Helen Matilda Canon Dempsey died December 19, 2007 at the home of her daughter, Kathleen Enid Dempsey, MD, in Belmont, Massachusetts. She was born in 1910 in Franklin, PA into a large prosperous pioneer family. Seeking adventure and opportunity, she went to Albuquerque with her sister, Kathleen, in the mid-1930's. Her fiance, Glenn Arthur Dempsey of Dempsey Town, PA, soon followed, and they were married in 1935. Helen began a long career as a wife and mother devoted to supporting her husband's career as a federal government administrator with Soil Conservation Service and General Service Administration, and her two children's well-being. During WWII while Glenn was a scout with the 42nd Rainbow Division M.P. Battalion in Europe she nurtured the children at home. Helen was preceded in death by her parents, Robert Erasmus Canon and Katherine Hollobaugh Reed Canon; her older brothers, Lawrence and Wesley; her older sisters, Grace Gregg and Kathleen Watt; and her younger sister, Muriel Wallace. She is survived by her son, Glenn Michael Dempsey, M.D. and his wife, Geraldine Orange Dempsey of Albuquerque; granddaughter, Rebecca Anne Dempsey and her two children, Grace Katherine Chapman and Noah Reed Chapman of Rio Rancho; grandsons, Matthew Michael Dempsey and wife, Mandy Kissinger Dempsey of Aurora, CO, Bradley Glenn Dempsey of Albuquerque. Also her daughter, Kathleen Enid Dempsey, M.D. and son, Michael Joseph Dempsey of Belmont, MA. Helen had a wry sense of humor and while terminally ill with lung cancer after an 80 pack-year history of cigarette smoking was able to chuckle when her grandson Matthew wise-cracked that if she had not smoked she might have lived to be 98. She was a repository of family lore such as the ancestor who escaped from a Southern POW camp during the Civil War and ate raw frogs as he made it back to the U.S. lines, or her maternal grandfather, John Wesley Reed, who was the only one of four brothers in the 100th P.A. volunteer "Round Head" regiment to survive the Civil War. Her sense of humor and devotion to family are greatly missed. Funeral Services will be at Albuquerque First Presbyterian Church on Sunday, September 14, 2008 at 12:30 p.m. followed by a celebratory church dinner. Cremation has taken place and interment will be at Glenn's grave-site at the Santa Fe National Cemetery.
Published on: Sun August 31, 2008