Addison, Maine- Former New Jersey resident Helen E. Carson died Sunday (July 13th) at the Sunrise Care Facility in Jonesport, Maine. Until recent weeks she shared her daughter's Down East home in Addison. She was 86.

A native of Philadelphia, Pa., Mrs. Carson was born to Caroline Henrietta (Burchell) and Felix Jones, a member of the Philadelphia police force, on Feb. 18, 1917.

She grew up in Bordentown, N.J., when her mother relocated to the Garden State upon the death of her husband, killed during battle of the Argonne Forest in France during World War 1.

A graduate of Bordentown High School, Helen Jones graduated summa cum laude with a degree in business administration/secretarial sciences from Rider College in Trenton, N.J.

A devotee of the Broadway stage, the young secretary joined the Bordentown Community Players soon after graduating from college. It was here that she met her leading man, Lyle P. Carson, and the two were married in 1939.

Mrs. Carson left the work force to raise a family - a son, L. Pierce Carson, food and wine editor of California's Napa Valley Register, and a daughter, Jill E. Carson, former teacher at Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mount Holly, N. J. and recently retired from the real estate business in Maine.

She returned to the workday world when both of her children were in high school, maintaining executive secretarial posts with the State of New Jersey in Trenton. She retired from her post as Executive Secretary to the Assistant Commissioner, Department of Labor, in 1985.

Widowed by the death of husband in 1964, she remained active with the Bordentown Community Players until she relocated to Maine in 1994.

A lifelong fan of professional theater and cabaret, Mrs. Carson enjoyed extended visits to California wine country as well as concerts at the University of Maine in Orono.

She was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Bordentown, N.J. Survivors include her children, L. Pierce Carson, of Napa, CA., and Jill E. Carson, of Addison, Maine.

A funeral service is scheduled at 11 a.m. Friday, July 18, 2003 at the Huber-Moore Funeral Home 517 Farnsworth Avenue Bordentown.

Visiting hours will be on Thursday, July 17, 2003, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the funeral home. Burial will follow in the Bordentown Cemetery.