Mary Ellen Neal Harrelson, 78, widow of Robert Calhoun Harrelson, of Summerville, SC, died Wednesday, January 4, 2012.

The Funeral Mass will be held Monday, January 9, 2012 at St. John the Beloved Catholic Church at 11:00 a.m. The visitation will be held at Parks Funeral Home Sunday evening from 6 – 8 o’clock with the Vigil Service at 6:00 p.m. The Rite of Committal will be private. Memorials may be made to the Ronald McDonald House, 81 Gadsden Street, Charleston, SC 29401.

Mrs. Harrelson was born June 11, 1933 in Summerville, SC, a daughter of Peter Jehue Neal and Mary Agnes Dunning Neal. She was a proud graduate of the 1954 Class of the Saint Francis Xavier School of Nursing in Charleston and was an active member of the Alumnae Association.  After 42 years of dedicated bedside and cardiac care nursing, she retired in 1998 from Trident Regional Medical Center. She was a founding member of the Parish Nurse Program, a ministry to the homebound and shut-in of the Saint John the Beloved Catholic Church, where she was a stalwart member since birth.

  Mrs. Harrelson, who identified herself first and foremost as a dedicated mother to her six children, enjoyed gardening and was an avid fisher, taking special delight in shrimping and crabbing in the waters of her beloved low country.  Her faith as a Catholic Christian, the central hallmark of her life, was reflected in every facet of her relationships, especially her roles as a wife, mother, grandmother, nurse, and friend.

  Survivors include four daughters, Cynthia Marie Sieber of Charleston, Patricia Ann Massenburg and husband Steve of Summerville, Ellen Christine DePatie of Summerville, Lynn Harrelson Palazzo and husband Robert of Marietta, GA; two sons, R. Greg Harrelson and wife Lisa of Hanahan and Walter Neal Harrelson of Morganton, NC; two brothers, Dr. George P. Neal of Atlanta and Elmo F. Neal of Greer; two sisters, Gertrude M. Flanagan of Madison, WI and Sister Mary Thomas Neal, OLM, of Charleston, SC; ten grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.

 Arrangements by Parks Funeral Home, 130 West 1st North Street, Summerville, SC 29483.    

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