Alma Irene Butterfield, 87, of Abilene, passed away Friday, February 3, 2012. Services will be held on Monday at 2:30 pm at Minter Lane Church of Christ with George Butterfield officiating. Burial will follow in Round Mound Cemetery under the direction of North’s Funeral Home. Visitation will be Sunday from 2-4 pm at North’s Funeral Home, 242 Orange Street.

Irene was born on September 23, 1924 in Scenery Hill, Pennsylvania to Ellis and Lula Belle McCord. She graduated from high school in West Newton, Pennsylvania and married Tom Butterfield on April 19, 1942. She was the preeminent homemaker. She raised five children, was an excellent seamstress and worked with Tom to help establish and support numerous churches including the Uniontown, Pennsylvania Church of Christ where she was one of the founding members. Later she worked as an accountant and bookkeeper for a number of organizations and companies in Pennsylvania and Texas including the law firm of Ray, Buck, Mahoney, Margolis & John in Uniontown, and the Kerrville Independent School District in Kerrville, Texas. Irene had an inquisitive spirit. She took a philosophy course at the Uniontown branch of Penn State University and participated in and led classes for Bible Study Fellowship. Along with her children and family, her greatest love was for the churches she attended with the most recent being the South 11^th and Willis and Minter Lane Churches of Christ.

She was preceded in death by her husband of sixty-three years, Thomas Butterfield, Sr.; parents, Ellis and Lula Belle McCord; two brothers, James Claire McCord and Ray McCord; and sister, Donna Poe.

Irene is survived by her children: Kathryn Belski and husband, Tom, of Winterville, North Carolina, Karen Montanari of Washington, Pennsylvania, George Butterfield and wife, Deb, of Omaha, Nebraska, Thomas Butterfield, Jr. and wife, Gail, of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and Sue Black and husband, Eddie, of Abilene, Texas; Twelve Grandchildren, Twenty-Three Great-Grandchildren, and Four Great-Great-Grandchildren; Sisters: Ethel Strube of Arlington, Virginia, Dorothy Alton of Larchmont, New York, Edith Whatley of McKinney, Texas, and Helen Phillips of Weirton, West Virginia; as well as numerous Nieces, Nephews, and Cousins.

Online condolences can be made at www.northsfuneralhome.com.