Helen S. Gammon, a fervent genealogist who pursued her maternal Peterman and the Gammon family lines and who loved reading and sharing information contained in 1,800 letters written by her great-great Grandmother Ann Peterman--letters she wrote to her stepson William Bartleson Peterman who lived in Sugarloaf Township--passed away in November at home in Chandler, Arizona. Helen Gammon (July 12, 1919-November 19, 2005) was a native of Berwick. She was 86.
Helen graduated from Berwick High School in 1937, worked for the Wise Potato Chip Company and during World War II for the Selective Service System. She married William Burns Gammon and had three children: Martha S. Woods, Rebecca V. Strella, and Thomas D. Gammon. After the war, the family moved to Allentown where she was a longtime employee of the Call-Chronicle Newspapers where her job as a proofreader trained her to look for every details during her genealogy pursuits or in reading news from Back Home in Benton, PA, in her capacity as unofficial, unpaid Arizona Bureau Chief of the web site. She moved to Chandler after retirement.
Helen traveled alone in her motor home between Chandler and Columbia County for many summers in order to remain close to her family and pursue her genealogical research. She contributed greatly to historical research in Columbia County. She particularly enjoyed spending time with family members, and loved to associate with others with similar interests.
Helen is survived by her three children, five grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; numerous nieces and nephews; and sister, Evelyn Warburton, Lightstreet. Services will be held in Columbia County at a future date, and she will be interred in St. Gabriel's Cemetery.
A wonderful tribute to Helen Gammon is now available at http://www.rootsweb.com/~pasulliv/Gammon.htm . Please take the time to visit that site and while you are there look at the other informative items about Sullivan County. Carol Brotzman, Laceyville, has put so much effort into her site that we will refer everyone there rather than spending a lot of time in doing the same thing, something that Carol has done a better job at than we could ever do.
