Mattie Lou Honse, of Vienna, was born on November 18, 1941, in Maries County, the daughter of James Eugene "Gene" and Dorothy Odelia (Gillispie) Doyel, and departed this life at 2:14 p.m., on Thursday, February 1, 2018, at the residence of her son near Vienna. She had been in failing health for some time and had attained the age of 76 years, 2 months, and 11 days.

Mattie was united in marriage on July 12, 1958, at Little Flock Baptist Church, near Vienna, to Carl Gerald Honse, and to this union, four sons were born. She was preceded in death by her husband, Gerald, on June 1, 2000; a daughter-in-law, Jeanette (Fulton) Honse on October 19, 2015; her father, Gene, on August 19, 1970; and her mother, Dorothy, on February 10, 1992.

Mattie had accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as her Personal Savior at the age of 11 and had followed her Lord in baptism at Little Flock where her family attended and was a 1959 graduate of the Vienna High School. At the time of her passing, she was a faithful member of the First Baptist Church in Vienna and had been a Sunday school teacher starting at the age of 17 and continued to teach somewhere, either Sunday morning, Sunday night or Wednesday night until 2010; a member of the church choir; a worker in the Kids Club program of the church; a worker in the Vacation Bible School program of the church; a coach of the youth and children's Bible drill program of the church for twenty years; a leader and worker in the Women's Missionary Union of the church, and had served as Messenger for the church at the Gasconade Valley Baptist Association annual meeting for several years.

In 2000, following the death of her husband, Mattie finished out the unexpired term of her husband, Gerald, on the Executive Board of the Gasconade Valley Baptist Association and continued to serve on the board until 2010. She had done missionary work for both the youth camp and the children's camp programs of the Gasconade Valley Baptist Association at their camp facility near Bland, and along with her husband, Gerald, was a member of the Missouri Baptist Convention Campers on Mission and Missourians on Mission programs helping to build, remodel, or maintain church buildings all over the United States. Mattie had made two trips to Prague, Czech Republic, as a childcare volunteer for children of missionaries serving in countries across Central and Eastern Europe. She had been a volunteer worker at the Maries County Fair for a number of years as well as serving on the Fair Board and had won numerous awards for her entries of hand crafted items at the fair.

A full time homemaker, Mattie was a devoted mother of her children and caretaker of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Mattie especially enjoyed crocheting, knitting, quilting and crafting items for residents of the Missouri Baptist Home for the Aged, the Missouri Baptist Crisis Center, and the Missouri Baptist Children's Home. Mattie Lou's caring attitude for others is an example for all of us to follow.

Those left to mourn the passing of Mattie include: Her sons, Jerry Eugene Honse and wife, Martha, of Affton; Larry Wayne Honse of Vienna; Garry Carl Honse and wife, Sherry, of Dixon; and Thomas Dean Honse of Vienna; her grandchildren, Timothy Eugene Honse and wife, Trinity, of Kansas City, Susan Jane Honse of Affton, Allison Sarah McManus and husband, Jeff, of St. Louis, Ashley Nicole Rodreguz of Rolla, Jessica Dawn McKinnon and husband, J.T., of Vienna, Lucas Ryan Honse of Bevier, Missouri, Matthew Joshua Honse and wife, Katie, of Dixon, and Makayla Elaine Honse of Dixon; her step-grandchildren, Jeremy Andrew Sharp of Dixon, Michael Allen Dill of Bevier, Missouri, and Sarah Marie Cottrel of Salem; her sixteen great-grandchildren; and many other relatives and friends.

Memorial contributions in memory of Mattie Lou Honse are suggested by her family to Vienna First Baptist Church Building Fund or the Missourians on Mission Program with envelopes available at the funeral home, at the church or in care of Birmingham-Martin Funeral Home, P.O. Box 250, Vienna, Missouri 65582.