Helen Winter Ball

Helen Winter Ball died on December 15, 2020, at Greenspring Village in Springfield, VA. She was 97 years old, just three years shy of her hope of attaining the title of “Centenarian.” She died from injuries sustained in a fall, and dementia. If you knew Helen Ball, you know that she was most proud of being Valedictorian of her 1940 John Marshall High School class in Los Angeles, California, and being left-handed. Helen Ball was also a proud alum of LA’s Occidental College, where she was a Phi Beta Kappa. She was born in Seattle, Washington, on September 3, 1923, the middle of three children of Helena Annie and Boyd Winter. Her older sister Lois Overton predeceased her, and she is survived by her younger sister Dorothy Reichardt. Although she became a world traveler, Helen never lost her love for Washington state, always saying, “Northwest is best!” In her retirement, she went back to live in the San Juan Islands with just a wood stove for heat, making kindling and hauling her own wood into the house. Helen Ball was a strong and independent young woman. She worked as a school teacher, a desert ranch tour guide in Palm Springs, California, among other jobs, before moving to France where she worked as the U.S. Ambassador’s social secretary at the American Embassy in Paris. That is where she met, and married, her husband, Harris Hartwell Ball, Jr., in 1953. At the time, Harris was a diplomatic courier. They had four children, Harris III, Sam, Helen and Anne. Helen was a world traveler who took her family on great adventures, while living in Paris, Rome, Italy; Rangoon, Burma; and Athens, Greece. She enjoyed leading tour groups, to many places, including the former Soviet Union and Egypt. When not overseas, the family made their home in Bethesda, Maryland, where Helen made many friends. She was incredibly smart — a true intellectual, and avid reader, curious about so many things. She received a Masters Degree in counseling from the University of Maryland in June, 1971. She applied her training to work as a rape counselor and to support people with schizophrenia. Helen was also a dedicated library volunteer in Montgomery County, Maryland. An athlete all her life, Helen loved to play tennis and swim. Her husband, Harris H. Ball Jr., died in 1990. After his death, Helen spent many happy years with her partner Allan Muir, who died in 1997. She is survived by her four children and five grandchildren, Spencer Ball, Silas and Janet Eames and Christopher and Emily Butters. She also leaves behind numerous nieces and nephews including Karen (Pete) Reichardt and Pam (Mike) Heutmaker, and Hugh (Nancy) Reichardt, and her beloved goddaughter, Laurie Chatham and her godson, Patrick Reichardt. Among Helen’s many wonderful friends, she leaves behind Gail Ostergaard, who was her pupil in Helen’s fifth grade class in Palm Springs in the 1940s. Their friendship spanned over 70 years, with Gail visiting her wherever she lived. Her dedication to Helen was evident in the early 1960s when a 24-hour visa limited their time together in Burma. In later years in the United States, Gail held lovely birthday dinner celebrations for Helen. With Helen’s advancing dementia in later years, it has been the long goodbye for all who loved her, losing pieces of her with the passage of time. A small private family gathering will be held later this summer on Shaw Island, Washington. Donations can be made in her memory to the Alzheimer’s Association.