Mary Helen (Armstrong) Wallis

Mary Helen Wallis passed into the arms of our savior on Friday, December 21, 2018, at
St. Vincent’s Hospital in Evansville, Indiana.  She was born in Princeton on November
14, 1930, to Ray Otis and Helena A. (Young) Armstrong. She moved to Oakland City
following the death of her father, a semi-pro baseball player, in 1933. She was raised
by her mother and step-father, Jack (J.B.) Forsythe, and she was a member of the
General Baptist Church of Oakland City. Mary Helen graduated Oakland City High
School in 1948, as Valedictorian of her senior class. She married James M. Wallis of
Princeton, July 10, 1948. They were married until his death in March of 1987. They
settled in Princeton where the marriage was blessed with 3 children: Stephen Ray
(Brooke) of Ft. Myers, Florida, Cynthia Kay (Steven) Schrodt of Princeton, and Alan Jay
(Eileen) of Craigsville, Virginia. There are 8 grandchildren: Stephanie Kreutner, Mallory
Wallis, Jameson Wallis, Jennifer Myers, David Smith, Carrie Ross, Ryan Wallis, Andrea
Wallis and 7 great-grandchildren.

Mary Helen served as Vice-President and President of Indiana’s Theta Rho
organization in the 1940s. When her children were in school, she served as President
of the PTA at Riley Grade School and Lowell Junior High School. She even rooted for
the red and white Princeton Tigers when her kids were in school, but her heart
remained with the green and white of the Oakland City Acorns.

As a young woman and mother, Mary Helen became a member and was very active in
the Princeton United Presbyterian Church, where Jim had been raised. The beautiful
chandeliers in the church’s sanctuary were paid for by donations given to the church
when Jim died. Over the years she taught Sunday School and Bible School to the
young people and the seniors in the church. For many years she was choir director for
the church, and she was president of the Presbyterian Women’s Association where she
remained active until her health began to decline. She worked on updating and
completing the local history of the United Presbyterian Church in Princeton before she
lost her sight. Mary Helen cataloged all the choir music for the church and set up the
church library. In 1966 she was hired as an aide with North Gibson School Corporation,
and then secretary to Princeton Community High School’s Vice Principal until her
retirement in 1995.

Mary Helen was preceded in death by her parents, her husband James M. Wallis, her
in-laws Mose and Eunice Wallis, and her brother Charles R. Armstrong.

Services will be held at Colvin Funeral Home on Friday, December 28 at 1:00 P.M.

Visitation will be Thursday, December 27, from 5:00 – 8:00 P.M. and Friday, December
28, from 12:00 P.M. until time of service. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that
donations may be made to the United Presbyterian Church of Princeton.

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