'She doesn't deserve this'


Friends, loved ones of Rhoda McFarland mourn her violent death

February 8, 2008

CREST HILL -- Friends and family gathered Friday to mourn the senseless
slaying of former pastor and retail manager Rhoda McFarland.
"Rhoda, she doesn't deserve this. I know that," said long-time friend
Donald Newell of Joliet.

"What had she done?" Newell said, leaving the question hanging as the
grieving passed by McFarland's flag-draped coffin.

Rhoda McFarland's wake began Friday afternoon at Word of Life Christian
Center in Crest Hill.

McFarland was the manager of the Tinley Park Lane Bryant store where she
and four customers were shot to death. A Mokena woman survived the
attack with a bullet wound to her neck. She is in protective custody.

McFarland's wake was in the same church building where she once worked.
She was a pastor at Embassy Christian Center in Crest Hill, which has
since been renamed Word of Life Christian Center.

In addition to working for the church and managing Lane Bryant,
McFarland also was an employee of Nicor and served in the Air Force.

Sources say McFarland called 911 from the store to report the attack,
which her dad did not know.

McFarland¹s funeral will be today at Word of Life Christian Center
following a 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. visitation, said her father, Hilton
Hamilton.

She will be buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Joliet.

*Members of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, plan to picket
today at the funerals of two of the victims.

They are scheduled to picket at the funerals of Sarah Szafranski, 22, of
Oak Forest, and Connie Woolfolk, 37, of Flossmoor. The church members
are known for demonstrating at funerals of fallen American soldiers.

"The wrath of God is pouring out on this nation," said Shirley
Phelps-Roper, an attorney and daughter of church founder Fred Phelps.
Phelps-Roper said soldiers are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan because of
the "homosexuals and other sins of America."

Phelps-Roper, a prominent member of the WBC, suggested that the Tinley
Park shootings were "God's will."
*
But Newell, a friend of McFarland for the last 25 years, said, "People
really need to get close to God and find out what God is."
He wondered aloud about men committing acts of violence against women.
"
"It's just traumatic," he said. "For what reason? I don't know. I'm
still trying to gather myself."

Jim Hook of Sun-Times News Group contributed to this story. Contact Joe
Hosey at (815) 729-6054 or jhosey@...
<mailto:jhosey@...?Subject=Story.Response>

--

JR Allas - Crest Hill, IL - USA - jrallas@...
1990 VN750 "Miles" - 34K mi - VROC#1585 - WARB#156
http://www.vroc.org/view_profile.php?user_id=1551
"Vulcan 750 Info Site" - http://jr_allas.tripod.com
"So many miles of road - So little time..."