Helene J.H. (Dullaert) Longyear

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution announces with great sorrow the death of retiree Helene J.H. (Dullaert) Longyear on July 15 at Falmouth Hospital. She was 88.

Helene was born in Antwerp, Belgium, on August 11, 1926, to Henri and Marie Dullaert. She spent her childhood years living in both Antwerp and Brussels. Her teenage years were spent under the German Occupation of World War II in Belgium, and she participated in smuggling for the Resistance. In the early 1950s she also lived in Amsterdam for several years.

In 1957 she immigrated to the United States to marry Robert R. Longyear and settled in Falmouth.

Helene opened Caline, a children’s clothing store on Main Street, in 1972, which was formerly Crib & Cradle. She sold Caline in 1984 but continued to work in the retail industry.

Helene began her career at WHOI in 1988 and ran the gift shop until her retirement in 2003.

In her spare time she enjoyed cooking and reading.

She leaves two daughters, Isabel M. Besse and her husband, Keith Besse, of Falmouth and Oquossoc, Maine; and Caroline R. Webber and her husband, David Webber, of Sandwich; a son, Daniel R. Longyear and his wife Patricia A. Gilmer, of Beaufort, South Carolina; four grandsons, Tyler and Ian Webber and Phillip and Pierson Besse; and two great-grandsons, David and Leo Webber. She also leaves her stepchildren, Jeremy Longyear of Portland, Maine, and Barbara Mayo of Waterville, Maine.

There will be no service.