Helen Louise Southern passed away on July 17, 2024, at the age of 101. She was born August 7, 1922, to Henry and Irene Purdue of Bluefield, West Virginia.

Her father, a mine foreman, taught her to play the guitar at a young age, so she could join him and her grandfather on the fiddle at local square dance performances.

At age 20 in 1942 as WWII ramped up, Helen worked in a defense plant as an inspector for explosives in Aberdeen, Maryland, then at 21 joined the Women's Navy Corp. She had an aptitude for radio signal work, went to a 5-month school in Ohio to learn Morse Code, then worked as a radio operator for the Navy pilots at Banana River, Florida. (Now Patrick AFB) Helen was in this service from 1943 to 1945, when she was discharged on medical disability for a work-related injury.

Helen then began a 17-year secretarial career to various commanders for the Army, serving nine years at the Pentagon, in 1957-58 at Camp Zama in Japan, and First Corps Group at Uijeonbu, Korea in 1958. During these years Helen developed a love for all things Oriental.

She landed in Corpus Christi, Texas when Brigadier General Melvin Losey of the Army Transportation Corps, who she worked for at Camp Zama, took command of the newly established Corpus Christi Army Depot in March of 1961 and asked her to come work for him.
In Corpus Christi Helen met and married Bill Southern in 1962. Over the course of their 52-year marriage they pursued mutual careers in real estate in the Coastal Bend and San Antonio.

Helen sang and played her folk music throughout her time with the Army, as she would say, "a secretary by day and entertainer by night," performing for brass in Washington, Japan and Korea. After settling in Corpus and marrying Bill, together they established the Folk Music Society in the mid-60's.

In the 1960's, Helen and Bill were active in Little Theater Corpus Christi productions, including several seasons of outdoor summer melodrama productions at Memorial Coliseum on Shoreline, where Bill often played the hero or the villain, and Helen performed her Daisy Mae Mountain Gal ballads in the Olio.

After settling for good in Rockport in 1993, Helen became active in the local retirement and nursing homes there in two ways: she entertained residents with regular Singalongs on her beloved Martin guitar, and she served as an ombudsman. In 2000 the THCA recognized her work with the "Ombudsman of the Year" award.

After Bill passed away in 2014, Helen became a retirement home resident herself, in various facilities in Corpus Christi, Rockport, Greensboro, North Carolina, and Portland. She continued to do Singalongs for her fellow residents for most of her remaining life.

Helen Southern passed away at Garden Estates in Corpus Christi on July 17, 2024, just twenty-one days shy of her 102nd birthday.

She was most proud of her military service. In February 2024 she said to an interviewer, "I believe that the United States of America is God's gift to the world."

She is preceded in death by her parents, Henry and Irene Purdue; sisters Jackie McGuirk and Doris Wiley; her husband, Bill Southern, and step-daughter Andria Smith and nephew Ron McGuirk.

She leaves behind nephews Gary McGuirk, Mike McGuirk, Guy Wiley, Jr. and Mark Wiley; nine great-nephews and nieces; fourteen great-grand nephews and nieces; step-daughter Tonia Woolever, step-grandchildren Shawn and Gabriele, and step-great grandchildren Christian, Jeremy and Sydney.

A private service will be held at the Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery, where her cremains will be interred on August 7, 2024, which would have been her 102nd birthday.

There will be a Celebration of Life open to all who wish to honor and share memories of Helen on Saturday , September 7, 2024 , at 3 p.m . at the VFW Post in Flour Bluff , 702 Jester St, Corpus Christi, 361-937-9999.