Persis Mae Bannon, 90, of Cincinnati, Arkansas, died March 29, 1998, after a lengthy illness. Funeral services were held Wednesday, April 1, at 1:30 p.m. at the Cincinnati Methodist Church and she was laid to rest beside her husband in the Old Union Cemetery at Cincinnati. Persis Mae Palmer Bannon was born November 9, 1907 in Longton, Kansas to Alvin D. Palmer and Delphia S. Boen Palmer. When she was 6 weeks old, her family moved to the Territory of New Mexico to prove up on the homestead her father had applied for earlier in the year. She and five siblings, two brothers and three sisters, grew to adulthood near the Hayden community. She was the first in her family to graduate from high school, and she had a position as a school marm the fall of 1928. However, her beau, Frank J. Bannon, who took her to the small, remote Mexican village where she was to begin her teaching career, talked her out of staying and a few weeks later, on October 6, they were married in Clayton, New Mexico, and Persis did attain her dream of teaching school. On June 5, 1953, the Bannons moved to Arkansas. They opened and operated a variety store in Lincoln from 1956 until 1960. Her beloved husband passed away in 1968. The following spring, Persis moved to the village of Cincinnati, where she ran the General Store. By 1976, when she sold the store, she was lovingly known by the youth of the community as "the Little Ole Grannie from Cincinnati." At 80 years of age, Persis, always civic-minded, was chosen as Citizen of the Year in the Lincoln area. A plaque commerorating her many activities was presented by The Honorable Tim Hutchinson (the Congressman, now a US Senator). Persis, a devout Christian lady, leaves two children, Frank R. (Dick) Bannon and wife, June of Folsom, New Mexico and Delphia M. and husband, James R. (Dick) Murray of CIncinnati, Arkansas; seven grandchildren; 16 great-grandchildren; and a host of relatives and friends to mourn her passing. In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by two grandsons.