Ophelia Martin

Ophelia Martin

April 8, 1942 ---July 6, 2024

Our beloved mother, grandmother, sister and friend passed on to glory on July 6, 2024, with loved ones by her side at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster, Ca. 

Born to the late Reverend Bassie McCain Sr. and Clarinda McCain on April 8th, 1942. Ophelia’s life was a tapestry of love, education, and church.  Growing up in a Christian household she would accept Jesus Christ as her personal savoir at an early age and was baptized by the late Reverend R.L. Gregory of Bethany Baptist Church of Jamaica Queens, New York but her children recalled she would say she learned how to sleep with her eyes open during some of her father’s long sermons.  However, she always took church seriously and found a church home wherever she lived. She graduated from John Adams High School.

Ophelia married Wiilliam Ringgold and had 2 children from this union: Linda and Martin.  The family relocated

San Diego, California. She continued her education and began her clerical career rising from stenographer to executive secretary.   No matter where she lived or worked, she quickly turned co-workers into friends. 

Sometime later she would marry Vasco Martin Jr. and they had a daughter; Vavella. 

Wherever she lived, she found a church home and loved being involved. She lived in Arizona and enjoyed extended family there and taking her grandkids to church even in the hot Phoenix summer heat.  She moved back to the east coast to help care for her ailing mother and delighted in being around her siblings once again. 

Ophelia spent 20 years of her life in Pennsylvania, where she worked briefly in the mental health field.

She enjoyed spending time with her brother Lincoln and his wife Sandra.  She especially enjoyed fellowshipingwith them at the Mount Zion church in Grindstone.  

They will always remember how she helped them with Nana, Sandra‘s mother.  Helping others was definitely part of her nature. 

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