Rosa Feemster

1919 - 2015

(News article) Rosa Mae Feemster, a church volunteer whose help for those in need included, years after her son's death in Vietnam, opening her home to a grief-stricken veteran, died March 27, in her central Toledo home. She was 95.

She suffered Alzheimer's disease for years and most recently the flu, her son William, said.

Mrs. Feemster was an usher at Parkwood Avenue Seventh-Day Adventist Church and sang in the choir, but also visited the ill and homebound. She distributed boxes of food. Family members in difficult straits could stay with her.

Decades ago she noticed a homeless man circling the block again and again as three of her children played outside. She told them to ask him to the door, where she invited him in for a meal - and presented him a razor and towel so he could clean up first. The man said grace before the meal and, as he was leaving, she filled a shopping bag with food and gave him money for a stay at the Indiana Avenue YMCA.

"Those are my first vivid memories of my mother really extending herself to help somebody," son William said. "The lesson she taught us was to help others."

Her son Colinna had wanted to make the Army a career since age 14, her son William recalled, and enlisted at 17. In Vietnam, Sergeant Feemster and other squad members were firing at enemy snipers on Sept. 1, 1966, when he was shot and killed. More than a year later, Mrs. Feemster accepted a Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and two medals from the South Vietnamese government on his behalf.

A devout Christian, her faith helped her through, son William said.

"She was proud, believe me, of my brother's service because he achieved his dream," son William said. More than 24 years later, a Mississippi veteran who was alongside Sergeant Feemster when he died sought out Mrs. Feemster. The veteran had trouble adjusting after his return, he told The Blade in 1991, but was determined to reconnect with his past.

In Toledo, the mother who'd lost a son provided him comfort.

"Release the pain," Mrs. Feemster said to the veteran as he sobbed in grief.

Her son William said Thursday: "She knew my brother had a positive influence on him, or else he wouldn't have been seeking his family."

She was born Nov. 7, 1919, in Paducah, Ky., to Availa and Samuel Allen. The family moved to Toledo in 1941. She'd been a restaurant cook and a domestic worker, but mostly was a homemaker, family members said. She was a former member of St. Paul AME Zion Church.

Her marriage to the late Henry Feemster, Sr., ended in divorce.

Surviving are her daughter, Beverly Boykin; sons, Henry, Jr., Johnny, William, and Keith Feemster; 20 grandchildren; 34 great-grandchildren, and seven great-great-grandchildren.

Visitation is from 5-8 p.m. today in Dale-Riggs Funeral Home Chapel, with funeral services at 1 p.m. Saturday.

This story was written by Blade Staff Writer Mark Zaborney. Contact him at: mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.