Mary Louisa McKernon

June 26, 1925 - January 30, 2009

Mary Louisa Logan was born on June 26, 1925, in Fort Morgan, Colorado, the only child of John Asbury Logan and Blanche Moss Logan. She attended Fort Morgan schools, graduating from high school in 1944. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Colorado State College of Education (now the University of Northern Colorado) in Greeley. While a student there, Mary was invited to an InterVarsity Christian Fellowship summer camp in Ontario, where she professed her faith in Jesus Christ as her Savior and Lord, and was baptized. Subsequently, she was instrumental in helping to found a campus chapter of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in Greeley, together with InterVarsity workers Gene and Gerri Thomas, and college friend Fran Eachus. Miss Eachus describes Mary from this time as a great prayer warrior and a very faithful friend, characteristics she displayed to the end of her life. Mary met her future husband, James G. McKernon, also a student at CSC Ed., in 1946, and they were married on July 16, 1948. She earned a Master of Arts in Library Science from the University of Denver in 1950, while James began work on a Master of Education degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder. In 1950 and 1951, Mary served as librarian for the Colorado State Highway Department, and from 1951 to 1953, she was the Children's Librarian at the Colorado State Library. When James was ordained as a Protestant minister in 1954, Mary immediately began to study and improve her skills so that she could take her place alongside him as a pastor's wife, if the Lord should call them into full-time church ministry. Drawn to children's outreach ministries by the birth of their daughter in 1953, Mary began to work with Child Evangelism Fellowship, learning how to teach the Gospel to small children through home-based Good News Clubs. After James completed a Ph.D. degree at the University of Denver, followed by post-doctoral studies at the University of Illinois, he took a teaching position at Northern State Teachers' College (now Northern State College) in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He served as interim pastor of the First Christian Church, while Mary taught pre-school-age Sunday School classes, and took piano lessons so that she could play for Sunday School classes and Good News Clubs. In 1955, Mary's dear friend from college, Fran Eachus, answered a call to full-time missionary service with Wycliffe Bible Translators, going to Guatemala with a partner to learn the Kekchi language, reduce it to written form, teach the Kekchi people to read and write, and translate the Bible into their language while bringing the Gospel to them – a monumental task which would take over forty-five years. Mary persuaded her husband to allocate a substantial portion of their tithes and offerings, over and above their gifts to their local church, to the support of Miss Eachus and the work of Wycliffe Bible Translators. Though other church and missions ministries were added to their tithe list over the years, Mary and James maintained some level of giving to Wycliffe, for Fran Eachus, throughout their lives, and Mary left a request that gifts be sent to Wycliffe for this ministry in lieu of flowers at her death. In 1960, James took a position at the VA Hospital in Chillicothe, Ohio, and he and Mary joined Tabernacle Baptist Church in Chillicothe. Later, James served as interim pastor for the First Baptist Church of Richmondale, Ohio, baptizing their eight-year-old daughter there in 1962. Mary worked as a librarian for the Ross County Public Library and stepped up her work with Child Evangelism Fellowship, carrying on a series of Good News Clubs in their home. James transferred to the VA Hospital in Huntington, West Virginia in 1963. In Huntington, James and Mary were members of Highlawn Baptist Church, then Baptist Temple, and finally Fellowship Baptist Church. In addition to serving as associate pastor at Baptist Temple, James was frequently asked to serve as a temporary pastor for small independent or Baptist churches in the area. Two of the oldest of these were Mud River Baptist Church, founded in 1804, and Beulah Ann Baptist Church, also founded in the early 1800's. At each church, Mary made lifelong friends and worked with mission circles, Bible classes, and prayer groups. At Baptist Temple, she helped to found and organize the church library. In 1975, Mary helped to found a chapter of Christian Women's Club. From 1984 to 1986, Mary was the librarian at the Huntington Museum of Art. She was the reference librarian at Briggs-Lawrence County Public Library in Ironton, Ohio, just across the river from Huntington, from 1987 to 1992. Also in 1987, she researched, wrote, and published a church history, The Church at Blue Sulphur: Mud River Baptist, 1804 --, and worked to bring out a revised edition five years later. After returning to Colorado in 1992, to share a house with their daughter in the northwest Denver suburb of Arvada, Mary and James became members of Community Baptist Church (now Centerpoint Community Church) of Arvada. Mary, finding that this church had a rudimentary library in need of her professional skills, pitched in and helped to renew the library, organize volunteer help, and publicize library services to the congregation. From 1993 to 1995, she also worked in the Senior Employee Program for the Denver office of the Environmental Protection Agency. In 2003, Mary's husband James went to be with the Lord. She continued to be very active in church and Bible study, though obliged to slow down after some illnesses in 1999 and 2001. Finding that she could not keep up her previous level of activity, Mary concentrated even harder on her work of intercessory prayer, often spending three hours or more each day with her Bible, her prayer lists, her letter writing to missionaries, and her Christian reading. When Mary and her daughter moved to Rocky Ford, Colorado in 2007, Mary joined First Baptist Church of Rocky Ford, attending the senior Sunday School class and remaining involved in local Bible studies as much as she was able. In the spring of 2008, her health deteriorated to the point that she was obliged to stop attending church, though she still kept up with her favorite Christian ministries by giving, letter writing, and intercessory prayer, and participated in worship services by television. After a final series of health problems, Mary passed away quietly in the nursing care unit attached to Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center in La Junta, Colorado on January 30th, 2009. She is survived by her daughter Catrìona. There will be a memorial service for Mary Logan McKernon at First Baptist Church, 10th & Maple, Rocky Ford, Colorado, on Tuesday, February 10th, at 2:30 p.m. The Reverend Chris Becker, pastor of First Baptist, will conduct the service, assisted by the Reverend Floyd Austin. There will be a second memorial service at Centerpoint Community Church, 6265 Garrison Street, Arvada, Colorado, on Friday, February 13th, at 2:30 p.m. The Reverend Paul Klein, pastor of Centerpoint, will conduct the service.