LaFon Helm Burch

On a very special spring day, March 7, 1926, a healthy, vivacious, brown-eyed baby girl was born in a sharecropper’s home on the edge of a Cotton Patch in Kaufman County, Texas, named Amanda LaFon Helm to parents, Corrie and James Carter Helm. LaFon was the youngest of six siblings, Jimmie, Alyne, F.A., Ethel and Mayme. They never knew they were poor because of the abundant love in their home as they grew up picking cotton in the Cotton Patch together. They played together, sang harmony and laughed often…many times getting sent away from the table because of too much laughter. LaFon was a member of the Greatest Generation full of courage and determination. At age 19 she bought a house for her parents who had never owned one. She borrowed $500 from Uncle BG White paying back every penny and purchasing the house. A few years earlier World War II had begun. She corresponded with soldiers, the most special soldier being US Army Sergeant Johnnie C. Burch. They married after the war on September 16, 1945 to have 47 treasured years together. They began attending church together and soon LaFon gave her whole heart and life to Jesus Christ, serving Him fervently for the rest of her life. She became Personal Assistant to the great Christian Industrialist, RG LeTourneau for sixteen years scheduling all details of his speaking engagements around the world, especially in Africa and South America, before computers came along. During these years in Longview, Texas, Joan, Jay, and Kelley arrived to complete their family. LaFon was always up to something, placing plastic wrap inside their sausage patties on April Fool’s Day, tossing hot rolls across the dinner table long before certain restaurants started that, teaching their kids to water ski, though never getting up on skis herself from laughing too much. In 1962 the family moved to Tyler, Texas, when Johnnie became a highly respected accountant for Kelly Tires. LaFon entered the oil industry as top executive assistant to the District Manager of ARCO. Her most enjoyable hobby was her passionate love of flowers and plants, as well as watching her wild birds and hummingbirds. In their faithful church life, LaFon taught Middle Schoolers in Sunday School for many years. If they were sick at home or hospital, she would visit them on her lunch hour taking them a hamburger or homemade cookies. She would often feed lunch to a dear friend in the nursing home during her own lunch hour. It was routine for a new family at church to be invited to their home for Sunday dinner. LaFon was an influencer to everyone by caring about every person she met and asking how she could pray for them. There was a continual flow of family and friends in their home to be loved and lots of laughter. Because her siblings all went to Heaven before she did, her heart was big enough to love all her nieces and nephews, and great-nieces and nephews as her very own….while being the BEST mom ever to her own three children. In 1991 Johnnie went to Heaven far too young, leaving the family devastated. LaFon held on to Jesus for her comfort and strength, even traveling to Korea and Israel on mission trips. In 1995 LaFon married Johnny Miller enjoying sixteen wonderful years together as she received love from the entire, very caring, Miller family. Johnny went to Heaven on August 15, 2011. This beautiful, brown-eyed girl from the “Cotton Patch” passionately served Jesus by loving others until He called her home to the “King’s Palace” in Heaven on December 20, 2023, at age 97. She built a lifetime of treasures in Heaven. In the words of her niece, Judy, “Just thinking….it would be a wonderful world if everyone had an “Aunt LaFon” in their lives.” Thank you, dear Jesus! Help us learn to live in Your love that she displayed. Surviving LaFon are her children: daughter, Joan and husband Mike Meeks; son, Jay and wife Delana; son, Kelley and wife Ellen. Grandchildren: Mandy Garrison, Sarah and Justin Oberndorfer, Melissa and Jeremy King, Christa and Skip Rowland, Cody and Christy Burch, Jordan and Christina Burch, and Jared Burch. Great-grandchildren: 24 precious ones. A host of nieces, nephews, great-nieces and nephews that have loved her lavishly, as well as the entire Johnny Miller family, so full of tender loving care. If desired, memorials may be made to Hospice of East Texas at 4111 University Blvd., Tyler, TX 75701 (www.hospiceofeasttexas.org).

LaFon Helm Burch

March 7, 1926 - December 20, 2023