Helen Virginia (Baker) Ames
February 14, 1921 - July 4, 2019
Helen Virginia (Baker) Ames, in her 98th year, passed away peacefully on July 4th, 2019.
The only child of Ralph L. Baker and Ethel (Carlstrom) Baker, Helen was born in Union City, Pennsylvania on February 14th, 1921 – to the lives she has touched and the family she created there has never been a more wonderful Valentine’s Day gift.
Helen was a graduate of Falconer High School and Meadville City Hospital Training School. As a registered nurse, Helen exercised her skills in World War II, joining the Army Nurse Corps on February 1, 1943, just before her 22nd birthday. During her 23 months of overseas duty, Helen was promoted to First Lieutenant for her outstanding work serving the 74th Station Hospital in Africa and Italy. First Lieutenant Baker wore the Mediterranean Theater Ribbon and two battle participation stars. Her favorite song was Stardust.
After the war, Helen returned to Jamestown, New York where she married her childhood neighbor and WWII Army pilot, Warren Ezra Ames. Moving to north Wilmington, Delaware, she built a loving family including her four children, Donna L. Mooyman, Darlene K. Soltess (1948 – 2007), Richard W. Ames (1950 – 1993) and Robert “Bob” L. Ames. She is survived by five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.
Helen’s legacy is of family, a maternal figure that shaped the lives of so many. Major holidays were centered around her hospitality. She hosted countless memorable family meals where she never seemed to eat a warm bite, always passing dishes to ensure everyone’s plate was full before she would cut the first piece of turkey on her plate. Her words were always soft and kind. Her beautiful blue eyes always shined with a genuine love and appreciation.
Despite her quiet nature, Helen was a woman of adventure. Memories are captured in pictures of Helen traveling Europe with her daughter Darlene, riding horse back in her 70’s or flying in a glider over central New York in her 80’s. Even after almost 10 decades, her hair never turned grey.
Helen’s presence is both seen and felt by everyone she has ever graced with her comforting gaze, helping countless lives to adopt a sense of kindness and sincerity which she encouraged by example. Beyond photos, she created memories that remain captured in the hearts of those who were privileged enough to share them with her. She planted seeds of love in all the hearts she encountered, seeds which will spread and grow for many generations to come. To all her family, even when she was out of sight her love was never out of mind.
She treasured her final years living with her oldest daughter, Donna. Thoughts of the two of them as inseparable will remain forever. As in her life, even in Helen’s last moments her eyes remained bright and her face held a smile, with most of her last breaths being used to repeatedly say “I love you.”
A memorial service will be held at 11 am on Monday, July 22, 2019, at Newark Baptist Church, 6011 Telegraph Road, Elkton, MD 21921.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Helen’s memory to Newark Baptist Church, P.O 5839, Newark, DE 19714.
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