Helen Burton Miskell

Helen was one of ten children born to Thomas Abner Burton and Octavia Terry Burton. She is survived by her only sister, Fay Garrett, her youngest brother, Joe Ed Burton, who live in Southern California as well as many extended family members in Arkansas.

Helen left the farm she grew up on to move to Dallas, Texas to work to put herself through college. She earned a BA in English with honors from North Texas State University in 1947. It was there in Denton,Texas that she met and married Francis Miskell and her daughter, Susan, was born. Following her graduation she taught for one year in Ganado, Texas, before moving to Austin where she worked at the Texas Education Agency, gave birth to her son, Kevin, and began a teaching career in the Austin Public Schools that spanned 1955-1972 at O Henry and Lamar Junior Highs.

Following the death of her husband in 1971, she returned to the University of Texas to earn a Master's Degree in Library Science in 1976. She ended her career as a librarian in the Thorndale, McAllen, Fredericksburg, and Brownsville public school systems before her retirement in 1984.

Following her retirement Helen authored and published four books of poetry. Homeplace and Other Poems was published in 1995, followed by Petals in the Wind (1997), A Walk in the Sun (1998), and Wind in the Pines in 2000. Two volumes remained unpublished at the time of her death.

Helen was a mother first, last and always. Future generations will reap the benefits of her loving support and belief in her children and later her grandchildren and great grandchildren. She was truly a child of the greatest generation who traveled very far in the span of years given to her. She would only be slowed in her last decade by increasing blindness and the physical toll of old age, but she faced each loss and challenge with enduring grace and courage to the very end.

Helen was preceded in death by her husband, Francis A. Miskell, former Consumer Credit Commissioner of the State of Texas. Her surviving children include Kevin F. Miskell and his wife Janette of Austin, Texas and Susan Miskell Grotevant and her husband, Harold D. Grotevant of Belchertown, MA. She is survived by two grandsons. Paul F. Grotevant and his wife Carolyn Schwarz and Mark R. Grotevant of Austin, Texas. She also lived to welcome two great-grandchildren, Meredith and Reid Grotevant of Austin, Texas.

Her family and friends will gather to celebrate her life in a graveside service at Austin Memorial Park at 11:00 a.m. on June 9. In lieu of flowers or other remembrances, Helen's family requests donations be made in her memory to Hospice Austin to acknowledge the quality of care and support they provided in the last months of her life.