NEW BEDFORD — Helen M. (Ball) Dunlop, age 95, passed away peacefully on May 25, 2015 at the New Bedford Health Care Center, where she was a resident for three years.
She was born in Pawtucket, RI, the daughter of the late Ben Alfred Ball and Dora Hazeldine of Nottingham, England and the sister of the late Robert Harrison Ball. A graduate of Pawtucket High School class of 1937, she attended class reunions up until her 70th reunion in 2007. She also attended Simmons College in Boston, MA and graduated from the Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School in Providence, RI.
She was the widow of Roderick Miles Dunlop, Major in the United States Marine Corps. The couple married at Christ Church in Alexandria, VA on May 22, 1942. Together with their four children they traveled across the United States according to his duty stations. The family spent many happy summers at Jerusalem beach in Narragansett, RI. After living in Rhode Island for many years, she and her family spent a decade in Canoga Park, CA before she returned to Rhode Island in 1971 after her husband's death in 1967. She served as a legal secretary to attorney Ada Lewis Sawyer until Ms. Sawyer's retirement in 1983.
She was an active volunteer in New Bedford and served many organizations including Grace Church as a lay Eucharistic minister and as a member of the altar guild and Episcopal churchwomen. She volunteered at the Market Ministries shelter, in New Bedford's city-wide literacy program, at the Taber Street Nursing Home, and the Rotch-Jones-Duff House and Garden Museum. She was an accomplished quilter and baker who will be remembered for her love of her grandchildren and the ocean.
She is survived by her children John E. Dunlop and his wife Pam of Oxnard, CA; Doranne D. Grenon and her husband John of New Bedford, MA; Roderick M. Dunlop and his wife Jane of Big Sur, CA; Jane D. Sawyer and her husband George of Sweden, ME; daughters-in-law Deborah W. Dunlop of California and Carole Dunlop of Texas; her ten grandchildren: John Dunlop and his wife Ivette, Roderick Dunlop, Jessica Grenon, Michael Dunlop and his wife Leigh, Caitlin Grenon, Abigail Grenon, Alexis Dunlop, Luke Sawyer, Hannah Sawyer, and Anne Anderson and her husband David; and eight great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at Grace Episcopal Church on Saturday, May 30 at 11am (133 School Street, New Bedford, MA 02740). A private burial will be held at a later date at the convenience of the family. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Grace Episcopal Church for their food pantry or the tower restoration fund.