STARKVILLE — Mary Helen Heard Cooper Johnson, 86, died June 21, 2025, at her residence.

Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, at Second Baptist Church, with Willie H. Johnson officiating. Burial will follow at Memorial Gardens Cemetery. Visitation is from 1-5 p.m. Friday at Hairston and Hairston Funeral Homes of Starkville is in charge of arrangements.

Mrs. Johnson was born Sept. 30, 1938, in Maben, to the late Anderson and Josie Lee Heard.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, James Moore Johnson; and siblings, AJ Heard, Joe Louis Heard, Robert Heard, Lucille Heard, Catherine Cooper and Josephine Kincade. She was a 1955 graduate of Oktibbeha-Webster County High School and attended Mississippi State University, Golden Triangle Community College and Mississippi Valley State University. She was formerly employed with Oktibbeha-Webster Hospital, Prairie Opportunity, Mississippi Head Start, and as a clerk with the Oktibbeha County Health Department. She was a member of the NAACP, Grove Chapel M.B. Church and Second Baptist Church.

She is survived by her children, Beverly Faye Cooper Gaspard, Ronald Gene Cooper and Kimberly Michelle Cooper; siblings, Ola Mae Boudry, Jimmy Dale Heard, John Anderson Heard, Eddie Rufus Heard, Willie Heard and Tommie Lee Heard; seven grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren.