Helen Ann (Straehle) Carson passed away Friday, December 30, 2016 at 8:25 PM. She was 90 years old.

A Remembrance Service will be held from 10:00-11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, January 3, 2016 at Clark Lindsey Village in Urbana.

Helen was born May 24, 1926 in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Edward and Gertrude (Zillgitt) Straehle. She attended Denby High School in Detroit, and then graduated with a degree in Liberal Arts from Olivet College, Michigan.

When she was fifteen years old, on vacation with her family at the Portage Point Inn by Lake Michigan, she met a handsome young drummer named John Carson, performing there for the summer with his jazz band. John and Helen formed an immediate bond. Over the next six years, she would head off to college, and he would report for duty to the U.S. Army. They corresponded regularly and when the war was over they met again, and were married on November 29, 1947.

They moved to John's home town of Urbana, Illinois, where John joined his family's law office as an attorney. Helen was quick to make friends and to call the Champaign-Urbana community her home. Helen was known for her grace, her kindness toward others, and her good sense of humor. Family was everything to her, and she will be dearly missed by all those who ever met her.

Helen is survived by her loving husband of 69 years, her four children, Thomas Carson of Boulder Colorado, Robert Carson of Bozeman Montana, David Carson of Everett Washington, and Mary (Carson) Huffman of Boulder Colorado, and by twelve grandchildren.

Helen was preceded in death by her parents, and by her sister Betty (Straehle) Foskett, of Olympia Washington.

Memorial Contributions may be made in Helen's honor to the Urbana Free Library. Condolences may be offered at renner-wikoff.com.