Helen Elizabeth Carmichael
Carter, 92, died peacefully at home on May 14, 2010.
She was born on
April 19, 1918 in Inchinnan,
Scotland to George and Jean Carmichael. When Helen was very young,
the family moved to Gorakhpur, India, where her father worked as an
erecting shop foreman for the Bengal and North Western Railway. Her
sister Elizabeth Ross was born there in 1921. Eventually, the
family returned to Scotland. In 1923 they left Scotland for the USA,
joining relatives in the Munjoy Hill
area of Portland, Maine. Helen attended the Portland area schools,
graduating from South Portland High School. She went on to complete
a year of business school before working in secretarial positions
for local businesses.
One of the original “government
girls”, Helen worked in temporary offices in
Washington, D.C. during the completion of the
Pentagon. It was here that she met Leland F. Carter of Freeport,
Maine, a soldier in the Army Corps of Engineers. They were married
in 1944 just before he was shipped to Adak in the Aleutian Islands.
While Leland was stationed in Alaska, Helen worked in a bookstore in
Portland and as a secretary at the Bath Ironworks.
After the war, the Carters settled in
Ipswich, where Leland built their
home. Helen became an active member in the community, serving as a
volunteer at the Ipswich Public Library, the Ipswich Historical
Society, the Quebec Labrador Foundation and Meals on Wheels. She was
a member of the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary, the Ipswich
Republican Committee, the Audubon Society and the Ipswich Women’s
Club. She was an avid reader and birdwatcher.
Helen and Leland had two children:
Robin Charles and Sharon Lee. Robin, a
Vietnam veteran, married Kathy Riel, and moved to
Tucson, Arizona. They have three children: Rebecca and twins Amy and
Beth. Helen became a great-grandmother with the birth of Rebecca and
Brian Schnackenberg’s children, Katy and
Heather.
Sharon
married David Grimes and the couple moved to Toronto, Canada, where
they had their children Hilary, Madeline and Ross. Helen moved to
her home on Toddy Pond in East Orland, Maine, where she spent many
happy years entertaining friends and family.
Helen was particularly interested in
her family history. Before his death, she and Leland visited cousins
in Britain and toured Scotland
extensively. “Sis” (as her parents and relatives always called her)
was a founding member of Clan Carmichael. She and Leland were also
involved in the very first organizational meetings held at the
Carmichael estate in Scotland. She attended many Clan gatherings,
both in Scotland and the USA, inspiring her siblings and most of
their offspring and spouses to join Clan Carmichael USA.
Helen spent her final years in
Ipswich with her daughter and son-in-law.
She was passionate about her family, music, literature, Toddy Pond
and Scotland. She lived an extraordinary life and was an
extraordinary woman - fiercely independent, possessed of a fiery
spirit, quick of wit, and always ready. Helen was much loved and
will be greatly missed, not only by her children, grandchildren and
great-grandchildren, but also her siblings, William Carmichael,
George Ross Carmichael, Jr. and Robert Carmichael and their families
and her many friends. She was predeceased by a sister, Elizabeth
Ross Larrabee. Her funeral service was
held Monday May 17, graveside in the Cowles Memorial Cemetery,
Ipswich. Arrangements by the Whittier-Porter
Funeral Home of Ipswich.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be
sent to the Alzheimer’s Association, 311 Arsenal Street, Watertown,
MA 02472 (www.alz.org)
or Hospice of the North Shore 75 Sylvan Street,
Suite B-102, Danvers, MA 01923 (www.hns.org)
.
