Mary Helen (Berryhill) Arnold

Mary Helen Berryhill was raised on a farm in Easley, SC, the sixth child of Charley and Setta Fay (Chapman) Berryhill. Upon graduation from Easley High School, Helen went to work to help support her widowed mother and younger siblings, just as her older siblings had done before her.

The Piedmont Shirt Factory in Greenville took little advantage of Helen’s considerable talent as a seamstress, but it did seat her next to Miss Mary Black, whose stories of her cousin, Johnnie Arnold, a young Air Force sergeant, were compelling enough for Helen to ask for his address, a first step in determining her own opinion of him. Johnnie wrote back, and when he came back to Greenville on leave they met in person. More letters followed, and when Johnnie separated from the Air Force and came back to Greenville, he asked Helen to marry him. In the months that followed, he evaluated his job options, leaning toward returning to the service. He asked Helen if she would mind being an Air Force wife. She said that would be fine, and the course was set for most of the rest of their lives together.

Johnnie and Helen married on March 20,1955. Three months later, Johnnie left for his next assignment, South Korea. Letter writing resumed, and a year later he received orders for Clark AFB in the Philippines, a base with family housing available. Helen was about to move halfway around the world.

The 21-year-old bought train tickets to San Franciso for herself and her older sister, Ruby, and set out on what would be for Helen the first of many cross-country trips. They each then made their first airplane flights, Ruby going back to South Carolina while Helen went on to Hawaii, where she spent the afternoon in Honolulu; then to a layover in Guam; and finally to the Philippines, where she and Johnnie would live for two years.

Next came Oklahoma, California, and the first of several assignments to Shaw AFB in Sumter, SC; a year with him to Vietnam and her back in Greenville; Shaw again, three years in Japan, Shaw, Texas, and finally retirement in Sumter. They moved to Summerville, SC, for several years when Johnnie unretired and took a civilian job in Charleston, then back to Sumter for good when he re-retired.

Helen, a lifelong Baptist, found a church in each new place. Johnnie and their two children soon followed. Both parents instilled a love of reading, a curiosity to visit new places, the knowledge that home was not a location but what you make of it, and profound devotion to God.

Johnnie passed in 2015 in the 59th year of their marriage. Those who thought widowhood would be too much of a challenge for Helen missed the farm-to-factory-to-Philippines part of her story, and her capacity to adjust to changing circumstances.

Helen lived independently for eleven years, continuing to participate in her community and church. And, when it was her time to leave, she went to sleep and just didn’t wake up again.

Left behind to cherish her memory are a son, Phillip Arnold, and his wife Sharon of North Augusta, SC; a daughter, Vicki Arnold, and her husband Philip Shiman of Springfield, VA; two grandchildren, Scott Arnold of Augusta, GA, and Brittany Arnold of Norway; a sister, Martha Masters of Pickens, SC; three sisters-in-law, Joan Arnold of Elgin, SC, Ruth Berryhill of Travelers Rest, SC, Jane Seay of Easley, SC; and four generations of nieces and nephews.

In addition to her husband and parents, Helen was preceded in death by three brothers and four sisters.

A funeral service will be held on Monday, April 27, 2026, at 11:00 am at the Bullock Funeral Home Chapel.

A graveside service will be held at Evergreen Memorial Park Cemetery following the funeral service.

The family will receive friends on Monday, April 27, 2026, from 10:00 am to 11:00 am, at Bullock Funeral Home.

You may go to www.bullockfuneralhome.com and sign the family’s guest book.

The family has chosen Bullock Funeral Home for the arrangements.

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