Helen J. Hix

Growing up in East Nashville during the Great Depression and World War II, Helen and her family lived modestly, but they never went without. She graduated from East Nashville High School in 1955 and following in her father’s footsteps, attended Middle Tennessee State College in Murfreesboro.

While in college, Helen met Billy Hix, graduate student and star football lineman, who stole her heart. After getting her father’s permission to marry, they eloped to Ringgold Georgia and were married in 1956. Their partnership was the foundation of a life filled with adventure, service, and devotion.

After their marriage, Helen worked briefly in Nashville while Billy served overseas with the CIA’s U-2 program. Not long after that, Helen also began a distinguished career with the CIA, first as a radio operator and administrative officer in Key West, then with Billy as “covered employees” in a special activity, and later as an administrative and logistics officer both at Langley and overseas. Intelligent, resourceful, professional, and, when necessary, tough, Helen was known for her ability to make things happen; her contributions were repeatedly recognized for exceptional and meritorious service.

Helen’s life with Billy took them across the United States, including Key West when it was itself a remote destination, multiple postings to Asia and Western Europe, as well as to Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. After retiring in 1997, she and Billy continued to travel, especially enjoying annual trips to Switzerland – a country they came to love from their time in Europe – as well as trips to England, Scotland, and Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, and return visits to Europe and Asia.

Over the course of her life, she built a network of cherished friends who benefitted from her warmth, generosity, exceptional hospitality, and penchant for always being there in time of need. Whether in the many homes she made across the world, in the mountains of Virginia, or at the Outer Banks, her door was always open. Her graciousness epitomized Eleanor Roosevelt’s observation that “true hospitality consists of giving the best of yourself to your guests.”

To her family, she was a caring and dependable daughter and sister, a loving and devoted wife, a loving, proud, and, at times, necessarily tough mother to her son, and an adoring grandmother and great-grandmother. In her eyes, her grandson and his children were always number one and could do no wrong. Likewise, she loved her many godchildren as her own.

Helen is preceded in death by her beloved husband Billy, her parents Henry and Lula Mae, brothers James and Lehman, and sister Shirley. She is survived by her son Bill, a retired U.S. Army Major General, her daughter-in-law, Sharon, her grandson, Joe, Joe’s wife Megan and their daughters Adeline and Mackinzie, Helen’s greatest joy.

Arrangements for interment at Arlington National Cemetery and celebration of life are pending.