Helen Blackert Summers Layton

1923 - 2003

Helen Blackert Summers Layton, 79, passed away Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2003, in Fort Worth.

Memorial service: 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Lukes's in the Meadow Episcopal Church, 4301 Meadowbrook Drive. Burial: Greenwood Memorial Park.

Memorials: Memorials may be made to the Parkinson's Disease Foundation, 710 W. 168th St., New York, N.Y. 10032, and EASL, (Emergency Artists Support League), Box 7895, Dallas, Texas 75209.

The family wishes to thank the staff and caregivers at Broadway Plaza at Westover in Fort Worth and the Villa in Arlington, and for their care and kindness given to Helen in the last years of her life.

Born to Franz and Dorothea Blackert on June 29, 1923, Helen was a graduate of Central High School, now R.L. Paschal High School, Fort Worth. Helen graduated from Oklahoma University with a bachelors of fine arts degree, where she was elected head cheerleader. She was a recipient of a scholarship to Parson's School of Design in New York City.

Before moving to Fort Worth in 1957, with her four daughters, Helen owned her own design company in Bismark, N.D. She designed clothing, corporate murals and much more. In Fort Worth, Helen was a commercial artist for American handicrafts, Tandy Corp. and was a design consultant for Ethan Allen Furniture and Sears & Roebuck. She was also in advertizing for the Arlington Citizen-Journal.

Helen resided in Arlington from 1974 to 2000 with her husband, John D. Layton Jr., moving to the Villa in Arlington in February 2000. She moved to the Broadway Plaza, Fort Worth, in 2002.

Helen was loved and adored by her family and her many interesting friends. She never met a stranger.

Helen possessed many great talents, but her passion lay in painting and poetry. An accomplished artist throughout her life, she painted portraits of subjects from Charles Tandy to her friends' precious pets. Helen wrote, illustrated and published volumes of poetry and cookbooks, winning several awards. Helen was a member of Chi Omega Sorority, PEO, Parkinson's Disease Foundation, and the Kimball Art Museum, Amon Carter, Smithsonian, National Poetry Guild and the National Musuem of Women in the Arts.

Helen was preceded in death by her parents, Franz and Dorothea Blackert, and sister, Dr. Frances Blackert Crane.

Survivors: Daughters, Lynne Summers, Sharon McClung, Julia Summers and Pamela Summers and husband, Raymond Rains; grandchildren, Tiffany Franzoni and husband, Eric Hunter, Royce Franzoni and wife, Magda, Lisa Rogers and husband, Mike, Sean McClung and Jarrett Lidel; and great-grandchildren, Alex Franzoni Hunter and Alyssa Rogers.