Merle Halfacre
Merle Grace (Sullivan) Halfacre, 95, Strawberry, Ark., formerly of the Warsaw area, died Sunday, June 1, 2025.
Merle Sullivan was born Jan. 14, 1930, and raised on her family’s Saffell, Ark., farm surrounded by grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. She attended Strawberry schools, where she met and fell in love with her future husband, Clark Halfacre.
Shortly after marrying, she and her husband were presented with a shotgun shack on the farm where they contributed labor while mapping out their future and starting a family with three children. They added a fourth child before moving to Southern California, where they added a fifth and sixth child after a 10-year hiatus. Two of Merle’s brothers also settled in Southern California, adding children to their growing families. Merle’s parents ultimately followed.
In the early 1970s, they decided to return to their home state, joining Clark’s brother and his family in Manilla, Ark. They brought the three youngest children while the older three stayed where they had started their own families. Sadly, Clark died in 1975.
Merle then met Jim Bean and relocated with her two youngest children to Warsaw, where they blended their families into a baker’s dozen. She worked at the original McDonald’s for more than two decades, waiting on everyone who entered, including the mayor of Warsaw at the time. Her tenure at both Warsaw locations lasted 36 years when she decided to retire and return home.
She lived out the rest of her years just one road over from her beloved family farm in Saffell enveloped in love by her local progeny, visited as often as busy lives allowed by the rest of the family and very well cared for by her son, Tim Halfacre, his wife, Debbie, and granddaughter, Shawnee Scoggin. She will be missed terribly by so many. Forever mom, mother, Mamaw, sister, cousin and aunt.
Merle was preceded in death by her parents, Bonnie (Huskey) and WR Sullivan; husband, Clark Halfacre; former husband, Jim Bean; children, Terry Halfacre, Cherita Barrios and Laura Hale; brothers, Darrell, Gerald and Press Sullivan; granddaughter, Brandy Bean; grandson, James Marsillett Jr.; and great-granddaughter, Megan Scott.
Merle is survived by her brother, Boyce (Sheila) Sullivan; children, Steve (Vicki) Halfacre, Tim (Debbie) Halfacre, Lori (Jeff Conley) Halfacre, Christina Lynn (Brian) Breeden, Mary (James) Marsillett, Jimmy (Tina) Bean, Melody (Mitch) Shaffer, Kenny Wayne Bean, Lea Ann (Rick) Richardson and Rose (Charles) Cotton; and many grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.
A visitation will be held from 11 a.m. to noon, Monday June 9, at Mount Harmony Freewill Baptist Church in Saffell.
Funeral services will follow immediately at Mount Harmony Freewill Baptist Church at noon with John Cross and Stanley Vandergriff officiating.
Interment will be in Ward Cemetery in Strawberry, Ark., under direction of
House-Gregg Funeral Homes,
of Walnut Ridge and Lynn, Ark.
