Mom

My mother, Alice Heldenfels, has passed away. This is her obituary.

Alice Davis Heldenfels is now in heaven, asking everyone if there’s anything she can do for them.

Mrs. Heldenfels, 93, passed away on Saturday, Feb. 1, following a brief illness. She had most recently lived in Warwick Forest but resided most of her life on Crittenden Lane in Newport News.

Born on May 16, 1926, in Crisp County, Georgia, the former Martha Alice Davis early on demonstrated a knack for mathematics and science, and the precision of those fields was something she applied to everything else in life. As a child of the Depression, she learned early on about the importance of hard work and careful living – along with the need to have fun. How else to explain the certificate that 13-year-old Alice received for completion of a course in Hawaiian guitar?

She graduated from the former Georgia State College for Women (now Georgia College & State University) in 1948 with a B.S. in mathematics and chemistry. Not long after, she moved to Virginia and began work for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics at Langley Field.

Alice was a computer, then the name given to the many women there who did the complex mathematical calculations for the staff engineers. One of those engineers was Richard R. “Dick” Heldenfels. They would later note with amusement that the first meeting of the two strong-willed and strict people did not go well. But soon enough love followed. A friend wrote of “Alice and Dick and their arithmetic,” and that added up to their marriage on March 18, 1950. They remained together until his death in 1996.

While she ended her pursuit of a paid career after marriage, Alice filled her time with other important activities, including the raising of her two children, Richard D. Heldenfels of Mogadore, Ohio, and Harriet Heldenfels Yake of Arnold, Maryland . She was a member of and often active with Hidenwood Presbyterian Church going back to before the building of its first sanctuary; she was still helping to answer phones at the church in her nineties. She was also long involved in P.E.O., also known as the Philanthropic Educational Organization, and an avid supporter of the Peninsula Fine Arts Center and the Boys and Girls Club. She read often, mostly romances, but across a wide range of other topics as well. She and Dick were enthusiastic bridge players and hosted an annual holiday party where their home was full upstairs and down with bridge tables, food and merriment.

Alice watched out for friends, family and neighbors. Even when she was not feeling well herself, she would end conversations by asking what she could do for the person she was chatting with. A visitor could often find her assembling casseroles for an ailing friend; her home had items that she did not need but which she thought someone else might need to borrow. The compensation was obvious in all the people who loved, admired and respected her.

She was predeceased by her parents, Carl and Clara Davis, as well as her husband. Besides her children and their spouses (Connie R. Heldenfels and Stephen L. Yake), she is survived by her sister, Billie Ann McComb; nephew Thomas H. McComb and his wife Sylvia; five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

After a private burial, a memorial service will be held at Hidenwood Presbyterian Church at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 7.  In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Hidenwood Food Closest, 414 Hiden Boulevard, Newport News, VA 23606.