Helen S. Wepman

Helen Wepman, 100, died at Elderwood of Scallop Shell, June 2, 2022. Born and bred in Brooklyn, New York, she was the first child of immigrant parents from Ukraine. Helen graduated from Brooklyn College with a BA in communication. She joined the United States Navy as a Lieutenant, JG, stationed in the Brooklyn Navy Yards, serving to the end of World War II. Helen, except for several years in Michigan as a married homemaker with two children, and her time in Rhode Island, lived and breathed Manhattan. She was the consummate New Yorker, enjoying everything the city had to offer, and as a single working parent, raising her son Barry and daughter Andrea. She was fiercely liberal, an atheist who passionately loved and supported the performing and visual arts, except, maybe, opera. Helen knew all the ways to get tickets for any show and how to see a show if she couldn’t get seats. She’d mingle with the smoking crowd outside the theater at intermission and walk back in grabbing an empty seat for the second act. Half a show was better than none! Helen’s greatest aspiration was to be an actress and although she dabbled and had some success, life itself proved to be the ultimate stage for her, and she became a star in her world. Frustrated by the ever-present glass ceiling for women in the working world, she found secretarial jobs less remunerative and far from satisfying or challenging. It wasn’t until she was 60 that happenstance led to an opportunity as a paralegal in an immigration law firm. She found an outlet for her communication skills in helping people obtain visas to work in the United States. Helen was a natural in this field and her career blossomed, even though she wasn’t an attorney. She became the go-to person for artists, models and show business people in New York seeking a Green Card, working with many of the luminaries whose names are instantly recognizable on the greatest stage of all, the world. She retired at the age of 85. A devastating stroke led to her move to Rhode Island. Confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life, 12 years, she never gave up hope that she would eventually walk back into her apartment in Manhattan. The staff at Elderwood will attest to her tenacity is this regard. That walk never happened. Helen was a tough act to follow. Helen is survived by her children, Barry (Deborah) and Andrea Wepman, of Wakefield, RI, her sister Marianne Hiller of Boca Raton, FL, four grandchildren, Ben (Cheryl) Wepman of Wallkill, NY, Jessica (Michael) Hall of Springfield, MA, Lindsay (Matthew) Scarpaci of Rumford, RI, and Sam (Danielle) Wepman of Hopkinton, RI. Helen is also survived by her seven great grandchildren, 2 nieces, a nephew, and seven grandnieces and grandnephews. Calling hours are respectfully omitted. A memorial service at a later date is planned.