Pine Bluff - MARY ELISABETH "Lib" DUNKLIN died in her home in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, on May 15, 2007. Daughter of the late Lester Asher Black, a pioneer in Arkansas' rice growing industry, and Mary Boone Black, she was raised and received her early education in DeWitt where she graduated from DeWitt High School. After graduating from Gulf Park College in Gulf Park, Mississippi, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to live with relatives Judge and Mrs. Preston Battle. There, she made her debut at the Memphis Country Club, served as Princess to the Queen of the Memphis Cotton Carnival, and met herhusband-to-be, George Hillary Dunklin, whom she married at her parents' home in DeWitt on May 28, 1949. The Dunklins moved to Pine Bluff where they made their home. Mr. Dunklin preceded his beloved wife in death ten daysearlier on May 5, 2007. The owner of significant rice farming and timber interests in Arkansas and Jefferson Counties, Mrs. Dunklin was Chairman of the Board of M. E. Black Farms, Inc. and Mebco Corporation, and past majority owner of the Bank of West Memphis in West Memphis, Arkansas. She was one of the founders of Odeco, an off-shore drilling subsidiary of Murphy Oil. A member of the First United Methodist Church of DeWitt, and a member of the Sunday School at the First Baptist Church of Pine Bluff, she was active in charitable and arts organizations in Pine Bluff, Little Rock, Memphis, and nationally. She served on the Board of Regents of Kenmore, the historic Frederickburg home of Betty Washington, George Washington's sister, and was a member of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America. She was a member of the Hawthorne Book Club and Junior Mathontes Club in Pine Bluff, the Little Garden Club of Memphis, and the Junior Leagues of Memphis and Pine Bluff. She was appointed by both Governors Dale Bumpers and Bill Clinton to the Arkansas Governor's Mansion Commission and was a member of the Arkansas Women of the Arts. She was one of the original founders, with Helen Walton, of the National Museum of Women of the Arts in Washington and served on the board of the Pine Bluff Symphony League. She was preceded in death by her two sisters, Hattie Boone Black of DeWitt and Georgea Oliver Black McKinley of Little Rock. Her survivors include daughter, Deborah Dunklin Tipton of Memphis; son, George H. Dunklin, Jr. of DeWitt; grandchildren, Robert and Mary Elisabeth Black Tipton of Memphis, and Megan, Hillary, and Lauren Dunklin of DeWitt; nephew Lester McKinley of DeWitt; and nieces, Georgea McKinley Greaves of Greenville, South Carolina, and Mary McKinley Jennings of DeWitt. Graveside services are scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 19, 2007, in Graceland Cemetery in Pine Bluff with the Reverend Gordon Topping officiating. Ralph Robinson & Son is in charge of funeral arrangements (Online register: www.ralphrobinsonandson.com). The family will receive friends at the Dunklin home following the graveside service. The family requests that memorials be sent to First United Methodist Church of DeWitt (608 S. Grandview Dr., DeWitt, AR 72042), the Kenmore Association of Fredericksburg, VA, the Little Garden Club of Memphis, or to the donor's institution or charity of choice. Ralph Robinson & Son Funeral Directors (Published in The Commercial Appeal on 5/17/2007.)