Helen Virginia Barrett

Helen Virginia Garrett was born in Breckenridge, Texas on April 15th, 1922. She grew up in a rural community and as a young girl picked cotton to earn money for school. She graduated from Avoca, Texas High School in 1941. Her family then moved to Stamford, Texas where Helen worked as a clerk at the five and dime store. On her way to church one Sunday Morning, Helen and her friend stopped to give an Air Cadet a ride to the service. They invited him home to dinner following the service. He asked if he could see Helen again. They fell in love. He had been reassigned, so Helen left Texas for the first time following him to California. On April 3rd,1943, just short of her 21st birthday, she married Warren Richard Barrett. It was war time, and they celebrated their honeymoon on a troop train from California to a training base in Louisville, Kentucky. Warren was a pilot in the Army Air Corps and flew gliders into Normandy on D-Day.

During her husband’s 20 year military career, they moved almost every year from one assignment to the next. Helen loved the Lord and was always active in her church wherever they went, teaching Sunday School for Children, and attending Bible Study. She was also an active member of the Air Force Officer’s Wives Club, and helped to raise money to build the Chapel at the Air Force Academy here in Colorado Springs. Following Warren’s retirement from the U.S. Air Force, they moved to Wichita, Kansas where she worked for the Girls Scouts of America.

In 2007, following Warren’s death, she moved to Colorado Springs to be near her daughter, Carolyn, three of her grand children and several great grand children.

Helen was an avid Bridge player, a member of the African Violet Society of America, a dedicated NCAA Basketball fan, and and loved to read, reading one or two books a week. Helen is survived by her son, Warren Richard Barrett, Jr. of Houston, Texas; her daughter Carolyn Barrett Patrick of Colorado Springs, Colorado; her daughter Terri Lea Barrett of Perkasie, Pennsylvania; her grandchildren, Tim Patrick, Jonathan Patrick, Kari Patrick Gomes, Kyle Shirley, Dana Shirley, Kevin Shirley; and her 6 great grand children, Kylie Patrick, Lachlan Patrick, Piper Patrick, Austin Gomes, Colton Gomes and Nolan Shirley. Cremation is by Swan Law Funeral Home of Colorado Springs.

An online Celebration of life will be held by her former pastor from Wichita and our great family friend, the Reverend Jeff Dial, pastor of the Lifeline Baptist Church of Little Rock Arkansas.