The Carthage Republican
Carthage, Illinois
Wednesday
November 23, 1932
Page 2
Column 5Mrs. Aurelia Helms, wife of the late Sheriff Addison Helms of Hancock county, died at the Old People's Methodist Home in Quincy, where she was making her home. She was of a joyful and loving disposition, making every one welcome in her home as long as her health would permit. She passed away Nov. 16th at the advanced age of 88 years, 9 months and 14 days, leaving one daughter, Mrs. Emma Moore, of Quincy and one sister, Mrs. Esther Powell to mourn her departure. Her husband and two sons preceded her in death. Only her sister and nephew, Rolland Powell and a few intimate friends gathered at the Holland cemetery to pay their last respects to this good woman, where she was lovingly laid to rest Nov. 17th.
The Carthage Gazette
Carthage, Illinois
Friday
November 25, 1932
Page 1
Column 2Mrs. Aurelia
Helms Died
At QuincyMrs. Aurelia Darnell Helms passed away at the Methodist Home in Quincy, Illinois, on November 15th, at the age of 88. It was two years ago that Mrs. Helms with her daughter, Mrs. Emma Moore, went to Quincy to make their home at the Methodist Home at that place, and they continued to live in that Home until the death of Mrs. Helms. She had been in failing health for some months. About three weeks ago she fell and the shock of her fall was such that, at her age, there was no hope of recovery.
Mrs. Helms spent her whole lifetime in this county. Her father died while she was very young and afterwards her mother married Mr. John W. Cox, a highly respected and successful farmer of Hancock county. Mrs. Helms herself, while a young girl, was married to Mr. D. Zumwalt. There was one child of this marriage, Emma Zumwalt, afterwards Mrs. Emma Moore, who was with her mother at the Methodist Home when Mrs. Helms passed away.
After the death of Mr. Zumwalt, his widow married Addison F. Helms, a prominent man in Hancock county, serving several terms as sheriff and as deputy sheriff, well known and universally respected. Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Helms, five of whom died in infancy. There remained to attain their majority two children. Jay Holliday and Clay, who have preceded their mother in death.
For many years Mr. and Mrs. Addison F. Helms, with their family, resided in Carthage. After the death of Mr. Helms, his widow continued to reside in Carthage. Sometime after the death of her two sons, Mrs. Helms went to live at the Methodist Home, about two years ago, where she was kindly and lovingly cared for.
Mrs. Helms was one of the pioneer citizens of this county. She was always interested in the growth and development of the county and city in which she lived, and was an active member of the Methodist Church as long as her health permitted her to participate in its activities. She continued a faithful christian to the hour of her death.
Notwithstanding the care of her little family she yet found time for many acts of kindness to those around her and carried her cheerfulness wherever she went and inspired others with the same spirit which ever animated her and was at all times devoted to her church and its work in the community. Her christian character was exemplified by the sweet manner with which she accepted the losses and bereavements which came to her in life again and again in the passing away of her children and the loss of her husband. The loss of her two sons, Jay and Clay, was an inconsolable sorrow. One child survived, Mrs. Moore, the child of her first marriage, who had been her mother's closest companion during the last two years of her lifetime and who, with Mrs. Helms grandchildren, brightened her closing years by their many acts of loving kindness. Those surviving are her daughter, Mrs. Moore, and Clay's son, living at Fresno, California, and Dorothy Helms of Carthage, Jay's daughter.
We see but dimly through the mists
and vapors;
Amid the earthy damps
What seem to us but sad funeral tapers
May be heaven's distant lamps.
There is no Death! What seems so is
transition;
This life of mortal breath
Is but a suburb of the life elysian
Whose portal we call Death.
We will be patient and assuage the
feeling
We may not wholly stay.
By silence sanctifying, not concealing,
The grief that must have way.
