked as a mechanic at the Pontiac and Chevrolet garages as well as his own garage. Pauline started her own first business on the west side of the square in Seymour with a beauty shop in the old (1908) bank building. She later expanded that business into the Seymour College of Beauty in the sixties.
In later years she married Ralph (Bud) Longston who worked at Cox North as a night time administrator. They lived in Strafford, MO. until his death. During this time she had a beauty salon in her home and people traveled many miles for her services. After Ralph died, she worked for a time as a recruiter at both Springfield Computer Training Center, where her son Larry worked and also at Draughns Business College. She returned to Seymour and re-opened Seymour Beauty Academy in 2003 at age 79 where she worked until 84 years of age. She fulfilled her life’s work in a career she dearly loved, training many Cosmetologists.
Wanda Pauline was preceded in death by her parents, her two husbands, her brothers, Claude and Elmer Davidson and her sisters, Berthalee Eaton and Mary Geraldine McDonald.
She is survived by her sons, David Alan McAnally (Jan), and Larry both of Seymour; her grandchildren Teresa Lewis (John), David McAnally (Tammy); Bridgitte Lewis (Richard), and James McAnallly (Cathy); nine great grandchildren and seven great great grandchildren.
Funeral services were held at the Holman-Howe Funeral Home in Seymour on September 6, 2018 with burial following at Black Oak Cemetery, near Marshfield, MO.
Memorial to Owen Theatre Project or Seymour First Baptist Church and left in care of the funeral home.
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