JOPLIN, Mo. – Friends and family paid tribute to victims of the Joplin tornado Friday, beginning the grim task of burying the dead as officials said the savage storm’s death toll had risen to 132 people.

As the first funeral began just over the Kansas border, city officials said the body count had gone up by six from the previous day. The state, meanwhile, worked to pare down the list of people missing and unaccounted for in the wake of the deadliest single U.S. twister in more than six decades.

The original list of 232 missing or unaccounted for residents had dropped to 156 by Friday, Missouri Department of Public Safety deputy director Andrea Spillars said, adding that at least 90 people on the initial list had been located alive.

But at least six others were identified as among the dead, and some new names had been added to the scroll of the missing. Authorities had cautioned for days that while they believed many on the list were alive and safe, others likely had been killed.

City manager Mark Rohr acknowledged during an afternoon news conference that there may be “significant overlap” between the confirmed dead and the remainder of the missing list.