Helen Burke, 82, of Essex, died on Nov. 30, at Smilow Hospital in New Haven, surrounded by her loving family. She was born on Oct. 25, 1940, and grew up in Wayne, Illinois, the daughter of the late Richard Samuel and Mary Cadley Burke. Her early life was spent riding horses cross-country and reading. Inspired by her father to read, she discovered a lifelong passion at an early age.

Helen attended Miss Halls School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and Smith College, where she majored in art history and met her future husband during her junior year abroad in Florence, Italy. Apart from a five-year stint in New York City where she and her husband worked for Bantam Books, she lived in Florence, a city steeped in art history and fine Italian crafts. There they raised their two daughters, curated fine art exhibitions, and designed theater performances.

In 1990, she moved to Essex to be near her children and grandchildren, and became a decorative painter of faux finishes and wall murals for clients she obtained through a local interior decorator. She was a consummate craftsperson, with a wide range of interests and skills. She loved to drill down and research how things were made, undaunted by degree of difficulty, and over the course of her life she made many wonderful things, inspired by her travels to the world’s museums.

She loved to sing and became a member of Con Brio Choral Society, the Essex Library, the Essex Garden Club, where she was able to indulge her passion for flower arranging, and the Pollinator Pathway: Lower CT River Valley. Responding to the plight of the vanishing birds and bees, she transformed her yard into a native pollinator garden.

She was an accomplished seamstress, and in her final years she joined the Ladies Who Stitch at the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme and sewed hundreds of dresses for the children of Haiti in support of the Crosby Fund for Haitian Education.

Helen will be remembered for her distinctive decorative flair and her unflappable good nature. She was a strong, matriarchal figure, providing a warm and accommodating home base for her family. She will be sorely missed by her surviving daughters, Ilaria Papini and Ippolita Rostagno; her son-in-law, Leo Amato; her four grandchildren, Maya, Morgan, Zoe, and Dante; her great-grandson Giovanni; her granddaughter-in-law Penny; her sisters, Molly Clark and Marty Anderson; her niece Natalie Anderson; and her many first and second cousins living in the Connecticut River Valley.

Helen’s family would like to thank her team at Smilow. Contributions in memory of Helen Burke can be made to the Hematology Program Fund at Smilow Cancer Hospital. Please make checks payable to Smilow Cancer Hospital and mail them to YNHH Development; P.O. Box 1849; New Haven, CT 06508. Please include (name of deceased) on the memo line. Secure online gifts can be made at www.givetoynhh.org.