WAMEGO — Bessie Ann Day, 62, died March 14 at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Born on Sept. 21, 1949, in Lyons, she was the daughter of the late Anna Marie Geist and Robert Melville Hawkins. Bessie Hawkins was united in marriage to James Day in June of 1976. They had three children and were later divorced. She attended and graduated from Lyons High School in 1967, and attended Brown Mackie College in Salina from 1967-1968, graduating with an associate degree in business. Early in her life she worked on Wall Street, before beginning her career at McCall Pattern Co. where she worked from December 1969 to March of 2004. Following her time with McCall Pattern, she worked with Merry Maids of Manhattan.

Bessie enjoyed bowling, her children’s activities and socializing with her friends.

Survivors include a daughter, Emily Elizabeth Day of West Palm Beach, Fla.; a son, Jimmy Hawkins Day and his wife Kim, of Wamego; three sisters, Georgia Mulanax and her husband Lloyd of Manhattan, Sherry Sheridan, of Rensselaer, N.Y., and Susie Burt and her husband Charles of Great Bend; and many cousins, nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her parents and a son, Frank Hawkins Day, in 1979.

Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at the Irvin-Parkview Funeral Home in Manhattan with Pastor Jol Klein officiating. Visitation will be from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday with the family receiving friends from 6-8 p.m. at the funeral home. Memorial contributions may be made to American Cancer Society, 1315 SW Arrowhead Rd., Topeka, KS.