Helen Marr W. Johannesen

1937 - 2020

HELEN MARR W. JOHANNESEN Helen Marr W. Johannesen, nee Wakeman, died 23 May 2020 from injuries sustained in a tricycle accident. Born 16 June 1937 in Hornell, NY, she was a Navy junior, then Navy wife and mother. She lived an exciting life. Her family was evacuated from Shanghai when the Communist army advanced on the city in 1949. Helen Marr (a.k.a. HM) worked in recovery operations for the 1953 F5 Vicksburg tornado; christened USS NIMBLE (MSO-459); worked as a county pathology assistant; managed the office of the Surgeon to the Congress. In June 1960 HM married Ensign Robert E. Johannesen in the U.S. Naval Academy Chapel, Annapolis, MD. In 1961 when Bob deployed to the Western Pacific, HM returned to Maryland to live with her parents and son John Robert was born in the Naval Academy Hospital in September 1961. In 1963 enroute Charleston, SC for duty station change, they visited her parents in Maryland. Daughter Jennifer Ruth was born in the Naval Academy Hospital in July 1963, just as Bob reported to a destroyer division staff deployed to the Mediterranean, to return six months later. Daughter Janet Rawson was born in Charleston Navy Hospital in November 1964, and Bob deployed three days later for a five-month deployment to the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Helen Marr has walked a tumbleweed, milked a cow, rode horses, dated Warren Beatty, totaled a fire truck, dined at the Pebble Beach Golf Club and flew in the Grand Canyon. At USNA where Bob was stationed on the Naval Academy staff, HM ('Mrs. Rice') hosted 'couth and culture' etiquette dinners for Midshipmen; enrolled two of their children in the Naval Academy Primary School. During Bob's subsequent tour in USS NEW JERSEY (BB62) she participated in a dependents cruise. HM and Bob were contestants on Bob Barker's 'Truth or Consequence' show in Los Angeles. Living in a Quonset hut on Hunters Point Naval Shipyard they came under fire from rioters outside the facility perimeter. They participated in parent-teacher conferences for son Jonner's elementary school in Chinatown, San Francisco. During a Pearl Harbor-based ship assignment, their Navy quarters faced the USS Arizona Memorial on Ford Island. HM once rode (wearing evening dress) on the back of Bob's motorcycle to stand in the receiving line for a formal reception at the Pearl Harbor Officers Club. In preparation for Bob's assignment in Washington, DC, then in Baltimore, HM and her father built a house on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay at Scientists Cliffs. A Naval Constructor during the WWII era, Captain Wakeman had always wanted to build a house from sticks. Following guidance in three books, they did it. The family continued in that house after Bob retired from the Navy in 1981, and the three children all graduated from Calvert County High School, Prince Frederick, MD. A neighbor offered Helen Marr the position as business manager of "home health line", a newsletter that translated legalese for the home healthcare community. Jennifer was in her junior year, so HM accepted the position. Sent by her boss to St. Christopher's Hospice, London, England she met with Dame Cicely Saunders while observing the British Health Service hospice program. Upon return, she provided information that convinced the Congress to establish entitlement to federal Medicare/Medicaid funding for U.S. hospice care. HM left the business world - again - to follow Bob in his post-Navy career to California, then to Dallas, then to Waycross, GA. In 1994 they moved to Amarillo, TX. HM was active in many community activities. She was a 12-year volunteer at St. Anthony's Hospice; member of the Amarillo College Institutional Review Board that evaluated protocols for hospital and university research using human subjects; driver for Meals on Wheels; worked at Goldston Cancer Registry. She was a member of the Amarillo Antique Club, Amarillo Weavers, Amarillo Opera, Amarillo Symphony, Amarillo Museum of Art; won a Potter-Randall County Fair first prize for a loom-weaved shawl. She installed a sheinal in their home. They joined two couples from St. Mark's Anglican Church for an urban backpack tour of Italy; hosted the Swedish Ambassador to the U.S. for breakfast in their home. For her Texas CCW license, HM shot 235/250 on the qualifying range. They truly enjoyed their six grandchildren. Each summer they would take three or four on a U.S.- based summer expedition. On a foreign jaunt they took three to London and, amongst other activities, dined formally at The Ritz. In 2017 HM and Bob moved to the Hampstead, NC area to live with daughter Jennifer and son-in-law Eric Loewen. HM's favorite exercise was taking three bears from her collection on daily tricycle rides around the community. They were accepted into St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Holly Ridge. She was a member of the New River Garden Club. HM is a Magna Charta Dame, Mayflower Descendent, Colonial Dame XVII Century, Daughter of the American Colonists, and Daughter of the American Revolution. Helen Marr was predeceased by grandson Midshipman Hans Paul Loewen, U.S. Naval Academy (2014), and daughter Janet Rawson Stiffler (2015). She is survived by two of their three children, Jonner and Jennifer; five of their six grandchildren, one great-grandson; sister Deborah Ruhsenberger, brother Tim Wakeman, daughter-in-law Leesa Johannesen, son-in-law Rome Stiffler; and many friends across the country. Husband Bob, who always introduced her as his 'bride of sixty years,' expects to join his Little One - an uniquely beautiful, elegant, poised, meticulous, witty, flexible, savvy, honorable, and loving Christian lady - in Heaven. Memorial service arrangements are pending.