Helen Elzora  Aber Pickens

Helen Elzora  Aber Pickens November 4, 1915 – May 23, 2007

  Many knew her as “Helen’s Beauty Shop,” others as “The laundry man’s wife.”
From picking cotton as a young girl, to loading tomatoes for train shipment, to shampoos and sets for the ladies, she was known as Aunt Helen, Ma, Great Ma, as well as Mrs. Pickens.
  Helen Aber Pickens was the daughter of Warren and Mabel Aber who lived for many years off the Palestine Highway. She had four sisters and two brothers who, all but one, preceded her in death. She is survived by one sister, Evelyn (Cecil) Smith, who lives near Gilmer.
   For many years her husband Wilson Bernard Pickens (known as “Pick”) delivered laundry for The Gay Laundry on South Jackson Street. Eventually she had her own beauty shop and he operated his own laundry and washeteria. Over the years she trained and employed many young ladies as hairdressers, and served very much as a second mother to them.
   During World War II she and Pick lived in Nebraska and Kansas where he served in Civil Service jobs to support the war effort. At the close of the war she told her boys that we were “going home.” They returned to Jacksonville in 1945 and soon opened her own beauty shop.
  Her sons Dick and Phillip were born nine years apart. During recent years she moved to Houston and Austin to live with them. During a serious illness some five years ago she moved to Stonebridge Health Center, a retirement facility in the Austin area. Under their care she recovered greatly from her health problem and continued to live there where she grew to love the young nurses and staffers as she did her young beauticians in Jacksonville.
  On Monday May 14th she was transported to an Austin hospital with a kidney infection which became severe and she was not expected to live. As usual, Ma defied all predictions of the medical staff and survived for another week as her family kept 24 hour vigil.
  On Wednesday May 23rd at 11:45 a.m. she took her last breath with a smile on her face, raised one arm and her spirit departed.
  Survivors include Dick and Phillip, their wives Nancy Liles of Jacksonville and Linda McCommas of Rusk. She has five living grandchildren: Cheryl Pickens Wiley, Lisa Pickens Sorrell, Stephan Pickens, Doug Pickens and Greg Pickens. Another grandson preceded her in death – John Scott Pickens.
   She was “Great Ma” to a dozen great-grandchildren: Rachel Wiley (21), Caleb Pickens (16), Joshua Sorrell (16), Stephanie Pickens (14), Victoria Sorrell (14), Kathrine Pickens (12), Daniel Pickens (9), Derek Wiley (7), Joel Pickens (7), Christina Pickens (4), Jonathan Pickens (2), and Payeton Pickens (10 months).
   Her tireless efforts were not just spent for her own children and grandchildren; Along with them she invested her life in numerous nieces and nephews whom she taught to cook, be homemakers, balance checkbooks, drive cars, play Canasta and even Square Dance.
   For months she has been telling her family, “I am going home.” Now she has done just that!
  Graveside services will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 26, 2007 at Resthaven Memorial Park, Jacksonville, Texas.
   (In lieu of flowers Ma would prefer a donation be made to Craft Baptist Church in her name.)
   Arrangements by Wilke-Clay-Fish Funeral Home, 2620 S. Congress, Austin, Texas, 512/442-1446. You may view memorials at www.wcfish.com.
 

Information from The Jacksonville Daily Progress