Helen Virginia Piercey

Helen Virginia Piercey, 88, died peacefully on Friday, May 5, 2017, at Humboldt Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center after a brief illness.
Mrs. Piercey was born on September 5, 1928 to Penny Mae and Richard Claude Harris of Madison County, Tenn. along with four sisters and one brother.
She was preceded in death by three of those siblings, Nerine Harris Lloyd, Ina Mae Harris Wright and brother, Douglas C. Harris.
In 1946, she graduated as salutatorian of her class at Northside High School in Jackson, Tenn. Later that year, she married the love of her life, Virl Norman Piercey, on December 14, 1946. They were married 63 wonderful years until his death in 2010. Together they raised two children, Vicki Piercey Benjamin and David Virl Piercey. They were life-long members of Bethel Baptist Church.
Mrs. Piercey worked for many years as a telephone operator at Sears located in downtown Humboldt. This was the era when orders were placed by customers either in person or over the telephone from a catalog. She made many lifelong friends while working at Sears. After leaving Sears, she became a beautician and owned the Humboldt Beauty School as well as a school in Jackson. She also worked as a secretary at Stigall Elementary School in the early1970s. After her children were grown, she traveled with her husband as his office manager on various construction sites all across the country.
The West Tennessee Strawberry Festival was always a special time for Helen and her family. With her husband’s background in construction and woodworking, they enjoyed making wooden Strawberry signs that can still be seen in yards all over town this time of year. In later years, they became quite popular with the Tennessee Walking Horse Show crowd for her famous strawberry shortcakes made fresh right on the show grounds.
Mrs. Piercey is survived by her two children, Vicki Benjamin (Fred) and David Piercey (Susie), both of Humboldt; two sisters, Cara Nell Miller of Humboldt and Emogene Lott (A.B.) of Jackson; three grandsons, Jason Piercey (Patricia) of San Antonio, Tex., John Piercey (Lexy) of Virginia Beach, Va., and Bubba Plunk of Nashville, Tenn.; two step grandchildren, Tim Benjamin (Mollie) of Brooklyn Park, Minn., and Samantha Underwood (Eric) of Medina, Tenn.; and six loving great-grandchildren.
A graveside service will be held in the cemetery of Bethel Baptist Church in Humboldt on Wednesday, May 10, 2017 at 11 a.m.