Helen Burns Elvington

Helen Burns Elvington, age 84, born September 16, 1941, in Oneida, Clay County, Kentucky, went home on Monday, June 22, 2026, at her home in Woodbury, Tennessee, after several years of illness.

She came into the world as one of two; her twin sister Stella arrived the same day, and though Stella lived only weeks, Helen carried that twinship through every year that followed. She was the daughter of Ray Burns and Ophia Sizemore, born into the mountains of eastern Kentucky, into a family that knew hard country and the particular tenderness it breeds in people who stay. Those mountains never fully left her.

She knew grief before she knew much of anything else. Her family buried Stella, then the twins Ruba and Suda, then Bessie and Jimmy, all within a few years of Helen's own birth. She grew up in the shadow of those losses; she grew up standing anyway. Her faith was the ground she stood on, and it held her through every hard season that followed.

She built her life in love more than once. Her first marriage to Leonard Roberts brought three children into the world: Joe Ray, Lesia Kay, and Theresa Lee. She later married Aubrey Lee Hamilton, and together they welcomed their daughter, Misty. Aubrey preceded her in death. She found her way to Max Roy Elvington, who became her husband and her companion, and who held her hand through the final season of her life. Max survives her.

She lived all over these United States, having grand adventures before finally settling in Tennessee, where she made her home and put down roots that would hold. In her later years, the old Appalachian gospel songs found their way out of her and into whatever room she happened to be in. She sang to anyone who would listen, and more than a few people found themselves listening longer than they planned. The songs were old; she made them sound like something personal, because to her they were.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Ray Burns and Ophia Sizemore; her late husbands, Leonard Roberts and Aubrey Lee Hamilton; and her siblings, Stella Burns, Hazel Burns Napier, John Raymond Burns, Ellar Burns Sams, Ruba Burns, Suda Burns, Jimmy Burns, Bessie Burns, Chester Burns, and Leonard Burns.

She is survived by her husband of 34 years, Max Roy Elvington; her children, Joe Ray Roberts (Carmen) of Hazard Kentucky, Lesia Lovvorn (Carlos) of Bell Buckle, Tennessee, Theresa Lee Roberts of Leslie County, Kentucky, and Misty Smith (Thomas) of Smithville, Tennessee; her stepdaughters, Deleina Elvington Davis of Woodbury Tennessee, and Catrina Elvington of Murfreesboro, Tennessee; her brother, David Burns of Kentucky; her grandchildren, Christopher Roberts of Kentucky, Kyle Roberts (Michelle) of Kentucky, James Aubrey Lee Baute of Smithville, Tennessee, Katelan Perry (Bradley) of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Amber Baute of Smithville, Tennessee, Jamie Couch of Bell Buckle, Tennessee, Chase Lovvorn of Bell Buckle, Tennessee, and Matthew Joseph of Kentucky; Aliyah Davis of Tennessee, Jayla Davis of Woodbury, Tennessee, Chayanni Umana of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Katarena Umana of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Daylen Elvington of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and a host of great-grandchildren who will carry her forward into years she will not see but has already shaped.

Visitation will be held at Gentry-Smith Funeral Home on Friday, June 26, 2026 from 2-6 pm. Funeral services will be Saturday, June 27, 2026 at 2 pm in the Gentry-Smith Funeral Home chapel. Hannah Parsley will officiate. Interment will be in Amity Cemetery. 

Share memories and condolences at www.gentrysmithfuneralhome.com Gentry-Smith Funeral Home, 303 Murfreesboro Rd. Woodbury, TN 37190, 615-563-5337 Because every life has a story