Jean Ann Nivens Helm began her life of love in Killeen Texas on 15-November-1954 where she was adopted at birth by Orval and Marilou Nivens. As a darling little girl with an angelic face, Jean-Ann drew the attention of family and friends.

She was well-loved by her father, Orval, and kept her at a safe distance so she could observe his gentleness with the horses he was training by the whisper method. Often spoken of as his adopted angel, Jean-Ann learned gentleness and kindness with animals mostly from her father. Throughout her life Jean-Ann cared for a menagerie of pets: dogs, cats, birds (parrots, cockatiels, parakeets) turtles and rabbits. She was a good friend of the late Doyle Johnson, a gentle veterinarian, who was the physician of her pets and the dogs of the Arlington police’s K9 unit. As a chairside assistant in dentistry, Jean-Ann earned the confidence of Dr. Johnson to assist him during animal surgeries. Similarly, Jean-Ann was a lifelong friend of Jerry Dalton who loved animals and kept both regular and unusual pets. Jeannie was a recipient of several of Jerry’s pets throughout her lifetime.

Marilou raised Jean-Ann in the Catholic faith, a religion that they embraced and lived out in their lives. Jean-Ann loved God and believed in serving him by helping her family and others. She participated in the Catholic liturgy by singing in the choir and leading the congregation in song as cantor. Jean-Ann preferred the Latin liturgy because she thought it retained more reverence for giving glory, honor, praise and thanksgiving to God. Jean-Ann believed music was an expression of love to God when sung from the heart in church. It was also her special secret, to sing from the heart when singing to others that made her voice so captivating, genuine and pure.

Jean-Ann believed she offered a special viewpoint to the debate on abortion rights since she had been adopted at birth. Her commitment to the rights of the unborn led her to marches for life both in Washington DC and locally during her young adult years. Jean-Ann believed that newborn babies were recently created in God’s heavenly nursery and released for birth on earth. She often told the story she read in a book on angels that recounted the story of a young toddler going to her baby sister’s nursery and whispering, “tell me how it’s like in heaven because it’s been too long ago for me to remember and I’m starting to forget”. Is it too hard to believe that death is just the reverse of birth, a way to shed our earthly bodies and return to heaven in our spiritual essence, our souls?

Marilou prepared Jean-Ann for a life in secular society as well, by encouraging her singing, taking piano lessons and practicing creative writing. Through the influence of Lewis Harris, her choir director in high school, Jean-Ann perfected her soprano voice during regular choral competitions. In Jean-Ann’s Junior year (1972), she tried out for and won the lead role of Maria in the music drama, West Side Story, presented by Sam Houston High School. Jean-Ann wrote an original poem that year which was accepted by a young writer’s association publication. She was also a member of the writing staff for the student newspaper, Texans Talk.

Jean-Ann suffered from a myriad of painful maladies throughout her entire life. In true catholic tradition, she would offer up her sufferings in atonement for her sins and those who were in most need of God’s mercy. Sometimes called redemptive suffering, this too was an act of love for others whom she may not have even known. From the amount of suffering Jean-Ann had to endure in her lifetime, it seems certain that there must have been enough atonement, both for herself and for others, that God will welcome her and take take her straight to heaven. After receiving the last rites of the Catholic Church weeks earlier, Jean-Ann passed from this life, and her husband’s love of ~40 years, into God’s tender arms and an eternity of joy on January 17, 2021.

Interment services will be held, March 16, 2026 at Laurel Land Rose Hill Cemetery, 7301 East Lancaster, Fort Worth, TX 76112