Helen Richardson - Obituary

elen Ryan Richardson age 92 female Lived at Harmony Hall Retirement Community in Columbia, MD for the past 3 1/2 years. Prior to that she lived in Leisure World of Silver Spring, MD and Oxon Hill, MD. She died April 21, 2014 at Harmony Hall of complications due to recent falls where she was hospitalized several times. She was born April 3, 1922 in Savannah, Georgia, the oldest of seven children. Her parents were John Ziegler Ryan and Helen Persse Ryan also from Savanah. She grew up in Savannah and attended Sacred Heart School, St. Vincent's Academy and St. Joseph's Nursing School. She married her high school sweetheart, Lt. Donald Vincent Richardson right after graduating from Nursing School and they began a busy life of almost yearly moves due to different military assignments until Donald retired from the Army in the 1960's. Helen kept busy raising her children, meeting new friends, being active in the Catholic Church and keeping up with her Bridge games. She and Donald had six children over a period of 16 years: Donald Jr., Kathleen, Barry, Michael, Martin and Elizabeth. She and Donald made sure the children went back to Savannah every summer to see their relatives and they took the time to have them visit every museum and place of interest wherever they happended to live that year. They even took them on a month-long camping trip all over Europe when they were stationed in Bremerhaven, Germany. Her son, Michael, died in 1978 and her husband, Donald, died in 2005. Her other children all live in the area. She has five grandchildren: Carol Wright, Kevin, Emily and Natalie Richardson, and Helen Dalphonse. She has three great grandchildren: Lauren and Olivia Wright and Bryce Richardson. She is also survived by one sister, Jane Ryan Walker of Atlanta, Georgia and many loving nieces and nephews. She will buried with her husband at Arlington National Cemetery at a later date. A Memorial Mass will be held for her at Sacred Heart Church in Savannah, Georgia. Her family has been baptised, married and buried from this church since the 1850's.