Helen V. Gasparrino Havens, 99 years young, passed away peacefully on Nov. 8 at the Connecticut Hospice, Branford. She was the beloved wife of the late Harry Clifford Havens. Helen was born in New Haven on Sept. 25, 1923, and was the youngest of seven children to the late Emanuel and Maria Bove Gasparrino.

Helen grew up on the former Hill Street in the Hill section of New Haven, was a graduate of the former Commercial High School and Stone’s Business School. She was a bookkeeper for the former New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroads, the former Continental Lumber, Allingtown section of West Haven and later was an office manager for many years until her retirement. Becoming a widow at the age of 36, Helen devoted herself to her three young sons at the time and never remarried. An excellent baker, she was known for her infamous “cream cheese pound cake” Helen often would reminisce about her Hill Street days and all the wonderful times she had with her cousins who were like her brothers and sisters. A devout catholic, she was a longtime parishioner of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity Parish/St. Barnabas Church in North Haven.

Mother of Robert C. Havens, Gary S. Havens and his wife Suzanne, Brian W. Havens and his wife Phyllis. Gram to Rev. Robert Joseph Havens, Jennifer Havens Mineri and her husband Louis E. Mineri III, Luciano C. Havens and his wife Maria Iamunno Havens, Amanda M. (Andy Stanislawski) Havens, and Ian M. (Jenna Malkin) Havens. Great-Gram to Louis E. Mineri IV, Biagio B. Mineri, Filomena G. Mineri, Luciano M. Havens, Vienna R. Mineri, and Leo B. Havens. Also survived by many loving and caring cousins. Predeceased by her sisters, Marguerite Malavolti, Catherine, Stella, and Eleanor Gasparrino; and brothers, Frank “Danny” and Michael “Uncle Mike” Gasparrino.

Family and friends are invited to go directly to St. Elizabeth of the Trinity Parish at St. Therese Church, 555 Middletown Avenue, North Haven at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning, Nov. 12, to attend a Mass of Christian burial. Interment will be privately held in St. Lawrence Cemetery, West Haven. Should friends desire, all contributions in “Memory of Helen V. Havens” may be made to Sandra Ciccone Memorial Scholarship Fund c/o Branford High School, 185 East Main Street, Branford, CT 06405. The Havens Family North Haven Funeral Home, 36 Washington Avenue, in care of their mother’s services www.northhavenfuneral.com.