- Date Of Birth: November 10, 1928
- Date Of Death: April 15, 2021
- State: New York
Edith Helen Sorensen, known to her friends simply as Helen, died on Thursday, April 15 at Westchester Medical Center, after a serious fall. Helen was born in 1928 to Arthur P. Sorensen and Muriel Rosamund Sorensen. Helen’s only sibling, Dr. Arthur Peter Sorensen Jr. died on January 10th, 2004.
Helen worked for many years in various clerical jobs for local companies, bank offices, and the White Plains Hospital. But, ultimately, Helen found her niche at the office of the White Plains Building Department where she worked with contractors, tradesmen, and architects. She loved working in that active office.
As a young girl at the White Plains High School, Helen was active in the girl scouts. During WWII she sold war stamps. Being very patriotic she was active in the Civil Air Patrol. After Pearl Harbor, she became what they called an “airplane spotter” where it was her job to report any suspicious-looking aircraft.
This sparked Helen’s interest in airplanes and a desire to learn how to fly. Helen and her friend Betty would take the bus to Tarrytown and board the Putnam train to Mahopac, where there was an airport and where she learned how to fly. She was an avid flyer of single-engine Piper Cub airplanes. Helen loved freedom and adventure. Locally, she loved to walk, and she walked everywhere or took the bus. Helen was also a world traveler. One of her biggest trips was to Colombia with her brother Arthur who traveled to Colombia to study the linguistics and languages of the indigenous natives in the backcountry of Colombia, such as the Wayuu and Zenu people.
No matter if it was a trip halfway around the world or on a camping trip to rural parts of Duchess County, Helen loved to go places. Helen knew all the Bee Line bus routes, and how to navigate from one part of the County to the other on one fare.
Helen was a faithful communicant at St. Bartholmew’s Episcopal Church. During the Summer she was always first to arrive and set up chairs outside for Mass on the Grass. She genuinely loved all kinds of people.
Before the Coronavirus, Helen volunteered every Sunday morning in the St. Bart’s Soup Kitchen, where through her kind and friendly way she brightened the lives of the guests and volunteers.
Helen will be missed by many and survived by a longtime high school friend and traveling companion Betty Innamorato, and her beloved cat Whiskers.
