Mourners Recall ‘Mother McClain’

They came by the hundreds to mourn the death of a woman who was grandmother to an entire community.

They remembered Viola McClain for her heartfelt hugs and kisses, her sugar cookies, the way she would sit in the same seat in church each Sunday, urging the minister to “tell ‘em, tell ‘em, pastor.”

Almost every child and a good number of grown-ups had been baby-sat and maybe even spanked at some point by the woman known as Mother McClain, who was fatally shot as she stood on the porch of her house.

About 450 people--including family members down to her 6-month-old great-great-granddaughter--packed the chapel and overflow room of Village Baptist Church in Watts for the services led by the Rev. Dedrick Burks, with burial afterward at Lincoln Memorial Park in Carson.

“I’m not surprised” by the crowd, William Hale, one of the pallbearers and a neighbor of 47 years, said as he watched the crowd grow larger and larger. “She was well known.”

McClain, 82, was gunned down July 26, allegedly by a 12-year-old boy who has not been charged with the crime. Police accuse the boy of having participated before the shooting in the gang rape of a 13-year-old girl in an abandoned house next to McClain’s home on the 1300 block of East 111th Street in Watts. The boy, along with a group of youths, allegedly tried to burn down the house with the girl still inside to cover up their crimes, officials said.

The 12-year-old and four others have been charged with rape in connection with the attack. Two more juveniles are to be arraigned today on the same charges, prosecutors said.

McClain’s grandson, Dumar Starks, 33, noticed the fire and confronted the boys. One of them drew a gun. Authorities say Starks went back into the house to get a gun when McClain walked out onto the porch and was shot in the neck.

Reggie Beamon, 38, a nephew, said he believes the boy suspected of firing the fatal bullet “needs to have some compassion. . . . I worry for the young man. I think that boy should have a chance to get his life together. I’m definitely extending the olive branch.”

Beamon urged tougher gun legislation, especially for minors, and said men must take responsibility for their children.

“I really feel this is the epitome of all the things that have happened in our neighborhood,” he said.

A friend of the family, Jamila Harold, 43, said McClain’s death has inspired her to work for change in the neighborhood. “It was not only the kids who pulled the trigger. I feel the whole community did it, too. The system needs to change.”

Other mourners expressed outrage at the shooting. Bill Morgan, 28, lives a few houses from McClain’s and was outside when the shooting occurred. He said he waited with McClain’s grandson for the ambulance to come that night.

“She was like a grandmother to the whole neighborhood,” Morgan said. “It’s saddening. Seems like the justice system doesn’t want to play fair. It tells parents don’t spank your kids. That lady had to lose her life because of the justice system.”

A fellow churchgoer, Lizzie Atkins, remembered McClain for her cooking tips and their nightly phone conversations. “You had to love her. She would tell me, ‘I am somebody.’ And she was.”