Helen Johnston Sargent

July 12, 1944 - January 31, 2015 Helen Johnston Sargent, 70 years old, died peacefully at home on January 31st, 2015, in Westlake Village, California. She was born Helen DuBois Johnston on July 12, 1944, in Mobile, Alabama, to Sir Thomas A. Johnston III and Helen DuBois Johnston. Helen graduated from the Julius T. Wright School in Mobile, AL in 1962 and attended the University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa), where she was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. Upon her graduation in 1966, she moved to New York City where she worked for Oppenheimer and Co., becoming one of the first women at that firm to earn her Series 7 brokerage license. In 1973, after the birth of her first child, she and her husband moved to Los Angeles, CA, where she became deeply involved with the Los Angeles Junior League and Planned Parenthood. In 1984, in conjunction with the USOC and the Junior League, she published the Olympic Education Handbook, a complete educational guide about the 1984 Olympics for Los Angeles area students. She later became Chairman of The LA Junior League Sustainer's group, served on the executive committee and was vice-president of project development. Helen and her husband were founding members of the Church of the Epiphany, now located in Oak Park, California. Helen was highlighted in multiple media sources for founding the church's unique Biblical Garden. In a nationally syndicated newspaper interview, she observed, "The climate of the Holy Land and Southern California are quite similar and that allowed us to plant such a magnificent garden filled with many of the 110 flora directly referenced in the Bible." In 1997, Helen started a company, TEAM TOURS, to provide guided tours of the newly opened J.Paul Getty Museum. She later developed TEAM into a full-service travel company, specializing in high end foreign tours and luxury cruises for her many friends around the country. Family and friends recall Helen's Southern charm and hospitality, great warmth and wide array of friends, genuine enthusiasm for her lifelong projects, including art and music appreciation, travel, collecting, Scottish heritage, personal fitness and a deep dedication to living a full, giving, Christian life. She is survived by her husband of 45 years, Philip Thomas Sargent, of Westlake Village, her brother Thomas A. Johnston, of Mobile and her three children, John H. Sargent and his wife Heather, of Greenwich, CT, Lydia Sargent Jain and husband Somil, of Little Silver, NJ, and Bradford G. Sargent and wife Melissa Hatcher, of Washington, D.C and five grandchildren. Helen will be interred at the Sargent family burial plot at the Evergreen Cemetery in Nashua, NH. Services will be held at The Church of the Epiphany, Oak Park, CA, at 11 am on Saturday, February 7th, with a reception immediately following at the church. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Church of the Epiphany Biblical Garden, 5450 Churchwood Drive, Oak Park, CA 91377.