Helen C. Coombe

Liberty, NY

Helen C. Coombe of Liberty, NY, died peacefully in her sleep on Monday, August 4, 2008 at the Sullivan County Adult Care Center, Liberty, where she resided for the past several years.

Helen was born in Marlboro in 1902, the daughter of Rev. William Coombe, who served as a minister of the Grahamsville Reformed Church, and Charlotte LaMoree, who was born in Grahamsville, and her grandfather, Dr. George Severyn LaMoree, served Grahamsville as one of its early physicians.

In the beginning of Helen's remarkable life, she witnessed Theodore Roosevelt in the White House, the advent of flight at Kitty Hawk the following year, and six years later, the introduction of the Model T. She was active in home front activities during the First World War, and again during the Second World War, when she received a government commendation for chauffeuring military and civilian officials. She was an enthusiastic advocate of woman's sulfrage and took considerable pride in her record of voting in every presidential election since passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. Helen recalled visiting her aunt and uncle in Highland and watching Franklin Roosevelt entrain for Washington to assume the presidency in 1933.

Throughout her rich and varied life Helen was closely identified with Grahamsville, summering at the family farm on South Hill. The Coombe Family, which included Helen's sister and three brothers, moved to Kearny, NJ in 1910 when Rev. Coombe assumed a pastorate in that city. She was educated in the public schools of Kearny, and, following her graduation from Newark Normal School, later to become Kean University, served with distinction as a elementary school teacher in Kearny, from 1923-1962. Kean University, in 2007, honored her as its then oldest living graduate and presented to Helen the University's gold medal in recognition of her distinguished teaching career.

Helen was active in several church and community activities in Kearny and maintained a residence there following her retirement from active teaching. However, her memories of growing up in Grahamsville, and her many friendships there, continued to encourage her return to the farm on South Hill each summer. Over the years she travelled throughout the world visiting almost every continent, but she always looked forward to South Hill and the peace and tranquility of country life, the life of church suppers, village holiday celebrations, and the lifelong friendships she treasured. Grahamsville residents responded by affectionately referring to her as "Aunt Helen," and celebrating each of her birthday's as if she were a family member, which indeed she was. She always attended the Grahamsville Little World's Fair, usually accompanied by several family members, and thoroughly enjoyed the occasion. During her final years, some family members concluded, somewhat facetiously, that Aunt Helen placed considerable importance in accepting the Fair's prize given to the oldest person in attendance. She took particular delight in maintaining an extensive correspondence with many of her former students, who recalled, with appreciation and admiration, the example she set in her classroom and its effect upon their lives. Her professional success reflected an early love of books and reading, and a respect for the public library as an important community institution. She was a frequent visitor to the Daniel Pierce Library in Grahamsville and an enthusiastic supporter of its renovation and expansion. Helen lived each day, for more than a century, with a youthful spirit and a zest for life. Throughout, she treated everyone with respect and civility and quietly extended encouragement and affection for those who passed her way.

She took particular pride in her extended family, 11 nieces and nephews, their children, twenty eight in number, and their grandchildren, now numbering more than forty. All have been enriched and transformed by her presence.

A familiar biblical citation provides an appropriate appreciation of her life: "Well done, thou good and faithful Servant."

Funeral services will be held at the Reformed Church, Grahamsville, NY at 11 a.m. on Thursday, August 7, 2008. Internment will be at Grahamsville Rural Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Aunt Helen's favorite library, the Daniel Pierce Library, PO Box 268, Grahamsville, NY 12740, or to a charity of your choice.

Arrangements by Loucks Funeral Home, Inc., 79 N. Main St., Ellenville, NY 12428, 845-647-4343.