Helen Humphries Peters, 94, passed away peacefully on May 10, 2021. She was born to Stewart R. and Elizabeth Browne on July 15, 1926, in Brooklyn, New York. She was the youngest of six children after her twin sister Judy.
Helen graduated from Ohio Wesleyan with a BA in economics.
Helen was a Victory Farm Corps volunteer in upstate New York in 1942-1945. This may be how she developed gardening skills and little fear of germs. She felt that exposure to germs made for a strong immune system.
Helen married the love of her life William F. Peters at the American Church in Paris in 1954 when he was working at the Army hospital in Change, France.
In 1955 Helen moved with Bill to Seattle as he started a resident position with UW Hospital. She got a job with Boeing with the KC135 team working on drafting the pilot’s manual. Bill started his psychiatric practice shortly thereafter on First Hill. He and Helen started a second practice in Hoquiam in the late ’70s. They helped many people through difficult times in their lives. She was active with the Seattle Rose and Grays Harbor Rose Society for many years. She was a judge and grew hybrid teas, miniature roses then entered them in the city Rose shows.
Helen and Bill enjoyed field training dogs and were members of the GSPC of WA. They raised and trained the dog FC Radbach’s Bimbo that won the NW Field Trial Council’s Dog of the year in 1968,’69,’70,’71 and ’72.
She and Bill moved to Copalis Beach in 1987 full time and loved walking the beach with the dogs, beachcombing, digging razor clams and entertaining visitors to the beach. She loved to tell stories and cook, and you always knew when you came down to the beach you would be well fed. Bill passed in 1997 of cancer.
After Bill passed Helen enjoyed time with her family and many life-long friends. She spent time volunteering for the Grays Harbor Rose Society, the Polson Museum rose garden, and the Museum of the North Beach until she was 93, and the “Out to lunch bunch.”
She was preceded in death by her parents, brothers Stewart and Robert Browne; and sisters Eleanor Browne, Phillis Anderson and Judy Haden. She is survived by son Stephen Peters; daughters Elizabeth Ann Swenson Peters and Susan Olson (Morrie); grandchildren: Joel, Kirk (Kristen), Lars and Nicole Swenson and Michelle (Chris), Nicholas, Sophia and Gabrielle Peters, nephews, nieces and one great-grandchild Christian Wilson.
Helen was a beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, aunt and friend. She will be greatly missed. In the last year of her life her children and grandchildren cared for her rotating care weekly, two weeks at the beach, then a week in Shoreline. It was her desire to live in her home until she passed and for the most part met this goal.
The family would like to thank Judy Palm and Shannon Brehan, for the excellent care they provided, and for helping her find her walking stick. She loved the beach and was a faithful Mariners fan. She was also an avid Scrabble and cards player. She was competitive and would often beat us even just last month.
If we go into the garden and smell the roses, her presence is there. She was salt of the earth and an advocate for it. In lieu of flowers please give a donation to Nature Conservancy or your favorite charity. A celebration of Helen’s life will be held on Saturday, July 17 at 1 p.m. at the Polson Museum Hoquiam.
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1st Cor 13
