Helen Haley Beams of Xenia, Ohio, retired teacher and wife of the late Rev. Kenneth Beams, passed away on July 1, 2023 in her home. Helen was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on December 12, 1927, and grew up in suburban Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Mt. Lebanon High School in 1945, graduating with honors for academic distinction and school activities. She then attended Muskingum College, graduating in 1949 with honors. While at Muskingum, Helen served on the Judiciary Board, which oversaw violations of the honor code, and was one of ten students tapped to meet with the college president's wife to discuss issues of concern to students and the administration. After graduating from Muskingum, Helen went to work for Gulf Oil at its Pittsburgh headquarters, working as secretary to a Vice-President. Helen married Rev. Kenneth Beams in 1950 at the Twin Towers Presbyterian Church in Mt. Lebanon. They moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where her husband was serving as pastor to the Second United Presbyterian Church. Helen's four children were born during their time in Cleveland. In 1961, Helen and family moved to Xenia, Ohio, where her husband would serve as pastor to the Second United Presbyterian Church. After several years in Xenia, Helen decided to return to college in order to become an elementary school teacher. She graduated from Central State University summa cum laude with a degree in education, and began her teaching career in the Xenia City Schools at Spring Valley School in 1968. She taught first or second grade students for twenty-five years, first at Spring Valley and then at Cox School, retiring in 1993. In 1983-1984, Helen was selected as a Jennings Scholar, a program of the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation. In the year Helen retired, she was chosen by the Xenia High School valedictorian as the teacher she wished to honor for her influence on her education. Helen grew up in a loving and stable home, with wonderful parents and a beloved sister. When Helen became a wife and mother, she never tired or failed in her commitment to assure a loving and supportive home for her husband and four children. Her support for the work of the Christian church and her husband's ministry was a constant in her life. That support was especially valuable to Rev. Beams in the years following the destruction of his church building by a tornado in 1974. After her husband passed away in 1984, Helen served as an elder in Memorial Presbyterian Church in Xenia (now Xenia United Presbyterian Church). Helen had a lifelong love of music and the fine arts, which she often shared with her family around a piano in their home. In retirement she served as a volunteer usher for many performances at the Schuster Center. She also served for a number of years as a volunteer at Greene Memorial Hospital. Helen deeply loved America; both her father and her husband were wounded veterans of the world wars of the past century. She often worked as a volunteer at Xenia precincts on election days. Those who loved Helen will forever remember her unfailing love for her family and friends; the integrity of her commitment to the Christian faith; her keen intellect, and unwillingness to be mean-spirited in any circumstance; her success in holding herself to the highest standards in the important facets of her life and career, while characteristically deflecting attention and praise to others for the good she achieved; her enthusiasm for scholarly learning, and her sharing of that enthusiasm with her own children and the many students she taught; and her abiding sense of the wealth of happiness and humor available in hours spent with family and friends. Helen's family and faith were the lights of her life. She was predeceased by her husband Kenneth and her son Jeffrey. She is survived by her daughter Joyce, her son Greg, and her son Mark (Ann); her grandchildren Clare (Finn), Owen (Eden), and Haley; her great-grandchildren Madelyn, Tess, Cadence, and Joanna; her sister Alice Harmon, and nephew James Harmon. Her family loved her dearly and will greatly miss her.