Helen C. Kennedy, 94, passed away peacefully on May 25, 2020 at Woodlawn Care Center in Newport, New Hampshire after a brief period of declining health. She was born on September 19, 1925 in Mansfield, Massachusetts to the late Carl and Harriet (Gwilliam) Gegenheimer.
Helen grew up in Mansfield and earned her Bachelor of Science Degree from Nasson College in Maine. She worked for 20 years for the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and worked for 35 years as the Church Administrator at the Shoreline Unitarian Universalist Society. She also served as President of the Connecticut Valley District of the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Helen believed in reverence for all life. She had many rescued pets and was a lifelong vegetarian. She moved to Wilmot nine years ago to live with her daughter, Margaret. She became a member of the Kearsarge Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Church in Andover and a proud patron of Cinema Cote. Helen loved her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and was immensely proud of them.
She was predeceased by her parents; her brothers and their wives, Arthur and Ruth Gegenheimer, Winthrop and Barbara Gegenheimer, and Bernard and Eleanor Gegenheimer; an infant brother, Carl Gegenheimer, Jr.; and a son-in-law, David S. Dugan.
Surviving family members include daughters Margaret Dugan of Wilmot, and Elizabeth Delisi and her husband Daniel of Gilmanton; grandchildren Helen Delisi of Milford, Heather Garcia of Keene, and Michael Delisi of Blue Springs, Missouri; great-grandchildren Isabel and Aaron Garcia and Adrianna Delisi; niece Marilyn Jordan and her husband, Robert, of Mansfield, Massachusetts; nephews Gary Gegenheimer and his wife Debbie of Virginia and Brad Gegenheimer of Jacksonville, Florida; and grandnephew Christopher Gegenheimer and his wife Mona of Virginia.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Shoreline Unitarian Universalist Society at 297 Boston Post Road, Madison CT 06443 or to Libby’s Haven for Senior Canines, PO Box
65, Canterbury NH 03224.
Memorial services will be held in both Andover and Madison, Connecticut at a later date.