West Modesto loses a champion

West Modesto kids always knew where to find "Mrs. White."

Helen White would be at the Maddux Youth Center in the 1960s, keeping an eye on children while they played at the surrounding park.

Later, she helped cultivate the King-Kennedy Memorial Center on South Martin Luther King Drive, giving kids another place to spend time after school.

She kept working for west Modesto into her 70s, guiding a nonprofit group that advocates for healthful living in poorer neighborhoods.

For that, Mrs. White earned the nickname "Mrs. West Side."

"She was a constant community servant, community leader and activist to the day she left," said John Ervin, president of the King-Kennedy center's board of directors.

Mrs. White, 79, died Friday after a heart attack. She left a legacy of activism that inspires the people who followed her in west Modesto neighborhood groups.

"She was really an example for all of us in how we should be mentoring and helping young people with the time we have on this planet," said Odessa Johnson, a longtime friend and former member of the Modesto City Schools Board of Education.

Mrs. White came to Modesto from Augusta, Ga., in 1962. She arrived as a single mom with three children in search of the opportunity California promised, her daughter Ronda White, 55, said.

Ronda White remembers her mother walking to classes at Modesto Junior College to earn her associate degree while working part time at the Maddux center. She later began working at the county's Public Housing Authority, retiring from the agency in 1997 after more than 30 years.

Through that time, Mrs. White sat on a host of city commissions, launched a women's club that offers scholarships to teenagers and became a foster mother. The county honored her in 1983 as its Woman of the Year. She also led the county Planning Commission as its president after her retirement.

"Just about everything we had in the community, she was always involved," said Leopold "Ray" Prescott, who served on the King-Kennedy center's founding board of directors with Mrs. White.

Carole Collins met Mrs. White as a child growing up in west Modesto. Collins said she would tell her parents she was going to the Maddux center, and they'd know she'd be in the safe hands of Mrs. White.

"She would protect and guide you, and she would do her best to make sure all of us were safe, and we were," Collins said.

Collins worked closely with Mrs. White at the West Modesto/King-Kennedy Community Collaborative, a nonprofit organization overseeing grants intended to motivate residents to live healthfully. Mrs. White was on the group's advisory board. Collins is its program director.

"She was just so full of energy," Collins said. "I'm still in shock a little bit. Some people, you never expect them to go. You just expect them to be there forever. It's going to be such a loss for all of us in west Modesto."

Mrs. White struggled with pneumonia in April, but volunteered in May to sit on a new city commission charged with drawing boundaries for City Council district elections. Mrs. White was the only resident from west Modesto to volunteer.

"That's the kind of person she was," Johnson said. "She would step up when nobody else would."

Mayor Jim Ridenour is searching for someone from west Modesto to take Mrs. White's seat. The group intends to adopt boundaries by September.

"She's going to be a real loss to that community, and to me," Ridenour said. "To me, she was west Modesto."

Mrs. White is survived by her three children, William White of Augusta; Ronda White of Modesto and Yolanda White of Fresno.

The rosary is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Salas Brothers Funeral Chapel, 419 Scenic Drive. Funeral serv- ices are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Thursday at St. Stanislaus Catholic Church, 709 J St.

Bee staff writer Adam Ashton can be reached at aashton@modbee.com or 578-2366.

This story was originally published July 8, 2008 at 4:00 AM with the headline "West Modesto loses a champion."