Gunn Obituaries - My (New) Homepage

13 great-grandchildren and eight great-great-grandchildren. Helen retired from Bank of
America as vice president and was a member of Business and Professional Womens
Organizations, and Eagle Lodge No. 145. She operated Pueblo Branch of Share Colorado
for the last 12 years, and volunteered with First United Methodist Church. In lieu of
flowers, donations may be made in memory of Helen to the American Breast Cancer
Society through the funeral home office. Memorial service, 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 9,
2007, Adrian Comer Garden Chapel. Please visit Helenas
Helen Stovall Hill Gunn
passed from this life to the next on October 29, 2003. She was born in Keystone, West
Virginia on October 3, 1918, to Attorney Tyler Edward Hill and Mrs. Sallie Stovall Hill.
Her father was a founding member of the forerunner to the Mountain State
BarAssociation, owner and editor of The McDowell Times, and a member of the West
Virginia House of Delegates. He wrote the legislation creating the Bureau of Negro
Welfare, was its first Director, and worked tirelessly to improve all aspects of living for
West Virginias minorities. Her mother Sallie was primarily a loving homemaker and
gracious hostess. She was actively engaged in Republican Party politics much of her life
and served at many levels, culminating in service as a member of the Kanawha County
Republican Party Executive Committee. Helen, her brother Tyler Edward and sister
Carolyn Douglas, were reared in Charleston, West Virginia. Helen attended St. Francis de
Sales Academy for Young Ladies in Powhatan, Virginia, and graduated from Garnet High
School in Charleston. In 1939, she received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Secondary
Education,cum laude, from Bluefield State College, where she was a charter member of
that campus chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., a service organization with
chapters throughout the United States and in several foreign countries. In 1940,
shereceived a Masters of Arts in English Literature from Fisk University in Nashville,
Tennessee. On August 16, 1940, Helen Stovall Hill married Robert Wesley Gunn, whom
she had met four years earlier at Bluefield State. For three years thereafter they resided in
Gary, West Virginia in the home of Dr. Memphis TennesseeGarrison. During that time,
Robert and Helen worked and saved so that her husband might attend dental school. In
June 1943, Robert Gunn entered Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee and was
inducted into the Armys specialized, accelerated, three-year training program. During this
time, Mrs. Gunntaught at Fisk University and was active in the Meharry Wives Club. Dr.
and Mrs. Gunn made manylifelong friends while in Nashville, and their first child, Judith
Ellen, was born there. Dr. Gunn graduated as a Doctor of Dental Surgery from Meharry
Medical College in June 1946, and went immediately to West Virginia to sit for the West
Virginia Dental Boards. He passed with flying colors and was awarded his license to
practice dentistry in the State of West Virginia on July 1, 1946. Soon thereafter, Dr. and
Mrs. Gunnsettled in Huntington, West Virginia, where they were blessed with four more
children: Robert W. Gunn Jr., Patricia, Michael and Stephen. Dr. and Mrs. Gunn were
devout Catholics and were active members of St. Peter Claver Catholic Church. There
children were baptized as infants and enrolled in Catholic schools upon reaching school
age. While their children were young, Mrs. Gunn was a stay-at-home mother who devoted
countless hours to teaching her children to read, write and appreciate music, art and
literature. She also taught them that it was their duty to do their best, not only for