Mrs. Esther Florine Scales

Her Journey: Esther Florine Scales, the younger of a set of twins born to Lorenzo and Carrie Will Hogan, was born on Sunday, April 16, 1922, in Prospect, Tennessee. She accepted Christ at an early age and was baptized in the local creek along with some of her siblings and many of her childhood friends. All of her life God was her refuge. She and her twin sister, Easter, were the terrors of local baseball games the kids played. Everyone feared going up against them. They didn’t like to lose, and didn’t. Easter was a wicked pitcher and Esther was her rugged battery-mate catcher. After growing to young womanhood Esther moved to Chicago, Illinois where she learned to be and became a barber. Later she met a handsome young U. S. Army Sergeant, Erise Scales, who was also from Tennessee, and fell in love. The two were married in Newport News, Virginia on July 24, 1944. After World War II was over she and her husband and young son moved to Detroit, Michigan where she lived until 1995 when her husband died. She then moved to Oak Park, Michigan, where she lived with her only daughter until the ministry called her daughter to Florida. She then lived in senior living apartments in Southfield, Michigan until her death on April 8, 2015, at the age of 92. The old rhyme passage that reads, “the child born on the Sabbath Day is bonny and blithe and good and gay” fit Esther to the proverbial “T.” She loved life, was a loving wife and homemaker. She made it her business to help any family member or friend who had any kind of need, from giving them time, money, physical help or emotional support. She was there for each of them. She was a master fixer who could repair almost any small appliance. Everyone in the neighborhood knew that if you had it and couldn’t get it to work you could take it to her and she would find a way to get working again. With a kitchen knife, some pliers and assorted other items, she would fix it. To put it simply she was “macgyver” before MacGyver. But her greatest joy in life was her three children, Rhusha, Wendell and Barbara. None of the three ever wondered if they would go to college. They just knew they would go. Her mantra was “you are going to do it because you can.” All three graduated college and became successful, Rhusha, as an attorney, Wendell, as a dentist, and Barbara, as a minister. Esther was their biggest cheerleader, harshest critic and a one-woman fan club. Don’t worry, if you didn’t know anything about them or their accomplishments, she was going to tell you, brag about them and laud their every move. That was her way from the day she had her first child until the day she was no longer able to boast and give you the latest on what each of them had done. Her sage advice and tenacious encouragement will be sorely missed

Mrs. Esther Florine Scales

April 16, 1922 - April 8, 2015