Judy Pearson, whose focus on aiding others in the community fueled her roles as a communications professional and volunteer, died Nov. 26 at Hospice of Northwest Ohio, Perrysburg Township. She was 76.

She had acute myeloid leukemia, her husband, the Rev. Gene Pearson, said.

Mrs. Pearson, of Wood County’s Middleton Township, retired in 2007 from the American Red Cross, where she worked for 14 years. She concluded as director of communications and development for biomedical services in the Western Lake Erie Region. Earlier, Mrs. Pearson oversaw communications and development for the Greater Toledo Area chapter, which then included blood services and such Red Cross missions as disaster relief and health and safety missions. 

“Judy was always a person who had a gift for bringing people and organizations together for some good to the community,” said Father Pearson, a former rector of St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Perrysburg.

She served as primary contact for reporters — print and broadcast — on Red Cross matters. And she reached out to encourage blood donation, for instance during summer vacation season or the holiday lull, appearing on morning drivetime radio shows and local television programs.

She took particular pride of an initiative in the 1990s, when she was with the Red Cross, to increase the rate of childhood immunization in Lucas County, her husband said. She helped draw together several organizations — including the Toledo-Lucas County Board of Health and the Junior League of Toledo for what became Shots 4 Tots. 

For years, she was quoted as “community coalition director” for the immunization campaign.

“She realized to get anything good accomplished, you have to get the public’s attention,” her husband said. “She enjoyed working with the newspapers and television stations to get coverage. 

“She was a natural PR person as well as an instigator of cooperation between persons and organizations to do good for the community,” Father Pearson said. “Judy was so warm and smiling and made you feel good to be with her.”

Mrs. Pearson also had a Southern cooking segment for several years on a Saturday morning local television program.

“She was proud of the best of the South and its hospitality,” daughter Rachel Pearson said. “She had a graceful Southern accent and a naturalness on camera.”

In the late 1970s, when her husband was at Grace Episcopal Church in Defiance, Mrs. Pearson was director of regional development for the Toledo Symphony. They moved to Perrsyburg in 1982, when Father Pearson became rector of St. Timothy’s.

She had public relations and development roles with the Easter Seal Society and what is now Mercy Health St. Charles Hospital in Oregon, where she also served as physician recruiter. She later became an account supervisor for the public relations division of the former Lauerer Markin Gibbs advertising agency.

“She was determined and strategic and talented, working with the media, local government, volunteer groups, and bringing the stakeholders together effectively,” Ms. Pearson said. “That’s a real professional talent. At her core, she met everyone directly and warmly and generously.”

She was a former community projects vice president for the Junior League of Toledo and led its long-range planning and member training committees. Her roles with the United Way of Greater Toledo included serving on the board of directors. She also was a Black Swamp Conservancy board member and a Toledo Museum of Art ambassador.

“I always admired her creativity and her passion for causes that addressed the greater good. That was a strong theme in her life,” said Alice Weber, who first got to know Mrs. Pearson through Junior League. “She had the ability to attract other people who shared her passion. Then you begin to get synergy and the kind of force you need for change.”

Mrs. Pearson also took voice lessons from her youth, when she sang in the First Presbyterian Church choir in her native Lebanon, Tenn., until about 12 years ago.

“She wanted to refine her voice and make it as good as she could,” Father Pearson said. “She loved being a lyric soprano.”

She continued to sing in church choirs and, for a time, sang professionally, when she and her husband lived in Evanston, Ill. In the Toledo area, she sang for programs of the venerable Toledo music organization Monday Musicale, often with an instrumental ensemble, at churches or in the Toledo Museum of Art Great Gallery.

She was born Dec. 29, 1946, to Emma Lou and Charles Osborn and was a 1964 graduate of Lebanon High School. Mrs. Pearson, who was white, grew up in the segregated South and was a proponent of racial justice and understanding, from the conference of Presbyterian youth she attended as a junior high student, when her roommate was a Black. 

Later, with a group of Presbyterian youth traveling from Tennessee to Pittsburgh, they integrated restaurants along with way, her husband said. The couple met in 1965 when they taught reading to African-American children in Prince Edward County, Virginia.

She attended Memphis State University for three years and later received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toledo.

In recent years, the Pearsons were members of All Saints Episcopal Church in Toledo, where she served on the board.

Surviving are her husband, the Rev. C. Eugene Pearson, whom she married April 22, 1967; daughters Rachel Pearson and Rebecca Pearson Cooper, and a grandson. 

Visitation will be from 3-6 p.m. Jan. 12 at Witzler-Shank-Walker Funeral Home, Perrysburg. Memorial services will begin at 10 a.m. Jan. 13 at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church, Perrysburg.

The family suggests tributes to Hospice of Northwest Ohio, the Equal Justice Initiative, via eji.org, or the American Red Cross.

First Published December 14, 2023, 5:00 a.m.