Harriet Naudine Berringer

.Harriet Naudine Chapman was born the eldest of four girls in a small house that is still standing by the freeway in Sacramento, California at 3056 6th Avenue. She lived at home until she went to McClatchy high school; when she went to live with her own grandmother Harriet Luetha Mackey, a Quaker preacher, who Harriet said, “taught her Christian values.” These values led Harriet to a lot of volunteer work throughout her life. She learned Cantonese at C.S.U.S. so she could be effective in the Chinese Methodist Church in Sacramento, and along with activist George Lowe, helped shut down a sweatshop where there were child laborers in Sacramento on Broadway Street. Harriet said that she and others feared they were on the Chinese mafia hit list, called “The Tong,” for a long time after.

Harriet also learned American Sign Language to volunteer working with the deaf community, and was a board member for the Sacramento Area Economical Opportunity Center, working for Civil Rights in Oak Park, California as part of her neighborhood council. She worked as a secretary for the Oak Park Methodist Church, also. Despite having six of her own children, and fostering and adopting more, Harriet sought out volunteer opportunities and was idealistic in pursuits of helping others. Literally up until the day of her passing, Harriet hosted and served dinner to her beloved bible study parish and has been an integral part of many programs and services in her community and through her church at Fair Oaks Presbyterian, including rummage sales, women's groups, free home babysitting for moms' groups, and teaching her precious Sunday School kids.

In the forties, Harriet met her future husband, Walter Edrick Berringer. After taking her back home one evening after a date, she returned to a dance and discovered him there on another date. Harriet always did love a challenge, and Walt married Harriet on December 29, 1946. Prior to marriage, Harriet was a member of the Civil Air Patrol as a mechanic for B-2’s and flew small planes, while working on her pilot’s license. Harriet is survived by her husband of almost sixty-six years, their six children, two foster children and one adopted child, seventeen grandkids, and twenty-eight great grandkids currently. Harriet has left behind a legacy of charity and volunteerism, friendships and family, and a steadfast compassion and spirit of giving above and beyond. Harriet declared often, "I'm going to live, while I'm living." To those that knew her as a friend, a mother, a grandmother, a wife, or a humble servant in Christ, Harriet will be deeply missed, and cherished forever in our hearts.