Main Street will be a little dimmer without the bright smile and shining personality of “Hollywood Helen,” whose star faded out Sunday afternoon, leaving a legacy of love and kindness for her community.

Helen Jean Burfield, 77, passed away Sunday (Nov. 16, 2014) at the Bradford Ecumenical Home, where she had been living for the past year while suffering from dementia. 

Her condition was upgraded to Alzheimer’s, and her physical health started to decline severely in October, when she was admitted to the hospital for round-the-clock care.

Born March 28, 1937, in Bradford, she was a daughter of the late Emerson and Emma Cramer, and she attended Bradford area schools. She was the widow of Louis Burfield.

Family will receive friends from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday in the Hollenbeck-Cahill Funeral Homes Inc., 33 South Ave. Online condolences may be made at www.hollenbeckcahill.com. Friends are invited to attend a Mass of Christian Burial at 10 a.m. Friday in St. Bernard Church with the Rev. Raymond Gramata, pastor, as celebrant. Burial will be in Limestone (N.Y.) Cemetery.

She is survived by 12 children, a sister, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In addition to her husband and parents, she was preceded in death by one son.

Her family writes in her obituary: “‘Hollywood Helen’ was well known by the Bradford community, with a friendly hello and a smile on her face for everyone. She loved life! She was well known for her trips to Las Vegas to see Elvis, Engelbert Humperdinck, Marilyn Monroe and The Beatles. On her walks around town she would spend time at Lisa’s Hairport, the Bradford City Fire Department and The Bradford Era.”

Burfield was a member of St. Bernard Roman Catholic Church and sang in the church choir. She also spent many hours in the cold, rain and snow, every year as a dedicated bell-ringer for the Salvation Army. 

“Each one of us are characters made by God to bring about his love in the world, and that’s the best way to remember her,” said Gramata, who made frequent visits to see Burfield in the hospital. “She was a woman of faith and her faith was lived out the best way she could each day of her life.

“I’ll miss her grand entrance into church for services,” Gramata added. “She came 15 minutes late and proceeded down the main aisle to her pew. That was her usual routine. She was fashionably late, but she always came.”

And, now, the community is coming together to repay the kindness Burfield extended all these years.

With final expenses amounting to around $6,500, the family has reached out to the public for help. As of Sunday, about $900 had been raised through an online campaign at www.gofundme.com and direct donations through the funeral home, but by mid-morning Monday the total had jumped to approximately $3,000.

“That alone shows that she was a much-loved person in the community,” said Bradford City Mayor Tom Riel. “People recognized how much she loved Bradford and they were willing to come forward on a moment’s notice.”

Riel said he and his wife knew Burfield fairly well personally and with her family’s permission decided as private citizens to help solicit money to “give her the proper send off that she deserved.”

Within a few hours and with donations ranging from $2 to $500, they’d amassed $3,000. “Maybe you could call it karma,” Riel commented. “Nobody’s faultless, but she certainly had a lot of kindness in her heart that she shared. 

“She was one-of-a-kind. She came to city council meetings for many years, always with kind words and made us laugh,” he added. “I encourage anyone who knew her or appreciated her kindness to stop by with a donation at Hollenbeck-Cahill on South Avenue.”

Burfield’s daughter, Ruth Henson, said the family is very touched by the outpouring of support from the community.

“We are getting close to our goal. We had some anonymous donors that were very generous,” Henson said. “Everybody’s been very nice — nicer than I ever anticipated. It really is wonderful.”

Any money collected beyond the goal will go toward a headstone, according to Burfield’s granddaughter Karen Mosher. 

“She really wanted a Mother Mary statue,” she said. “She would be ecstatic with all of the support and love being shown to her right now.”

Mosher said the family has not received a single negative response. “People are being super supportive and it’s really very comforting,” Mosher said.

When asked what her mother would want to be remembered for, Henson said, “her kindness and how much she loved Bradford.”

Mosher said her grandmother passed away peacefully in her sleep Sunday afternoon. 

“It was like she was saying she was ready. She wanted to go, it was her time. Hospice came in and made her as comfortable possible,” Mosher said. “When she was awake and was lucid, she said she loved everybody.

“As for her legacy, I want everyone to remember the happiness she brought, how she made everybody smile, her dancing at Italian Festival, her Las Vegas trips,” Mosher added. “She was like the light of Bradford. There was only one ‘Hollywood Helen.’”

Many people around town agreed.

Bradford City fire chief Chris Angell said Burfield would be missed at the fire station as well, where she visited her “fireboys” frequently.

“She was, if nothing else, very supportive of us and the police department,” Angell said. “Helen would stop by almost daily for years — I’ve been here 21 years and I’ve seen her thousands of times.

“Unfortunately sometimes in this day and age, people don’t sit on the stoop as much as they use to. Everyone is so busy,” he continued. “But, it was always nice to have an old-school fixture like Helen who went around visiting — she was interesting to talk to and always had a story.”

Marty Wilder, former Bradford Era managing editor, fondly remembers numerous conversations in which Burfield — ever with her finger on the pulse of the town — would stop by to give the newspaper “the scoop.”

“Every town needs a little spice in its life,” Wilder said. “She wasn’t just the spice, she was also the salt and pepper.”

Karen Buchheit, a past producer of Kiwanis Kapers, which Burfield participated in annually for decades, said while the show must go on, Burfield’s unique brand of theatrics “will be missed at Kapers in future performances.

“She was such a presence, and she was always one of our biggest fans and promoters,” Buccheit said. “She definitely had a flare for show business — no matter the part, she would give it her all.”

She said Burfield especially enjoyed the cameo roles she had in the shows.

“It’s like a little piece of the Kapers is gone because there’s nobody that will be able to take her place,” Buchheit said. “I’m sure she’s up on a stage in another venue and having fun.

“Every town has their unique characters and she was part of that — everyone knew her, she was part of the fabric of Bradford,” she continued. “She was part of what made Bradford a unique community. We had ‘Hollywood Helen’ and nobody else had her.”

Memorial contributions, if desired, may be sent to Destinations-Bradford, 1 Main St., Bradford, PA 16701; or the YWCA Bradford, 24 West Corydon St., Bradford, PA 16701.