Helen Frances Galvani

Helen Frances Pierce Galvani, 95, passed away peacefully at Westminster Canterbury in Virginia Beach on November 27, 2015. She was born in Hyde Park (Boston), Massachusetts, in 1920. She was the youngest of five children of William Weston Pierce and Nettie Brown Pierce. She attended the Hyde Park public schools and graduated from Hyde Park High School in 1937. She was an artistically gifted young woman who loved dancing.

Helen was working at the Firemen’s Fund Insurance Company when she met Amedeo “Al” Galvani of Plymouth, Massachusetts, at a dance when he came home on Christmas leave from his plebe year at the U. S. Naval Academy. It was love at first sight for both of them.

The couple was married on February 9, 1943. The newly-weds spent their honeymoon enroute to Charleston, South Carolina, where construction of Al’s new destroyer was being completed. As a bride and new Navy wife, Helen experienced the anxiety and separation of World War II as her husband’s ship participated in the heart of the fighting in the western Pacific Ocean. For the remainder of the war, Helen returned to her family’s home and made her own contribution to wartime service as a volunteer at a VA hospital in Boston, taking care of wounded servicemen.

During the next thirty years, naval orders took Helen and Al to many duty stations across the country and up and down the East Coast. Their four children were born in California, Maryland, and Nevada. Helen became an expert in making new, comfortable, and happy homes for her husband and children. With her husband’s promotions, she soon became a captain’s wife, responsible for not only her own family but for the welfare of the wives of the officers and sailors on her husband’s ships and naval stations. She was always gracious, friendly and especially concerned for the wives of the enlisted sailors while their husbands’ ships were deployed. In 1966 the Commander of the Cruiser-Destroyer Force of the Pacific Fleet designated Helen as a ‘Destroyer Lady.’

Upon retirement, Helen and Al moved to Virginia Beach. Helen became an active Red Cross volunteer and made many lasting friendships. Throughout her lifetime, Helen was an accomplished seamstress who enjoyed travel, boating, playing the piano and studying the science of health and nutrition.

Helen and Al moved to Westminster Canterbury in 2004 where she continued to make many friends. She especially enjoyed walking on the beach and listening to the sounds of the ocean. She was greatly appreciated for her warm and loving nature and ready smile.

Helen is survived by Al, her husband of 72 years, and by her children Bill of Seattle, Jim of Richmond, Jane of San Francisco, and Linda of Virginia Beach. She has three grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

Her memorial service will be held at Westminster Canterbury on Saturday December 5 at 2:00 p.m. followed by a reception. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters.