Helen “Biddy” Homan Dean, 83
Helen
“Biddy” Homan Dean, 83, a resident of
Sanibel, FL and Harwichport, MA, died on May 2, 2009 at Arden Courts in
Ft.
Myers, FL after a courageous battle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was
preceded
in death by her husband of 20 years, Dr. Wynant Dean.
Biddy
grew up in Cincinnati, OH with a
tight-knit group of siblings and first cousins
who became lifelong friends. She graduated from Miss Porter’s School
for Girls
and Finch Junior College, where she majored in home economics. She
loved to
travel and lived in Cincinnati, OH; Blue Bell, Ivyland, and Huntingdon
Valley,
PA, in the greater Philadelphia area; Louisville, KY, where she
relocated after
her marriage to Dr. Dean; and most recently Sanibel, FL and
Harwichport, MA
where she could be close to the salt water that she loved.
She
lived for 2 years in Bologna, Italy with her
first husband, Richard E. LeBlond Jr. She returned fluent in Italian
with a
lifelong interest in Northern Italy and its food. She was an
accomplished cook
and took lessons from well-known Philadelphia chef Julie Dannenbaum.
An avid
horticulturalist,
she cultivated beautiful gardens bursting with many varieties of
daffodils, her
favorite flower. She studied horticulture at the Barnes Foundation in
Philadelphia and belonged to the Outdoor Gardeners of Montgomery
County, PA and
the American Daffodil Society, where she served as a judge. For many
years she
was an active participant in the Philadelphia Flower Show, winning many
awards.
She
volunteered at
Sanibel’s Bailey-Mathews Shell museum, participated in and helped
organize the
Sanibel Island Shell shows, and traveled on fossil shelling trips in
North and
South America, Africa, Fiji, and the Caribbean. A member of the
Conchologists
of America who won many prizes in area shell shows, Biddy was known in
the
neighborhood for her daily early morning walks on the beach where she
met
friends and admired shells with them.
An
expert golfer, Biddy competed for Plymouth
Country Club and later Huntington Valley Country Club in Pennsylvania.
She
stopped playing abruptly when she was refused continued membership as a
divorcee.
Biddy’s
love of life showed in varied interests
that included: horseback riding, freshwater fly fishing, deep sea
fishing,
sailing, sewing, detective novels, Frank Sinatra music, the theater,
and opera.
She
is survived by her children, Helen “Hannie”
LeBlond Banister, Richard E. LeBlond III, Anne LeBlond Thompson,
Laurence Z.
LeBlond; and by two grandchildren, Allison Banister Corbett and Richard
P.
Banister. She also leaves behind a sister, Nancy Homan Burnam Ireland;
two
stepchildren, Stewart and Sue Dean; and their children and
grandchildren.
Friends
are invited to sign her guestbook at www.horizoncremation.com.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Sanibel Shell Museum, 3075
Sanibel
Captiva Rd., Sanibel, FL 33957 or to the Alvin A. Dubin Alzheimer's
Resource
Center, 10051 McGregor Boulevard, Suite 101, Ft. Myers, FL 33919.