Helen Hooker

Helen N. Hooker, 78 of Byram, MS, passed peacefully away to her heavenly home on July 2, 2008, from the Arbor Oaks healthcare Center in Malvern, Arkansas. She waged a gallant struggle for eighteen years against Parkinson's disease. Funeral services are scheduled for Monday, July 7, 2008 at 10 A.M. at Brookleigh Baptist Church in Byram, MS. Burial will follow in the Clinton cemetery.\ Visitation will be Sunday July 6, 2008 from 2-5pm in the Chancellor Funeral Home (Byram) and friends are invited to attend. Dr. Thomas Copeland and the Reverend James Pace will conduct the funeral service. Dr. Copeland will deliver the eulogy and Reverend Pace will have the prayer at the graveside. Pall bearers will be from the church.\ Helen is survived by her husband, Dr. Orvel E. Hooker, a minister and educator. They have been married for 57 years. She is also survived by her daughter, Cynthia Sears, of Houston, TX and son, David Hooker, of Nashville, TN. Other survivors include her son in law, Richard Sears of Carrollton, GA, her daughter in law, Tammy Hooker of Nashville, TN, seven grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.\ The family gratefully acknowledges the care Mrs. Hooker received at the Arbor Oaks Healthcare Center in Malvern, AR. Appreciation is also expressed to the various physicians who attended her.\ Mrs. Hooker was born in Willow, AR, in 1929. Later she and her family moved to Malvern, AR where she graduated from high school. During her senior year in Malvern, Helen was selected as "Most Beautiful" by her classmates. She went on to attend and graduate from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, AR where for three consecutive years she was selected as a "College Beauty."\ For seven years Helen and her husband lived and worked in Philadelphia, PA, she at the Franklin Research Company, and he, as a seminary student and pastor of the Geiger Memorial Church in Downtown Philadelphia. Later they moved to North Adams, MA where Dr. Hooker pastored the large First Baptist Church.\ In 1964 the Hooker's moved to Mississippi, where Helen became an executive secretary at the Jackson Chamber of Commerce. She, along with her husband, helped organize the Brookleigh Baptist Church. He has been the church's only pastor.\ The ravages of Parkinson's disease forced Mrs. Hooker's retirement from the Chamber of Commerce in 1990 and she remained an invalid for the rest of her life. In over 18 years of intense pain and suffering, she never once questioned God's will, nor did she ever ask, "Why me, Lord?" She was widely respected in the business community, greatly loved by the members of her church and adored by her family. Mrs. Joby Foshee described her as, "The perfect minister's wife." Preeminently a woman of faith, hope and love, Helen will be sorely missed by all those who loved her. She was a lady. We commend her into God's Kingdom\ \