Rhoda McFarland’s family does not have official opinions on gun control, or Black-on-Black violence. All they know is that someone took something precious from them. McFarland was murdered, execution style, in a Tinley Park Lane Bryant department store on
An assailant entered the store, tied up six women, covered their faces and shot each once, according to police. Only one person survived. “It was just a numb feeling all over my body. You never expect it to happen,” said McFarland’s younger brother, 39-year-old Maurice Hamilton.
McFarland was born in southwest suburban Lockport on January 10, 1966, and attended St. Joseph Elementary School and Lockport Central High School, where she ran track and was in the Reserve Officer’s Training Corps program. After graduating in 1984, she went to the Air Force for 3 years, and studied to be a nurse.
Upon returning, she took a couple of years of community college before switching careers and becoming a meter reader for Nicor Gas company. She was eventually promoted from meter reading to construction and became one of only two women at her 30-member branch to lay gas pipes. “It was one of her many adventures,” Maurice recalled with a chuckle.
Submitting to what her mother referred to as “her anointing,” McFarland left Nicor after 15 years to become an assistant to the pastor of Embassy Christian Center, a 400-member church in Crest Hill, just outside of Joliet. After two years, she was promoted to pastor. “Her most famous thing to say in all her preaching was, ‘Whenever I leave this world, I will leave empty.’
So she poured out everything that she had in her to everybody around her,” said her mother, 59-year-old Barbara Hamilton. McFarland did not have children of her own, but channeled her maternal instincts into “Princess Unveiled,” a mentorship program for young girls. She taught everything from decorum to crafts to investment.
“There were a lot of girls at the church that she adopted. They just fell in love with her,” her mother remembered. After two years, she resigned as pastor to expand “Princess Unveiled,” and the job as manager at Lane Bryant afforded her the flexibility to do it. And then it all came to a sudden end. “I got a phone call from a friend telling me to turn to Channel 5.
He said that something had happened at Lane Bryant. We saw Rhoda’s van in the parking lot [on the news], so we knew she was at work,” her mother remembered. Barbara, McFarland’s brother, Hilton Hamilton, and Hilton’s wife, Chiante, waited at the Tinley Park police station for four hours, praying for her safe return. But it was too late.
She was dead. Now her family and friends are struggling to understand how a woman who led such a dignified life could die such an undignified death. Within days, three YouTube videos were posted online in McFarland’s memory. They show her hugging her “Princess Unveiled” girls, preaching at Embassy Christian Center and beaming in family photos. Farewells have been posted to the videos, which have been viewed over 2,000 times.
“Pastor Rhoda I will miss you very muchà . My heart is very heavy and I know that the gunman who did this will be caught. If not he will have to answer to our Lord when he goes before Him,” said one farewell. The family estimates that more than 1,500 people attended McFarland’s funeral, which was held at the church where she was once pastor. Barbara believes that the outpouring of love is a reflection of the life her daughter lived.
“She did more in 42 years than many people have done in 80,” Barbara said. “We know that before she took her last breath, she said something to her killer. She may have prayed for him, she might have gave him a word of encouragement, but she said something to him, and it’s going to work on his mind.”
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