Ann Cornel Helgeson

Ann Cornell Helgeson was born June 29, 1948 in Shenandoah, Iowa, to Robert Cornell and Vera Helgeson. She died on December 17, 2017 in Elgin.

She went to Kindergarten in Shenandoah, but the family moved to Gull Lake, Michigan where she started first grade at Yorkville School and graduated from the new Gull Lake High School in 1966.

As a kid, she was interested in the wider world, even writing off for a magazine devoted to the USSR. She subsequently studied Geography and Russian at Beloit College (Beloit, WI) graduating in 1970. She got her first taste of overseas travel when she studied in Russia. Later, she spent a year at Moscow University.

She wrote her PhD dissertation (University of California, Berkeley) on internal migration in Russia (a politically sensitive topic at the time). She lived in the UK both before and after she finished her degree, ending up at the University of Birmingham, where she taught in a Russian studies program.

Returning to the U.S. for family reasons in 1986, she held a professorship in geography at The University of Texas at Austin for several years and frequently led student groups to Russia. It was about then that she went off in a new direction, deciding to learn Arabic and study the Middle East.

After a summer spent in Egypt (which she judged the most congenial Middle Eastern country for a single woman traveling alone), she returned to Texas and the following summer drove back to Egypt (Texas to New Jersey, with her car on a small ship to Bremen, and from there to visit various friends in Europe—Italy and Slovenia). She originally intended to take a ferry from Greece but not having the appropriate papers for the car, she kept going through Turkey and beyond, finally getting a ferry to Alexandria from Latakia in Syria.

She lived in Egypt for several years, mostly in Luxor, and traveled and lived for short periods in Syria and Jordan.

She was married three times, first to John Kennedy in the UK, whom she met while teaching at Dartmouth College and eventually followed to Essex University in Colchester (UK). Second, she married George Chernechenko whom she had met during her year at Moscow University. Her third husband was Aladdin Hegazy, a native of Alexandria, Egypt, and who came with her to the U.S.

Since her divorce from Hegazy, she has lived in Elgin where she joined the historical society, became the local genealogist (unofficial) and managed the Depot Museum under the auspices of the Elgin Historical Society.

A devoted local historian, she often said she had “the best job in the world”. She rarely left Elgin in the last 20-plus years of her life, having satisfied her desire for travel. She did love her dogs, first Archie and Zenobia, and later Ray.

She is survived by her sister, Susan Helgeson of Bay Village Ohio, a niece, Samantha Scott and her daughter, also of Bay Village, and a nephew, Wayne Scott and six daughters of Columbia City, Indiana.

Ann's sister requests that any donations in her memory be sent to the Elgin Historical Association.

A memorial service will be held at the museum, at a later date.