Helen Elaine Parker Owen

Helen Elaine Parker Owen, a resident of Lynchburg, Virginia, for the past twenty-four years, went to be with the Lord on Wednesday, April 26, 2023. She was born in Covington, Kentucky, to Alfred Otto Parker and Olga Parker on January 4, 1936, and was named Helen Elaine, Greek names meaning “She shines in beauty.” Elaine began her music training at age six when she began to take piano lessons. She developed her musical talent by learning to play the pipe organ and by singing in the school choir during her years at Beechwood High School in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, where she made the all-state choir. During her high school years, she played the pipe organ for the Fort Mitchell Baptist Church. It had long been her goal to attend The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, but her high school principal insisted that she go to Eastern Kentucky University and study to be a school teacher. Elaine stood her ground and walked into the principal’s office on the last day of school and told her to send her school records to the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music because that was where she was going to go to college. The principal was greatly displeased but had to comply. Elaine loved opera music and wanted to be an opera singer. During her years at the Conservatory, she played the pipe organ at the May Street Presbyterian Church, and received her Bachelor of Arts with a major in voice. As she began to learn more about the story lines of the operas, she decided that they didn’t honor the Lord, so she changed her direction and got her Master of Library Science degree from Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio. She worked for thirty years with the Cincinnati Library System and retired as the head of the order department for the Cincinnati Library and its forty-plus branches in Hamilton County, Ohio. In 1983, a new pastor, Benjamin R. Owen, came to the Madison Avenue Baptist Church in Covington, Kentucky, where Elaine taught Sunday School and was the organist-music director. After working together for a year-and-a-half, these never-been-marrieds began to date, and five-and-a-half years later, they were married in their church. Elaine’s greatest desire was always to please her Lord Jesus Christ. In this, she did, indeed, “Shine in Beauty.” Visitation will be at 1:00 p.m., on Saturday, April 29, 2023 at Hunting Creek Baptist Church in Big Island, VA followed by a funeral service at 2:00 p.m.  Arrangements by Burch-Messier Funeral Home, Bedford, 540-586-7360