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Obituary

Family, faith guided Mango native

Helen McPherson never strayed far from her roots, her family's dairy farm on Highview Road.

By MARTY CLEAR
Published February 10, 2006

Helen McPherson, 1928-2006

MANGO - Helen McPherson was preparing dinner for an ailing friend when she suffered a massive stroke in her home. Within minutes her daughter arrived to find her mother lying on the floor surrounded by paramedics.

Amid the frantic activity and intense emotion, Mrs. McPherson was calm and even tried to soothe the people around her.

"She looked at me, and even though she couldn't talk I could see in her eyes that she was trying to assure me that everything was okay," said Becky Holland, Mrs. McPherson's daughter. "She was in God's hands, and that was where she wanted to be."

That was in mid January. The next day, family members told doctors not to keep Mrs. McPherson on life support. She was profoundly religious and would have wanted God to decide her fate.

"The doctors told us it would be a matter of hours (before she died)," Holland said. "But it wasn't. It was another week."

Mrs. McPherson died Saturday (Jan. 28, 2006). She was 77 years old.

She had lived nearly her entire life in Mango. In fact, she was born in a home just a few steps away from the one she lived in at the time of her death.

Her childhood home had been torn down years ago. In its place was built Christ Center Fellowship, the church where Mrs. McPherson was a member for the past 23 years.

She was born Helen Williams and grew up living and working at Prairie Hills Dairy, her family's dairy farm on Highview Road.

She was only 15 when she married Richard McPherson, whom she had met at a skating rink in Miami. He was a few years older and in the military. After World War II, they settled back on the Williams family farm in Mango.

"There was no question about where they would live," their daughter said. "This was where her family was."

The McPhersons were married for almost 60 years, until he died in 2002.

Mrs. McPherson had many jobs. She was a secretary at Mango Elementary School, got her real estate license and sold homes for a short time and built Mango Mobile Home Park for many years.

"She was always finding ways to make money," her daughter said.

In fact, when she took on the duty of caring for one of her grandchildren, Mrs. McPherson saw that as an opportunity and started a day care center in her home.

Although she worked hard all her life, money was never important to her. Family and faith were the things that mattered.

"She was the most unselfish person I ever met," her daughter said. "She always put us ahead of herself, always. And not just her children, but her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren and even her friends. I don't know how she did it."

She lived her faith every day of her life, her daughter said.

"She had a personal relationship with Jesus," Holland said. "A real one. Even in her death that was very evident to us. I don't want to say she was saintly, but she was right up there."

Mrs. McPherson was preceded in death by her husband, Richard A. McPherson Sr., her daughter, Carole A. Baker and a grandson, Richard A. McPherson III. She is survived by three children, Holland, Helen A. Turner and Richard A. McPherson Jr., seven grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren.

[Last modified February 9, 2006, 09:10:11]