Merlie A. Friesen, 86, died Saturday at Hillsboro Community Hospital.

Born April 30, 1930, in Balko, Oklahoma, to Jonathan and Marie (Plenert) Ratzlaff, she married Leonard K. Friesen on April 10, 1949, in Balko. He died in 2007.

Survivors include son Lyle, of Phoenix; daughters Lynette Derstine of Perkasie, Pennsylvania, and Darla Flickinger of Afton, Oklahoma; brother Kermit Ratzlaff, Hillsboro; sister Irma Koop, Hillsboro; 8 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

Services were scheduled for 11 a.m. today at Parkview Mennonite Brethren Church, with pastors Steve Schroeder and Wilmer Thiessen officiating. Interment was to be before the services at Gnadenau Cemetery, rural Hillsboro.

Memorials have been established with the church and Hillsboro Senior Center.