Helen June Edwards

Committal services for Helen J. Edwards, 88, of California, Pennsylvania will be held at 11:00 a.m. Wednesday, January 28, 2004, at Olson-Zaharia Funeral Home Chapel in Fairmont with burial at Lakeside Cemetery in Fairmont. Funeral services will be at 11:00 a.m. Monday, January 26, 2004, at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Charleroi, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Edwards died Wednesday, January 21, 2004 in Pennsylvania. Helen June Tarver was born May 26, 1915 in Dalton, Georgia, daughter of John F. and Johnnie J. (Richardson) Tarver. She moved with her family to Campbell County, Wyoming in 1917. She graduated from Campbell County High School in 1933, as co-valedictorian. An accomplished musician and dedicated teacher, she believed in the value of education. While attending the Missouri Valley College she was a member of the Chapel Choir and the orchestra and graduated in 1939. Helen went on to study vocal music at the Eastman Conservatory of Music in Rochester, New York, under the instruction of Jeanne Woolford, and earned a masters degree in 1946. She went on to teach music in a variety of settings both in the United States and abroad. She married Frank Edwards on July 31, 1961. Together they moved to California, Pennsylvania in 1969. Helen traveled regularly to France and Austria, where she did post-graduate studies at the Sorbonne in Paris and the Mozartium in Salzburg. She completed her second masters in French language while studying at McGill University in Montreal. For many years she was the organist at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in California, Pennsylvania. Left to cherish her memory is her husband of 42 years, Frank Edwards; one sister, Jessamine Stoenner of Richmond, Missouri; and several nieces and nephews. In addition to her parents, Helen was preceded in death by six sisters and three brothers.