Mary Damron, faithful and beloved supporter of Operation Christmas Child, went home to be with the Lord on Dec. 26.
“Brother Graham, I’m Mary. Gotcha some shoeboxes for God. Where do you want ’em?”
That’s how Mary Damron introduced herself to Franklin Graham, 30 years ago. A coal-miner’s wife from West Virginia with a great heart for children, Mary became a global ambassador for Operation Christmas Child during just the second year of the project.
(left to right:) Ricky Skaggs, Tommy Coomes, Mary Damron, Dennis Agajanian, and Franklin Graham reminisce about ministry in Bosnia at a 2013 event celebrating 100 million shoebox gifts packed.
She had seen Graham describing the shoebox ministry on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and she took it on herself to collect Christmas gifts for children in Bosnia from the impoverished hollers where she lived. Long before Operation Christmas Child shipped shoeboxes by the millions, Mary and her family collected gifts for 1,256 children, loaded them into a cargo truck, and drove them through the mountains to the Samaritan’s Purse headquarters in Boone, North Carolina, arriving the day after Thanksgiving in 1994.
Though her life circumstances were challenging, Mary served three decades with Samaritan’s Purse and oversaw the collections of hundreds of thousands of gift-filled shoeboxes in West Virginia and surrounding states. She continued to pour her heart and soul into Operation Christmas Child until the Lord called her home on Dec. 26, 2024. She was 70.
“I thank God for the impact she had on children all around the world for the Gospel.”—Franklin Graham
“We will certainly miss Mary, but I thank God for the impact she had on children all around the world for the Gospel,” Graham said today. “I know Mary’s family will appreciate your prayers.”
Willing and Ready to Serve
Mary’s faith and generosity made an immediate impression on Graham way back in 1994, and he invited her to come along on the trip to hand out gift-filled shoeboxes in Bosnia.
“I’ll go,” she said quickly.
In 1995, Franklin Graham and Mary Damron deliver a shoebox gift packed by President Clinton and his family to a girl in Bosnia.
Mary had never been overseas, and Graham wondered if she understood she would be going into a war zone. She might need a bullet-proof vest.
“What fer?” she said. “I got the Holy Spirit of God, young man. I’ve got holy angels all around me, the Spirit of God in me, and Jesus walking with me every step of the way. I’ll be alright!”
In 1995, as the Clinton administration negotiated the Dayton Peace Accord to end the fighting in Bosnia, the President wanted to meet civilians who had served there. His staff found a clipping about Mary and called her home in Ikes Fork, West Virginia.
“Is this Mary Damron?”
“Yep.”
“This is the White House.”
“No it ain’t.”
“Yes it is. I’m calling on behalf of the President.”
“No you ain’t.”
Franklin Graham and Mary Damron bring the Good News of God’s love to children in a hospital in Bosnia.
The caller finally convinced her that this wasn’t a prank call—the president wanted to invite her to the White House. Mary’s son Tad picked up on a parallel to the 1994 movie, Forrest Gump. “You saw Brother Graham on the TV, went out and got some shoeboxes, took ’em down thar to Carolina, you got sent off to Boze-ne-a, and now the Prez-i-dent’s done called you to Washington. You’re nothing but a Mama Gump.”
When Mary met the president, she boldly handed him an empty shoebox and asked him to fill it with gifts for a child. Then she asked him, “Mr. Prez-i-dent, do you car if I pray for you?” Everyone in the Oval Office joined hands, and she prayed a prayer that moved the heart of the commander in chief.
Mary Damron had an uncanny way of connecting with children.
The Clintons indeed packed a shoebox, and Mary took it to Bosnia, presenting it to a 7-year-old girl named Zlada who had lost a leg in an artillery attack as she celebrated Christmas in 1993.
The president told Graham, “She’s the most powerful woman I’ve ever met. If I had five women like her, I could take Congress.”
President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, welcome the Damron family to the White House.
The Lord rewarded Mary’s faith and boldness, and in 1995 she collected five times more shoebox gifts than the year before. That year, she led one of our teams that handed out gifts at a hospital in Croatia that was treating children wounded in the war. In another Forrest Gump moment, her team included Grammy Award-winner Ricky Skaggs.
In a children’s hospital in the war-scarred city of Sarajevo, Mary led the singing of one of her favorite songs, “God on the Mountain”:
For the God on the mountain is still God in the valley
When things go wrong, He’ll make them right.
And the God of the good times, is still God in the bad times.
The God of the day, is still God of the night.
Randy Riddle, senior director of Operation Christmas Child, worked and traveled with Mary over the years. “At each encounter with Mary,” he said, “it was clear you were in the presence of someone called to serve Jesus.” He described her as “a fierce warrior for the Gospel.”
Everywhere that Mary went with Operation Christmas Child, she always found ways to share God’s love with children, even though she didn’t know their language. Her hugs went a long way.
Mary Damron interacts with girls in Uganda as they discover the treasures inside their shoebox gifts.
When Graham asked her how she related so well to them, she said, “Brother Franklin, I see myself in these people. Like them, I growed up hard; had a tough childhood. We didn’t have money. We stayed hungry. In the wintertime, we couldn’t keep warm. I know what they’re goin’ through.”
