By Rebecca Goodman
Enquirer staff writer

HYDE PARK - Helen Kearns Farr took some hard knocks, but she faced her challenges head on and enjoyed a meaningful and enjoyable life.

Although widowed relatively young and having no high school diploma, she parlayed self-acquired office skills into jobs as administrative assistant to Cincinnati Mayor Willis D. Gradison Jr. and secretary to City Manager William V. Donaldson. As such, she interacted with citizens daily and was a well-known face at City Hall throughout the 1970s.

Mrs. Farr, 87, died Thursday at her residence at the Deupree House in Hyde Park. She had Alzheimer's disease for the past couple of years.

"In many ways Mom had the luck o' the Irish," said her son, Richard Farr of Mount Auburn. "Once she recovered from the severe shock of becoming a widow at age 47, she started back into the work force and had a number of interesting jobs."

A Chicago native, Mrs. Farr and her older sister, Margaret Kearns Simmons, who is deceased, were orphans who left school for clerical jobs as soon as they could.

Mrs. Farr was working for National Distillery in Carthage when she married George C. Farr in 1948. She became a homemaker and a mother.

Sixteen years later she was suddenly a widow. She took a clerical job with the city, then moved to Madison, Wis., to become manager of a dormitory at the University of Wisconsin.

Mrs. Farr was at the university during campus unrest caused by Vietnam War protests. A person was killed when the Army Mathematics Research Center in the Sterling Hall physics building was bombed in August 1970. That's when Mrs. Farr decided to return to Cincinnati.

"Of course I said, 'Mom, get on back home before a bomb blows up in your face,' so she did and almost immediately got a job with the city" as assistant to Gradison, her son said.

Mrs. Farr was also a founding staffer of the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas arbitration program, her son said. "She was involved with setting up the arbitration as it now exists."

She retired from an administrative post with the Retired Senior Volunteer Program in 1980.

In addition to her son, survivors include: a daughter, Linda Farr Macgregor of Rumford Point, Maine; three granddaughters; and three great-grandchildren.

A memorial service is planned for fall.

Memorials: Deupree Community, 4001 Rosslyn Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45209.

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E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com