Memorial services for Judith L. Powell Branch, Grandview, Mo., were held Monday in the First United Methodist Church.

Mrs. Branch, 53, died Friday, Jan. 31, 1997 in the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kan.

Born Sept. 24, 1943 in Omaha, Neb., she was the daughter of Jack and Alice McClintock Powell. She grew up in Osawatomie and was a 1961 graduate of Osawatomie High School. She attended the University of Kansas and earned a master's degree in speech pathology in 1967.

She and Thomas J. Branch were married March 29, 1968. They made their home in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

She was employed as director of speech pathology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. They returned to the United States in 1995 and Mrs. Branch was employed by the Grandview school system.

Her memberships included the First United Methodist Church of Osawatomie; American Speech and Hearing Association, the Canadian Association of Speech Pathologists and Audiologists and the Speech and Hearing Association of Alberta.

Among those preceding her in death was a brother.

Survivors include her husband, Thomas, of the home; her mother of Osawatomie; four brothers, David Clark Powell, Lee's Summit, Mo., Mike Powell, Paola, Bill Powell, Olathe, and Brian Powell, Springfield, Mo.; and three sisters, Jackie Fixley, Olathe, Nancy Crowley, Osawatomie, and Marsha Madl., Topeka.

Mrs. Branch was cremated.

A memorial has been established in her name to the American Liver Foundation.