Savannah -On the evening of Saturday, April 22nd just four days shy of her 95th birthday, Helen Harris peacefully surrendered to the embrace of her Savior at Savannah Squares retirement home.

Born in Savannah on April 26, 1911 to Frank Henry and Helen Neve Schwarz she was one of six children and a descendant of the Schwarz and Neve families who immigrated to Savannah from Germany and Denmark in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds. She received her primary education at Massie School and her secondary education at the original Savannah High School , then located on the corner of Bull and Oglethorpe. While a young woman, she was employed in the office of Judge Stella Aiken where she met her future husband, Savannah Morning News political reporter William C. Bill Harris.

Bill would later run the successful 1934 campaign of First District Congressman Hugh Peterson. After the election, Bill became Congressman Peterson’s executive secretary and following their engagement, Helen moved to Washington in 1935 to be near Bill. In the years leading up to World War II, she was employed by the Agriculture Adjustment Administration AAA.

On July 4th, 1936 Helen and Bill were married at Sacred Heart Church in Savannah . After their honeymoon, the couple returned to Washington where they resided at the Cathedral Mansions Apartments on Connecticut Avenue . In 1939, their first child Nancy was born in Washington while Bill was still in the employ of Congressman Peterson. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Bill enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and Helen returned to Savannah where she lived with her parents and worked for Union Bag Corporation while her husband was fighting in the Pacific.

After the war, Bill returned to Savannah where he became the City Editor of the Savannah Morning News in 1945. In 1947 their second child Bill, Jr., was born and in 1948 Bill, Sr., was elected Sheriff of Chatham County. When her husband returned from the Pacific, Helen left her job at Union Bag to assume the full time responsibilities of wife and mother. During that time she was very active in the P.T.A. at Blessed Sacrament School and later St. Vincent’s Academy and Benedictine Military School .

In 1961, Bill, Sr., was appointed assistant director of Georgia’s Department of Corrections and the family moved to Atlanta where Helen again entered into the employment of what had become Union Camp Corporation where she served as executive secretary to the manager of the company’s container division.

Following their retirement, Helen and Bill returned to Savannah in 1977 where they enjoyed the association of family and friends. Bill died in 1985 and Helen continued to live at their old Kensington Park home until a few years before her death.

Helen was an active member of Blessed Sacrament Church and took her religion quite seriously, rarely missing Sunday Mass until ill health kept her homebound.

She was predeceased by three brothers, Courtnay, John Milton and Frank Schwarz, Jr.

She is survived by her daughter, Nancy Helen Gayhardt Donald of Annapolis, MD; son, Dr. William C. Harris, Jr. Pam of Savannah; seven grandchildren, Mary Elizabeth Hebert of Annapolis, MD, Donald Francis Gayhardt, Jr. of Bryn Mawr, PA, Nancy Helen Gayhardt Pryal of Annapolis, MD, Dena Harris Muller and Tara Harris Roth, both of Atlanta, GA and Helen Neve Harris of Americus, GA, as well as 15 great-grandchildren. In addition she is survived by two sisters, Doris Edwards of Charleston, SC and Marjorie Ogilvie of Alexandria , VA and several nieces and nephews.

Visitation will be held from 5-7 p.m., Wednesday, April 26, 2006 at Fox and Weeks Hodgson Chapel with a rosary service at 6.

Funeral Mass will be held 10 a.m., Thursday at Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.

Interment: Bonaventure Cemetery .