Longtime cancer survivor Pearson dies

Monday, March 31, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Phyllis A. Pearson, a devoted mother and 12-year cancer survivor, has died in Las Vegas. She was 57.

Pearson died Friday at Nathan Adelson Hospice. First diagnosed with breast cancer in 1985, she was in remission for 12 years until the cancer returned in January, her family said.

Services for the 18-year resident were today at Affordable Burial and Cremation. Interment was at Palm Mortuary, 7600 S. Eastern Ave.

Pearson's family called her "the epitome of a mother," noting that she spent the majority of her life raising her four children.

She would stay up nights helping them with book reports and other projects. When her eldest son was in the Navy and deployed to the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm, Pearson would spend hours following reports of the war on television.

Born Phyllis Cerrito on July 12, 1939, in Carmel, Calif., she was the daughter of a fisherman and spent most of her early years in Southern California.

She and her husband, Richard Pearson, married at St. Anne's Cathedral in Las Vegas on Jan. 23, 1960, and, over the years, they were frequent visitors to Southern Nevada before moving here in 1979.

She was described by friends as a strong, caring and loving family woman and friend.

In addition to her husband, Pearson is survived by her children, Darshaun, Matthew, Richard Jr. and Frank Pearson; their spouses, Kristen, Anna and Sandy; her mother, Edna Cerrito; and four grandchildren, Frank Jr., Hudson and Reese Pearson and Zachary Maini.

Her father, Frank Cerrito, preceded her in death.