Services for Benard Rankin will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at W.H. Jefferson Funeral Home with the Rev. Dellie Robinson officiating. Burial will follow at Cedar Hill Cemetery.

Mr. Rankin died Friday, Sept. 9, 2011, at River Region Medical Center. He was 73.

Born in Fayette, he was retired from the mat-sinking unit of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Vicksburg District. He was of the Baptist faith.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Son and Lillian Thomas Curtis; and a sister, Silver Mae Durning.

Survivors include his son, Benard Rankin Jr. of New Orleans; a stepdaughter, Lena Margie of New Orleans; three daughters, Lisa Thornton, Diane Williams and Debra Williams, all of Vicksburg; 12 grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; and nieces, nephews, cousins and other relatives, including Henriette Smith, Helen Lee Thomas, Virginia Minnie Owens, Willie Mae Roberson, Bessie Proham, David O’Neal, Ronald Walter and Martha Ann Thomas and members of the Wilson, Thomas, Ward, Rankin, Branch and Smith families.