Helen C. Ricci

Helen Charlene Jones Ricci
A Biography
By her nephew Harold

Helen was born on April 17, 1916 at the family home, 2019 Curtis St. Denver. A midwife assisted in the birth. The home was across the street from the Public Bath House. This building still stands ... presently called the 20th St. Recreation Center.

Helen was the youngest and last surviving sibling of five children. Her father, John W.W. Jones, was a Methodist Minister and her mother, Sarah Ellen Jones, was a housewife.

Her oldest sister, Jewel Jones... born in 1905, disappeared when she was 21 while living in Chicago. Her family tried for several years to locate or make contact with her... but was unsuccessful. Her oldest brother, John Alfred Jones, passed away in 1997 at the age of 90. Her other sister, Ruby Arlene Jones, passed away in 2004 at the age of 93. Her other brother, Fay Olin Jones, passed away in 1997 at the age of 83.

She is survived by a nephew, Harold Alfred Jones and a niece, Mary Arlene Smith.

Helen attended Emerson grade school and Morey Junior High. She started her first year at East High School but had to drop out and get a job as a waitress to help support her family.
This was about 1932... during the Great Depression. Her mother, Sarah, had died a year earlier from complications relating to a thyroid tumor.

Her father, John, remarried in 1935 to Martha Fredrickson. Martha was quite active in the Salvation Army. Every Sunday morning, rain or shine, she would put on her Salvation Army bonnet, carry her guitar, and ride the street car to the Denver County Jail. She would play her guitar or the piano for church services held for the prisoners at the jail. She was forced to quit due to arthritis in 1946.

During the war Helen worked at Remington Arms. ..which was part of the Denver Ordinance Plant and is now the Denver Federal Center. Remington Arms made small arms ammunition. The Plant had a work force of over 22,000 and was the fourth largest "city" in Colorado. Her father, John also worked at Remington.

Helen loved to dance. She would often go to Elitch Gardens Trocadero Ballroom where all the popular big bands of that time played. She met her first husband, Harry Cassiday at the Trocadero. They soon became a dance team and won several dance competitions.
Harry worked at the Brecht Candy Company and was a drummer for a small band on the weekends. They were married in 1939 and divorced shortly after WWII. They had no children.

Following the war Helen worked at J.C. Penney and lived with her parents in North Denver. Helen rode a bus to work each day and she met a fellow passenger, Marion Ricci, who rode the same bus everyday also. They struck up a friendship and eventually married in 1947.

Marion had been a Naval Air Technician and Staff Sergeant in the Marine Corp from 1942 until 1945. He participated in the battle of Okinawa, the Ryukyu Islands, Marshall Islands, Palau Islands, the Philippines and the occupation of Japan. Not long after he and Helen were married his Marine Reserve unit was called up for the Korean War. He and Helen moved to California where he served as an aircraft mechanic specialist until 1949.

They returned to Denver and after renting three different houses, in 1955 they bought their own Denver home at 4840 W. Gill in Denver for $10,300.00.

They lived there together for almost 34 years. Marion passed away from cancer in 1989. Helen continued to stay in their home until March of 2013……..almost 58 years total.

Helen was a full time housewife during those 58 years. She spent her time working on various arts and crafts. She loved to crochet, read, watch sports and news on her TV, visit with her neighbors, work a little in her yard and get together with her family on birthdays and holiday celebrations. She was essentially a "home body" and unlike her late sister Ruby who traveled every chance she got, Helen preferred to just stay at home.

Helen in her later years began to develop some health problems. She had smoked from the age of 16 until she was over 90. As a result she developed emphysema and required oxygen 2417. She also had congestive heart failure, a badly ruptured disk in her back, osteoporosis and arthritis. The ruptured disk caused her to have to walk bent over almost 90 degrees.

But....she just kept going in spite of her pain and problems. We used to kid her that she was like the Energizer Bunny.....she just kept going and going. In her last two years, her eyesight began failing to where she could just barely see. Her world was shrinking...she could no longer watch TV, read or make things. Her radio became her main source of enjoyment. She liked to listen to sports and the news.

During 2012, Helen got to the point where a daily caregiver was brought in to help her dress, do cooking and light housework .She often said she didn't want to be in a nursing home and that she just wanted to die at home . St. John's Hospice began looking after her medical needs. I don't think she ever understood what the word ...hospice...really meant. By the end of 2012it was evident that she needed more assisted care and in March of 2013, after much persuasion, she was moved to the Heritage Club assisted living facility on So. Wadsworth Blvd. St. John's Hospice care followed her to her new home.

She did well there and seemed to consider it home. She even came off hospice care for several months. However, her hearing was deteriorating to the point where she couldn't communicate with the ladies at her table in the dining room. When Laura and I visited her on one occasion she had the radio next to her ear and the volume turned up full blast. We had to shout to try and communicate. We bought her a couple of different hearing devices that helped for a short while but she eventually became almost completely deaf. The loss of her hearing and most of her eyesight caused her to become very depressed. We took her to an ear specialist who drained fluid from behind her ear drums and inserted drain tubes in each ear. She could hear again and she was so grateful....She kissed the doctor's hand and thanked him over and over.

By September of 2013 she started failing to the point where she was again placed under hospice care...Agape Hospice. In October she had fallen 9 times over about a two week period sustaining only minor or no injury. Even though Helen never wanted to ever be placed in a nursing home and everything was done to try and avoid a nursing home... her declining health and falling necessitated that she have 24 hour skilled nursing care and supervision. It was decided she would move to the Hallmark Nursing Center near Fort Logan as soon as possible.

On Sunday October 27th, Helen fell again and broke her wrist. The emergency room doctor made arrangements for her to be moved to Hallmark on Tuesday October 29th. Agape Hospice continued to visit her and make sure she was as comfortable as possible.

By November 5th Helen had declined to the point where she could hardly be understood. She cried a lot and kept saying she "wanted to go home".

By November 12th Helen just sat in her wheel chair with her eyes closed and almost completely unresponsive. We knew the end was near.

Helen passed away at about 9:00 p.m. Sunday November 171h. It was a blessing that she didn't linger for a long time in her present condition. She put up quite a fight. She was 97 and had hoped to reach the age of 100.

I remember telling her that most people if they had to daily endure all the pain and physical problems she had ... they would probably just give up. Her reply to me was... "I'll never give up!".

May she rest in peace.