Obituary of Helen Jeanne Prentiss

Helen Jeanne Prentiss 3/6/1926 to 9/6/2015 Helen died at age 89 in Tucson. She was born Helen Jeanne Wood in Hueneme, California, to Frank and Indra Wood. She grew up with red hair, freckles and two older sisters on a farm in Oxnard, and enrolled in art school after high school. Then she met a sailor on a bus, and everything changed. Helen and Leslie Howard Prentiss Jr. were wed August 19, 1944, and stayed in California through the end of his Navy service, long enough to have a daughter, Martha. After the war, Leslie moved the family back to his native Tucson to work as a school teacher and principal. In 1946, they paid $300 for a desert lot and built their own home at Prince Road and Tucson Boulevard, then a dirt track dotted with creosote. Their son, Leslie Howard Prentiss III, was born in 1948. In 50 years, they never stopped working on the house. Helen was a needlework expert and tailor-quality seamstress. She decorated and redecorated with a perfectionist's heart and superhuman eyes that could see colors invisible to most mortals. Her standards were high, her wit sharp, her laugh infectious. She dressed smartly and read voraciously. She had a weakness for maple sweets, Mexican food and all things British. Helen also loved tennis, both following the pros and playing herself into her 70's. She didn't like to lose, but made lifelong friends on the court. She loved and was loved by her daughter, Martha Brean; son, Leslie; grandchildren, Casey (Tab) Hoyt; Sam Brean and Henry (Sherri) Brean; seven great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandson. She was preceded in death by husband, Leslie; sisters, Bernice McMillin and Kathleen Owen; son-in-law, George Brean; and infant granddaughter, Chandra. At her request, no services will be held. Arrangements by ADAIR FUNERAL HOME, Dodge Chapel.