Helen Huber
1927-2007

It was a springtime evening in 1950 when Melvyn Huber proposed to his wife the first time. Helen Huber was living in The Webster -- an apartment community for unmarried, working women on West 34th Street in New York City.

Mel Huber said he waited patiently during a meal in The Webster's first-floor dining room, the newly purchased engagement ring heavy on his mind. In those days, Webster women entertained their courtiers after dinner in the beau parlor -- a three-sided room opening into the corridor.

"You sat there with your date and behaved yourself," Mel Huber recalled with amusement. The parlor is the place he planned to propose.

The problem was that Helen Huber was invested in her dinner-time dessert, and not getting anywhere fast. She loved ice cream.

"She had this habit of taking her spoon and smooshing her ice cream around till it was melting," Mel Huber said. "She must have been 15 minutes on that ice cream, and I said 'Honey, let's go upstairs and sit and talk.' And she said 'No, I want to finish my ice cream.' "

The couple eventually made it upstairs, the bride-to-be said yes, and the sweet story became a family favorite.

Mel Huber considers his "second proposal" a bit more frustrating. It happened a few months later.

He was a student at Columbia Law School and Helen Huber was working in the marketing department at F.W. Dodge Corp. One day he met her on the steps of the New York Public Library during their lunch breaks.

"It was kind of a funny proposal. I said, 'Well I have my orders to report to active duty here honey,' " Mel Huber said. "I said, 'You need to think really carefully about this because I might not be coming back. ... You need to decide if you want to take your chance as a widow, or as a single girl, until I come back.' "

During college, Mel Huber joined the U.S. Marine Corps, and that summer he was called to report to a base in Quantico. It didn't take his fiance long to weigh the predicament.

"She said, 'Let's get married now!' " Mel Huber recalled. They married in September, and Mel Huber left for Quantico in October. A few days after he left, his wife followed.

"She didn't want to start our marriage being just the girl I left behind," Mel Huber said. "She's always been pretty gutsy."

The couples' first apartment was above the Anchor Room Bar and Grill in Quantico. Helen Huber worked as a secretary to the post exchange officer. In December, Mel Huber was sent to Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, N.C., to serve in the 2nd Marine Division. His wife followed him, and scored a job over dinner the first night. She worked for a radio station owned by a family friend, who was immediately charmed by her voice, though she had no radio experience. Her broadcasting name, Charming Helen, stuck with her.

"She had a very soft, appealing voice -- I guess what most guys would consider sexy," Mel Huber said. "And her annunciation was clear, Midwestern, educated woman."

Helen Huber was born in Russiaville, Ind. She met her husband while studying psychology at DePauw University, and followed him back to his home state, New York.

The couple moved back to New York after Mel's deployment in Jacksonville ended. This is where their children were born: Michael in 1952, David in 1953, and Victoria in 1958.

Helen Huber became a stay-at-home mom.

"Something a lot of people don't remember about my mom but that I remember very clearly is that she sewed like a professional," Victoria Cochran said. "She made us clothes and Halloween costumes, all those things that a '50s and '60s mom did, she did it."

Helen Huber also became very involved in the school system, raising more than $48,000 for her daughter and the high school chorale to go to a national competition in Anaheim, Calif. The chorale ended up winning the competition, and named her their "Anaheim Angel."

Through her involvement with the school system, Helen Huber entered the working world again.

"She had her little headquarters at our high school, and some people that knew her there asked if she would apply to this job. She basically oversaw the CETA classes. CETA was a work training program ... which assisted low-income folks with job opportunities in practical nursing."

During her work in nursing, Helen Huber was the lead author of the book "Homemaker/Home Health Aide" by Huber, Spatz and Coviello.

In 1995, the Hubers moved to Blacksburg, following their daughter.

"At the time, they wanted to retire. My mother was having trouble with arthritis, and Dad thought he was ready to retire but it turns out he wasn't," Cochran said. Mel Huber is a partner in the Wagner and Huber law firm.

While living in Blacksburg, Helen Huber volunteered at Smithfield Plantation, and was a member of the University Club, Mountain View Garden Club and several bridge clubs.

She was a regular on Friday mornings at Chamar Gallery of Hair Design in Blacksburg.

"Oh, yes, the grand-dame," said hair stylist Robin Holmes. "She was truly a classy lady. She always had that scarf slung around her neck. She just had this air about her. She was really elegant."

It was no secret that Helen Huber was a charmer.

"She was very clever and terribly witty," said Cochran. "And an awful punster ... a genetic fault that all of her children have inherited."

Though Helen Huber only lived in Blacksburg a little more than 10 years, her line of admirers reached out the funeral home door.

"It said a lot about the community we live in, but also a lot about mom," Cochran said.