Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2025
Chelsea M. Henderson was born Feb. 25, 1994, in Corpus Christi, Texas, the daughter of Stalin Henderson and Pamela Brooks Henderson.
She was in employed in sales and an account manager at Stauer in Burnsville. Chelsea was very good at her job, and was very proud of receiving recognition for her top sales with the company.
Chelsea loved music and singing and was a pet lover. When she was younger she had the nickname “Black-Thunder” from her gymnastics family. Chelsea was a spiritual leader, and was a daddy’s girl when she was little, and turned into a momma’s girl when she grew older. She loved her family very much, especially all her nieces and nephews.
Her sister, Ashley, noted, “I was blessed to have Chelsea in my life as a little sister. When I think of her, I see the little girl I met with braces, a ribbon in her hair and a small LV purse.
Chelsea was beautiful and intelligent like her mother and creative and laid back like her daddy; a truly perfect mixture of her parents.”
Ashley said, “She was a wonderful aunt to her nieces and nephews. They knew they called Aunt Chelsea, shows going to make its happen…even if she was living across the country.”
Ashley and her brother, Sabastian Henderson noted that she was a supportive, understanding, and loving sister. As Ashley recalled, “As with all sisters, we had a few disagreements but they were nothing in comparison to the countless good memories.”
The Wabasha Brewer King family noted, “Chelsea will always be remembered as a kind-hearted soul.”
Another friend remembered Chelsea having “such an infectious positive outlook on life and a drive to be successful. I learned so much from her during our training about being a consummate professional and successful employee. Her light will always brighten by day when I think back to how much of a difference she made in my life.”
Chelsea M. Henderson, age 30 of Shakopee, passed away on Saturday, May 18, 2024 at her home, according to McNearney-Schmidt Funeral and Cremation in Shakopee.
Survivors include her mother and step-father, Pam and Kenny Bauer; siblings, Christopher Henderson, Savannah Moore, Sabastian (Ashley) Henderson, and Hailie Ward; nephews and nieces, Kamryn Moore, Kaylie Hannah, Cassi Henderson, Sabastian Henderson, Jr., Anthony Henderson; uncles, aunts, and other relatives. She was preceded in death by her father, Stalin Henderson.
Sabastian Henderson, Chelsea’s older brother, loved being around. “I know you are going to be the angel to us as you always been. Fly high, baby girl. Watch over us all.”
Chelsea Henderson’s great-great-great-great-grandmother, Morning Mourning Primas Bryan Iverson (1805-1899), was enslaved by the Bryan family, according to “Slavery and the Bryan Family” on the Moments in Time blog.
The Bryan Log Cabin in Bienville Parish was a two-room dogtrot (on page 59 of Louisiana Plantation Homesby W. Darrell Overdyke). In addition to seeing the cabin in this book, a sketch and description can be found in the research paper “Log Houses as Public Occasions: A Historical Theory,” written in 1977. The Bryan Log Cabin was the home of Reddick and Elizabeth Regan Bryan, built after moving to Louisiana from Georgia in the 1830s. The Bryan plantation, owned by Joseph Bryan, a slave dealer in Savannah, Georgia, was the location of a large slave auction in March 1859, where over 400 enslaved people were sold, with the goal of being moved to Louisiana, according to the National Park Service.
Today’s plantation landscape reflects the nation’s reluctance to confront the true history of slavery and its legacy of racial injustice. Amy Potter says telling the truth about this history is a moral imperative, especially now, when there is a movement across the country to limit the teaching of our history.
A “plantation edutainment complex” has emerged, according to a 2018 National Science Foundation-funded study of 15 plantations in Virginia, South Carolina, and Louisiana. Commercialized plantation sites tout luxury inns, Halloween ghost tours, wine and bourbon tastings, strawberry festivals, and plantation weddings. The owner of one site transformed a Louisiana sugar cane plantation, where 800 Black people were enslaved, into what he calls a “Disneyland for adults.” All the entertainment undercuts efforts to tell truthful history.
And so in this brochure, the Shakopee Heritage Society mourned the lost of Chelsea M. Henderson (1994-2024) and her relatives, including Morning Mourning Primas Bryan Iverson (1805-1899).