Helen L Devinney

Graveside services will be held at 11:30 a.m. Friday in Hurricane Cemetery, Charleston, Illinois with Rev. Lee Lovett officiating. Visitation from 9:30 – 10:15 a.m. Friday in Howe and Yockey Funeral Home, Shelbyville.

Helen was born on November 28, 1910 in Charleston, Illinois, the only child of Harry and Belle Dallas Devinney. She spent her entire life in the Charleston area with the exception of her university education, Columbia University in New York City, NY, and seven years of high school teaching at Ridgeway, Illinois. Helen joined Eastern Illinois University’s home economics faculty in 1942 and retired from there in 1975. Her major areas of teaching were textiles, clothing and household equipment. She was an active member of the Kappa Omicron Nu honorary society and Delta Kappa Gamma in addition to being active in Delta Zeta sorority. Her life experiences took her to several foreign countries. Her dedication to home economics is well known and appreciated by many hundreds of students as well as faculty colleagues. She was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Charleston.

Surviving are several cousins, locally including, Jean Shull and husband Bill of Shelbyville and Shirley Swickard and husband Steve of Estes Park, CO, formerly of Charleston; and a close friend, Dr. Mary Ruth Swope of Avinger, TX.

She was preceded in death by her parents.