Booneville's Frances Ann Ratliff dies at 72, services scheduled

Frances Ann Ratliff, 72, a lifelong Booneville resident whose life was rooted in family and the Assembly Church of God, died April 7, 2026 at the Owsley County Health Care Center following a long illness. Born May 23, 1953 in Owsley County, Ratliff was listed in the Searcy & Strong Funeral Home obituary as devoted to family and faith, and she will be remembered locally through services and burial at the Ratliff Family Cemetery in Booneville.

The family arranged visitation at Searcy & Strong Funeral Home, 1694 Old KY 11 in Booneville, on Friday, April 10, 2026 from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., with a funeral service scheduled there on Saturday, April 11, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. Burial will follow at Ratliff Family Cemetery. Brother Gary Vandeventer is listed as the officiant and Searcy & Strong Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements; the funeral home, located on Old Kentucky 11, notes more than 50 years of local service on its site.

Ratliff is survived by her husband, Sonny Eugene Ratliff, and by sisters Nellie Mae Hobbs of Sextons Creek, Pauline Hurst, and Gracie Turner, along with brother Hugh Sizemore, all of Booneville. Her parents are listed as the late Morton and LouBertha (Moore) Sizemore, and the obituary names a great nephew, Hunter Reed of Booneville. The funeral-home posting records that several siblings preceded her in death, and those family connections are part of the notice intended to guide neighbors and extended relatives attending services.

The Owsley County Health Care Center, listed at 20 County Barn Road, Booneville, KY 41314 with phone (606) 593-6302, is the facility where Ratliff died; the center is a Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing home with provider number 185273 and roughly 91 certified beds listed in public CMS profiles. In Owsley County, which recorded a population of 4,051 in the 2020 census and shows recent estimates around 3,900 to 4,000 residents, long-term care beds at the local nursing home are frequently the setting for end-of-life care among older residents.

In a county with a low median household income reported at $22,188 in recent American Community Survey tables, funeral-home obituaries play a practical role: they provide the formal public record for timing of visitation and burial, guide callers to Searcy & Strong for questions about arrangements, and help genealogists and distant relatives track family history. Neighbors planning floral tributes, attendance, or other expressions of support will find the published Searcy & Strong obituary to be the primary source for service times and burial location.