WOMEN IN COMMUNICATIONS LOSES A FRIEND:
HELEN SIMS, 1912-2006
Women in Communications—the organization and the profession—lost a friend and champion this week: Helen Sims died quietly Wednesday morning, October 25. She was 92—you wouldn’t know it by her attitude and thinking.
Helen had had surgery mid-September and complications got the best of her. Long-time friend and HVWP colleague Pris Owings Chansky was at Helen’s side through good times and the more recent rougher ones.
Visitation will be from 2-4 p.m. Sunday at Mount Moriah & Freeman Funeral Home, 10507 Holmes Rd., Kansas City, Mo. Memorial services will be in Spencer Chapel at the KU Medical Center at 10 a.m. Monday with burial in Fairfax, Mo. following. Her obituary will run in the Kansas City Star Friday, October 27. Helen’s family has designated HVWP/Veterans' Voices for any memorial contributions.
Helen grew up in the family newspaper business in Moberly, Mo. In an era when women journalists were few and far between, Helen earned a journalism degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1936. She joined Theta Sigma Phi, now The Association for Women in Communications, at OU. A woman on the leading edge, she put a new twist on the meaning of “Sooner.”
During Helen’s early professional life, she met Frances Osborne, and they shared a home for more than 50 years. Frances died January 13, 2006, at age 97.
Helen spent most of her career at The University of Kansas Medical Center, rising to the position of Director of University Relations and Alumni Affairs, a role she held this until retirement. She is the only person to receive Honorary Alumni Awards from both the KU Medical and Nursing Alumni Associations.
An active Theta Sig, Helen served the Kansas City professional chapter as president (1962-63). This was the heyday of local Matrix Dinners, complete with evening gowns, white gloves, and guests like Bess Truman. She was a life member, a past president of the Greater Kansas City Chapter and Midwest Regional Vice President.
Helen was a dedicated volunteer for the Hospitalized Veteran’s Writing Project (HVWP) and served as Prose Editor of Veterans’ Voices for more than a decade. She summed up her HVWP: “Volunteer work has to be gratifying work. I did the prose editing because of AWC and what it had meant to me.”
Read Helen’s obituary online, and you’ll discover that her professional and volunteer communities were a huge part of her life.
Read the complete profile on Helen Sims…
Note: Many thanks to the original author of the Member Profile on this site.
Posted 10/29/06
