Helen Biggs

HELEN B. BIGGS

SOLOMONS — Helen Beatrice (Kalbaugh) Biggs departed this life on Wednesday, March 23, 2016, at the retirement community of Asbury Solomons, Solomons.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Wallace H. Biggs; brothers, Donald, Ralph and Victor Kalbaugh; and sisters, Virginia (Kalbaugh) McManis, Mary (Kalbaugh) Leitch and Hazel (Kalbaugh) Miller.

She is survived by a sister, Dorothy (Kalbaugh) Biggs and numerous nieces and nephews, grand-nieces and nephews, and great-grand-nieces and nephews.

She was born May 1, 1919, daughter of Victor Shaw and Bertha Maude (Poland) Kalbaugh, in Luke.  She was a 1937 graduate of Bruce High School, Westernport, valedictorian of her class. She completed two years at Potomac State College, Keyser, W.Va., and then earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Maryland in 1941. In the early ‘40s she taught English at Ridgeley High School, Ridgeley, W.Va. In the mid ‘40s she was on the faculty of Bruce High School, teaching French and English. After her marriage she and her husband moved to the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., where she began a long career teaching in Prince George’s County schools. She spent most of her career at High Point High School, teaching English and English literature. She and her husband lived for many decades in Burtonsville, and maintained vacation homes in the Green Glades Club on Deep Creek Lake, and in New Smyrna Beach, Fla. After her husband’s passing she eventually moved to Asbury Solomons, where she was looked after and her affairs managed by Jan Gibson, of Infinite Errands, whom she regarded as a special friend.

She was an inspirational teacher and loving wife, never more so than when she cared for her husband in his long final illness. She enjoyed singing and dancing and had a lifelong interest in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer.

A memorial service will be conducted on Friday, April 15, 2016 at 11:00 AM at Trinity United Methodist Church, Piedmont, WV.

Interment was in Philos Cemetery, Westernport.