Helen F. Berlet

In the early nineteen hundreds, in Huntsville Texas, Dr. Woodrow Francis and Addie Jane Francis had eight children. There were three boys: Raymond, Guy, and Harold; and four girls: Lillian, Ada, Lois and Woodie. Fifteen years later, on January 11th, 1914 came Helen. The children all attended Sam Houston State Teachers College and became teachers.

After Dr. Francis died of tuberculosis in 1920, Addie Jane moved the family to Houston where Helen grew up. She attended San Jacinto High School. In 1930 she met a handsome civil engineer named John Wharton Berlet. He was fourteen years her senior but she often quoted her Grandma Smith who said: “It’s better to be an old man’s darling than a young man’s slave”.

In the years before the children came, Helen and John where known to fly a piper cup single engine biplane through the Alpine Hills and ride horses in the hill country around Abilene. In 1932, their son Wharton Francis was born. He was called Sonny. Helen Clare came in 1936. John W. worked on the building of the first causeway to Galveston and the design and construction of Possum Kingdom Dam moved the family to Eagle Pass. When he joined the Civil Core of Engineers, it meant that the family would move often.

A strong and proud Texas heritage was established with this union. The Wharton family came to Texas by barge as one of the founding families of Virginia and settled in Perry’s landing before Austin’s 300. The Wharton's also built the first framed house in Texas at Lake Jackson. Helen will be buried next to her beloved husband John Wharton on Eagle Island Plantation and close to other Texas Founders and heroes. John passed of heart trouble in 1964.

Helen went to work for Shill Steel in 1950 where she established a career that would span 30 years. In this time, she evolved with technology as she went from using typed ledgers for bookkeeping to IBM computers. She adapted to the changes quickly. She loved numbers and the family often joked at how she seemed to be a human calculator. A quick wit and sharp memory skills made her the consummate cohort or ambitious adversary when it came to her card playing. The steel trap memory stayed with her till the end.

Her loves included needle point, knitting and crochet. Texas wildflowers and baseball. She loved to travel. She loved being social and entertaining and she loved to play bridge. She was a woman of strong faith and read her faith books daily. An active member of the Methodist community her entire life, Helen taught Sunday school for more than 20 years.

The move from Houston to Austin happened in 1990 and Helen quickly found Faith Methodist to call home. With this new family, she found a new bridge group to join and played weekly. You know who you are….. Even as her eyesight failed, the cards would get larger so that she could continue to play.

In the last few years, she filled her days with volunteer work for the Old Bakery and South Austin Hospital but mostly just loving her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and her amazing community at Faith Methodist.

Dignified to the core. Steadfast composure. Ever the lady. Classy lady. Compassionate Samaritan. Community leader. Loving mother. Loving Grandmother. Role model. Iron will. Strong Texas heritage. Strong Texas woman. These words do not begin to describe the exceptional lady that was Helen Francis Berlet.