Helena Wright Phillips 1911-2016
BY BILL BROTHERTON
LYNN — Helena Wright Phillips celebrated her 80th birthday by going on an African safari.
For her 90th, the Lynn native went whitewater rafting, something she had never tried. At 100, she had a Facebook page and an iPad.
“Helena was an amazing woman,” said Joan Breed, her longtime friend. “She meant a lot to many, many people. We miss her.”
Phillips died on May 23 at her home in West Palm Beach, Fla., where she had moved a decade ago to be closer to her daughter, Joanna Hollis, and grandchildren. She was 104 years old, having been born on Nov. 11, 1911. That’s 11-11-11 for you numerologists.
“Her birthdate always seemed magical to us,” said Hollis. “People would suggest she play the lottery.”
A celebration of life service will be held at Phillips’ beloved Central Congregational Church on Broad Street Sunday at 10:45 a.m. Everyone is invited.
“Helena loved our church,” said Breed. “She joined in 1936 and was an intricate part of Central Congregational. She sang in the choir. She taught Sunday School. She was a deacon.”
Phillips was active in the church until the day she moved to Florida, Breed added.
“She was a very, very amazing person,” said her sister, Barbara Helinski, 90, of Lynn. “She went to Radcliffe College on a scholarship. She taught at Tower School in Marblehead for 40 years, mostly first grade, but she also taught Latin to the older kids.”
Phillips graduated from Lynn Classical High School in 1929. Helena met her future husband, John Phillips, who became an attorney, when she worked at the former Hebbard’s Drug Store at Broad and Silsbee streets. They had two children, Joanna and Charles, who lives in Bethlehem, N.H.
“Going to Radcliffe and graduating Phi Beta Kappa at that particular time, in the 1930s, what an achievement,” said Breed. “Helena was the brightest person I ever knew. She encouraged me to get email. ‘Now, Joan, dear, there’s no reason for you not to have email,’ she’d say. You forgot she was older.”
She was also quick-witted. Breed and fellow church parishioners traveled to West Palm Beach for her 100th birthday party. A few of her former Tower students went too. After the party, Breed said Phillips surprised everyone by ordering a margarita. When one attendee said he wished he was 40 again, Phillips shot back, “I wish I was 90.”
Helinski said her sister was the third of nine children born to Robert and Inez Wright, and life was hectic at the family’s Seymour Avenue home.
“I was 13 years younger … but we became so much closer as we became older,” she said. “We’d have coffee and play cards and talk about everything and anything. She was an avid reader. She loved music, but not the modern kind. She did the crossword puzzles. And her family loved her American chop suey; nobody could make it better.”