helen J mcbride  

Mrs. Helen J.. McBride, . 69, of 3 Greenbrier Drive, Mattoon, died at 8:45 p.m. Sunday (Aug. 17, 1986) at St. Mary's Hospital, Tucson, Arizona.

The funeral will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Central Community Church with Rev. Earl O'Neal officiating. Burial will be in Dodge Grove Cemetery.

Friends may call at the Mitchell-Jerdan Funeral Home from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday.

She was born Nov. 15, 1916, in Wilmington, Del., a daughter of John Edward and Molly Bell Gordy Elliott. She married James E. McBride in Cairo Nov. 3, 1935. He survives.

Other survivors include a, one son, John E. of Chesterfield, Mo.; two daughters, Mrs. Bill (Joann) Smitherman of Tucson and Ms. Janet McBride of Valley Center, Calif.; five grandchildren, James E. McBride and Marisa K. McBride, both of Mattoon, Stephanie Lynn Berry of Chesterfield, Mo., and Paul E. and Stephen L. Smitherman of Tucson; and one great-grandchild, Nicholas L Smitherman of Tucson.

Helen and Jim McBride owned and operated the private Mattoon airport from 1945 to 1951. From 1951 to 1980, they owned and operated McBride's Express.