Helen Mouton Landry

Helen Mouton Landry

January 29, 1963 - May 27, 2023

Helen Mouton Landry was the ninth of eleven children born on January 29, 1963 to Alfred Smith "Smitty" Landry and Dianne Mouton Landry. She graduated from Mount Carmel Academy in New Iberia, La. in 1981, and received her BA in 1985 from LSU.

Helen's first job was at the State of Massachusetts Dept. of Employment and Training on a model program supporting welfare to work. It was there that Helen confessed to her dear friends Catlin and Hampton that up until then, "I had never met a liberal."

Helen went on to earn her Masters in Social Work from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. While living in D.C., Helen worked with SHOC D.C., the student homeless coalition. Thus began her journey of serving others.

After getting her Masters, Helen worked in Baltimore at Jewish Family Services and met lifelong friends, including Carol Weis, Debbie Waranch and Barbara Ringel. Helen relished learning Jewish traditions, inspiring a curiosity about other faiths that lasted a lifetime.

Helen met the love of her life, Ken Seward, in Baltimore, MD and they were married on March 16, 1996 in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. Helen and Ken lived in Baltimore and Bloomfield Hills, Michigan before settling in Richmond, Virginia.

Helen's life in Richmond was full while raising her two children, Henry and Walker. Her practice as a marriage and family counselor thrived, inspired by a life-changing trip to Dharmsala, India in 2014. In 2018, Helen joined Cypress Counseling in Richmond, Va., where she used Buddhist practice such as mindfulness meditation to improve mood, focus and relationships, and taught meditation in schools, offices and hospitals across Henrico county.

Helen expanded her mindfulness teaching when she brought Tibetan monks to the Episcopal School of Acadiana in the last few years and through her visits with the late Benedictine hermit Dunstan Morrissey at Sky Farm in California.

Helen came "home" often and, between sleeping and showering, dropped in on every cousin within 50 miles to make sure Henry and Walker knew their Louisiana connections, especially "Mr. Al." She adored her Virginia cousins, Bridget Meagher and Maude Baltzegar.

When Helen was in Louisiana, tennis happened. Helen was fierce at the net, coaxing lesser partners along as she won through sheer drive ("1 to deuce," "2 to tie") , and regaling her tennis friends with tales from the courts of Richmond, the U.S. Open, and her trip to Dharmsala.

She traveled to Paris in 2019 to support the National Council of Resistance of Iran, one of many causes dear to her heart into which she leapt wholeheartedly.

Helen threw her own birthday party each year called "Wine, Women and Song," where Susan Greenbaum made beautiful music as each guest shared a passage that spoke to them.

Helen organized Landry family events that were funny and thoughtful, as when she characterized Mama's journey from "Mardi Gras balls to roach balls and from General Mouton to Dollar General."

Helen invited outsiders in. She taught her sister Alice the Japanese translation of "Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes" so they could dazzle visitors from Nagasaki at a family wedding.

If Helen saw you loading a couch into your car on the side of the road, she would stop and help you and you would have a friend for life. If you told Helen that she could not do something, Helen would find a way to do that thing.

There is not enough newsprint to list Helen's friends but you know who you are. Know that every single word of comfort, every gesture, has eased our heartache.

To paraphrase Iris Dement: Helen reached down and touched the pain.

In recent years, Helen was instrumental in teaching meditation to the hospice workers at Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel. In one of her proudest moments, Helen worked to gain the release of a prison hospice worker named Lloyd Jarrow, who had been in prison for 25 years after being sentenced to life without parole at the age of 17.

Thank you to Taruna Aurora and Chris Carson for ensuring Helen was comfortable and at peace in her last days, and to her husband, Ken, and her children Henry and Walker.

Helen was predeceased by her parents, Smitty and Dianne Landry, and her siblings, Adrianne Baumgartner, Peter Landry, and Louise Hill.

Helen is survived by her husband, Ken Seward, her son Henry Seward, her daughter Walker Seward, her stepdaughter, Elizabeth Stocklin, her sisters Amelie Bower (Michael) of St. Martinville, La., Dianne Kirsch of San Francisco, Ca., and Alice Landry Basden (Tim) of Lafayette, La., her brothers "Smitty" Landry, Jr. (Laura) of Lafayette, La., Edward Landry (Candi) of New Iberia, Ben Landry, of Lafayette, La., and Thomas Landry, of Denver, Co., her sisters-in-law Carole D. Landry, of New Iberia and Joanie Seward of Brownsville, VT., her brothers-in-law Robert Baumgartner of Talisheek, La., Glenn Seward (Shelley) of Brownsville, VT, Henry Seward (Martha) of Venice, FL., Doug Seward (Anne) of Sunapee, NH, and Jimmy Hill, of Baton Rouge, La., her godchildren Anna Landry, Emma Kirsch, Maggie B. McCarty and Alix Basden, 34 nieces and nephews, droves of cousins, and her pups, Smitty and Charlie.

Donations in Helen's memory may be made to Bon Secours Hospice House, 1133 Bon Air Road, Richmond, VA. 23235.

There will be a celebration of Helen's life on Sunday June 25, 2023 at 1:00pm at 700 East Main Street, New Iberia, La.