Helen Virginia Sink

Helen Virginia Sink, beloved partner, sister, aunt, friend, and citizen, died on Saturday, March 12, 2011 at Kindred Hospital in Greensboro, North Carolina. She was 84 years old. Helen was born on December 17, 1926 in Lexington, North Carolina, the first of Garland and Azielee Sink’s six children. She graduated as salutatorian from Davis Townsend School at age 16. She earned her B.A. in French and history from Lenoir Rhyne College, and began her career as a social worker with the Guilford County Department of Social Services. In Greensboro she met Lessie Gaddy, a fellow social worker, with whom she would spend the rest of her life. They moved to Gastonia in 1962 and to Raleigh in 1970. Helen retired from the Wake County Department of Social Services in 1982. Helen was compassionate, smart, funny, generous, loyal, unconventional, resilient, deeply humane, and fiercely independent. She was a traveler, a collector, a reader, a storyteller, a correspondent. She loved music, art, and food, and she ate the way she lived, deliberately and without hurry, savoring everything. She loved sports, the Democratic Party, and the North Carolina mountains, where she lived for much of her retirement, first in Lake Lure and then in Bostic, in Rutherford County. In 2001, she moved back to the Piedmont — Lexington, where most of her family resides, then Thomasville, and finally Asheboro, where she was living before her recent hospitalization. More than anything, Helen loved her family. She loved them all equally and unconditionally while appreciating the uniqueness of each. She never forgot a birthday or anniversary or special occasion. She was preceded in death by her brother Harold Sink and his wife, Fallie; nephew Harold “Chip” Sink; niece Dr. Julia L. Sink; and brother-in-law Max Church. She is survived by her life partner of 51 years, Lessie Gaddy; her sister Rebecca Yarborough and husband Jack; brother John Sink and his wife, Marian; sister Martha Church; brother Thomas Sink and his wife, Alice; 17 nieces and nephews; 26 great-nieces and great-nephews; and 14 great-great nieces and nephews. A memorial service will be held at noon on Saturday, March 19, 2011, at Beck’s Lutheran Church in Lexington, where Helen was a member. The family will receive friends at the church one hour prior to the service. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Helen’s honor to Beck’s Lutheran Church or to Davidson Medical Ministries.