Helen Schmitt

Helen Stapleton Schmitt of Buckingham’s Choice in Adamstown, Maryland and formerly of Williamsburg, Virginia, died Sunday, May 16, 2010, at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

Born May 3, 1925, Helen was the wife of the late Paul J. Schmitt and a daughter of the late John and Anna Gernan Stapleton of Kingston. Helen was a graduate of St. Ann’s Academy in Wilkes-Barre and attended Wilkes University.

Raised in Kingston, Helen lived in York, Pennsylvania; West Point, Virginia; Plymouth, North Carolina; and in Kingsmill in Williamsburg, Virginia during her marriage. Most recently, following the death of her husband, Paul, she moved to Buckingham’s Choice in Adamstown, Maryland where she was an active member of the community and of Saint John the Evangelist Catholic Church.

Throughout her life, Helen was deeply involved in community causes and was a volunteer in a variety of organizations, most especially the Teen Club she established in West Point, at the community hospital in Plymouth and as a Democratic Party poll watcher for national and local elections in Williamsburg. She was on the Parish Board almost everywhere she lived and was actively involved in the Church building committees at Blessed Sacrament Parish in West Point, Saint Joan of Arc in Plymouth and Saint Bede’s in Williamsburg. Helen was an active member of a financial stocks group and a Dining Club member in Williamsburg, and was a member of a bridge group wherever she lived. She was an avid tennis player for many years, and also enjoyed biking and other outdoor activities with her husband, particularly when they lived in Kingsmill in Williamsburg. She and Paul traveled extensively together, especially when they lived in North Carolina, where Paul was a Weyerhaeuser vice-president and manager of Weyerhaeuser’s Plymouth mill.

Helen is survived by her five children, Marietta Schmitt Mullen of Frederick, Maryland; Paul J. Schmitt of Allendale, New Jersey; Lee J. Schmitt of Dallas, Texas.; Nancy Schmitt Farkas of Waverly, Pennsylvania; and Barbara Schmitt, Wellsboro, Pennsylvania; by her five sons- and daughters-in-law, Frank Mullen, Sharon Schmitt, Beatrice Schmitt, Dr. John Farkas, and David Morgan; by eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren; by her sister, Anne Stapleton McCormick of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania; and by numerous nieces and nephews and friends.

Helen’s life will be celebrated in a Funeral Mass on Thursday at 10:30 AM in the Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola, North Maple Avenue in Kingston. Interment with her late husband will be in Saint Mary’s Cemetery in Hanover Township.

Visitation will be held at the church on Thursday beginning at 9:30 AM.

Flowers may be sent to the church, or, if preferred, donations in her memory may be sent to the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, 4101 Birney Avenue, Moosic, PA 18507, for the Helen Stapleton Schmitt Memorial Fund.