Helen Don Carlos Fulton Hill, 102, died on Saturday, July 18, 2009, at Golden Living Center in Pierre.

Helen was born Dec. 22, 1906, to Henry and Harriet (Hattie) Fulton in Atlantic, Iowa.

Music was an important part of her family life. Helen and her brother Don played the piano from an early age, and she also played the organ. She was a talented musician and continued her study of music at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

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She met Charles Morton Hill when taken home for a Sunday dinner by his sister, Betty, who was a classmate at Northwestern. She met Mort in March, was engaged in May and married on September 15, 1928. Their daughter Margaret Ann (Peggy) joined them on July 13, 1931. The family lived in Oak Park, Ill., until 1937, when they moved to Appleton, Wisc.

Helen was active musically all her life. She taught piano and organ students, was an accompanist for the United Commercial Travelers Auxiliary and for a women’s sextet called the Harmonettes and was the junior choir director at the First Methodist Church in Appleton, where she was a member until her death.

After Peggy left for college, Helen traveled with Mort, selling greeting cards to merchants around Wisconsin and beyond. After his death in 1963, she used her knowledge of the business by volunteering as card buyer and arranger at Appleton Memorial Hospital for 30 years. Living near Green Bay, she became a staunch fan of the Packers, and continued to be so after she left Wisconsin.

In January 1994, she moved to Pierre to be near Peggy. She first lived at Kelley’s Assisted Living, and a year later moved to Missouri Valley Nursing Center (now Golden Living Center). She remained active and alert, always aware of what was going on in the nursing home, the community and Oahe Presbyterian Church. She was much loved by the staff at the nursing home, where she received excellent care.

Helen will be greatly missed by her family and friends. She has four grandchildren, Susan (Rosalyn), of Aloha, Ore.; Rick (Anne), of Zanesville, Ohio; Jamie, of Playa del Rey, Calif.; and Melinda (Randy) Chapin, of Oceanside, Calif. Her six great grandchildren are Wynn Meyer, of Chicago, Ill.; Jordan Meyer, of Washington, D.C., and Brette, Ethan, Karmen, and Jaedyn Chapin, of Oceanside, Calif.

An emptiness will be felt by her daughter, Peggy, her son-in-law, Ken, her friend, Mary Sherman, and many others. They all are glad they got to share life with Helen.