Helen Carter King
April 3, 1908-June 14, 2006
Los Altos, California

Helen Carter King, 98, a resident of Los Altos, died on June 14, 2006.

She was the winner of nearly 100 poetry prizes, including the Ina Colbrith Award and the First Prize in 1972 from the New York Forum. The classical sonnet was her specialty, for which she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Warsaw. She was a member of the National League of American Penwomen, the Chaparral Society, the World Poetry Society and the California State Poetry Society. She was awarded an Honorary Lifetime Membership in the Ina Colbirth Society.

She also devoted her time to helping many younger poets and struggling publications. Her lighter verse was seen often in the Los Altos Town Crier.

Born in New York City on April 3, 1908, she spent most of her youth in Washington, D.C. At 19, she was the youngest member ever admitted to the prestigious Washington Arts Club. She was already a published poet, a violinist and a budding actress as well. In 1942, she had a poem published in the Saturday Review.

In 1932, she married Phillip B. King, a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey. A city girl, she began a peripatetic existence as he did research in West Texas and various locations in the Southern Appalachians. She was active in the Parent Teacher Association and helped set up a school lunch program and a textbook-distribution program in the elementary school in Gatlinburg, Tenn., where her husband was stationed for eight years.

The couple settled in Los Altos in 1955 when her husband came to work at the U.S. Geological Survey office in Menlo Park.

She became active again as a poet. Most of her awards were earned after she was 60 years old. She also taught small classes in art and poetry and volunteered at the Los Altos Library. Denied a college education in her youth, she enabled several young people to achieve degrees. She was widowed in 1987.

She is survived by her daughter, Gertrude "Myrrh" Reagan of Palo Alto; and two grandsons, Jeffrey Reagan and Russell Reagan.

Tags: arts/media