Volunteer spent time with women's groups

9/20/2004

FINDLAY - Olive McPherson, a community volunteer who worked with women's groups in area churches, died Friday in the Blanchard Valley Regional Hospital. She was 94.

Family members said she died of natural causes.

Ms. McPherson was born in Auglaize County in 1910 and attended Waynesfield High School, from which she graduated in 1927.

She went on to earn a business degree at the University of Northwestern Ohio, in Lima, in 1931.

"She was a kind and considerate person. She enjoyed doing things for other people," said James Paul, her son-in-law.

An avid reader, Ms. McPherson met her husband, Alfred, in Lima in 1930.

They got married and after she graduated from college, moved to Findlay, where she started working as a bookkeeper at Steele's Automotive Parts.

In 1940, Ms. McPherson stopped working and became a stay-at-home mother of two, and that's when she started doing a lot of volunteer work, her son-in-law said.

"She loved to knit and would knit hats for anybody that needed them," said Mr. Paul.

A member of the First Christian Church for more than 50 years, Ms. McPherson spent most of her time volunteering with her church's women's group, even after one of her legs was amputated 13 years ago, Mr. Paul said.

"She was a gutsy lady," her son-in-law said. "She was walking on a prosthetic limb, but that didn't get her down," She also loved baby-sitting.

Her husband, Alfred, died in 1973.

Ms. McPherson is survived by a daughter, Susan Paul; son, Michael; four grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. today at Coldren-Crates Funeral Home. A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow at First Christian Church.

The family suggests that tributes be made to the First Christian Church.