Helen W. Brice

Helen Mae White entered the world on May 24, 1923, the second child of Essmie (Hayes) White and Charlie Bell White.  Her brother, Charlie Morris White, died just before she was born.  Her Sister, Corrine White, predeceased her at age nineteen. 

She grew up in Shiloh Baptist Church and converted to Catholicism at age nineteen.  She graduated from Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1945 and remained an active alumnus until recently.  She joined Holy Redeemer Church in 1946.  She married Wilbert Benjamin Brice in 1948.  He predeceased her in 1991.  Of this union, two children were born: Marie, who predeceased her in 2013 and Theresa.

After working for the U.S. State Department, she began teaching in 1962 at Drew School in Arlington, VA.  After three years she began teaching at Garnet Patterson Jr. High School (which she attended) in Washington DC where she taught her first love, Home Economics.

She taught there for 25 years, retiring in 1980.  Then she became Principal of the Holy Redeemer Summer School for two years.  She remained active at Holy Redeemer until she moved to Hyattsville, MD in 1989.  That year she joined St. John Baptist de la Salle Parish where she was active until moving to Upper Marlboro in 2001.

She then joined St. Edward the Confessor Church in Bowie where she joined the choir and became an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion.  Helen loved traveling and organized several cruises for St. John Baptist de la Salle and St. Edward the Confessor.

Helen had a way of making you feel like an old friend – even when you first met.  She leaves to mourn her daughter Theresa, several cousins, nieces and nephews and many friends.