Mary Helen Keener Turner Nicholson

Mary Helen Keener Turner Nicholson, age 88, of 719 W. E Street, Elizabethton, passed away Sunday, July 15, 2012 in the Pine Ridge Care Center following an extended illness. Mrs. Nicholson was born Oct. 17, 1923 to the late Karl O. and Josephine J. Keener. She was the great, great granddaughter of the late Rhodolph I of Hapsburgh, Austria. Mary was a member of the House of Austria and the House of Von Hapsburgh, a prominent and distinguished German-Austrian family. Educated at Elizabethton High School, Mrs. Nicholson was associated with Bemberg Industries for thirty-two years. She was of the Christian faith. In addition to her parents, Mrs. Nicholson was preceded in death by her first husband, Marvin Theodore Turner, her second husband, Carl F. Nicholson, two sisters, and a daughter. She is survived by her son, William Theodore Turner I and his wife, Elizabeth, Johnson City; two grandsons, Robert Theodore Turner and wife, Mary, Elizabethton, and Karl J. Turner and wife, Jessica, Elizabethton; one great-grandson, William Theodore Turner II and one great-granddaughter, Rachel Nicole Turner, both of Elizabethton. The funeral service for Mrs. Nicholson will be conducted at 7:00 P.M. Tuesday, July 17, 2012 in the Sunset Chapel of Hathaway-Percy Funeral and Cremation Services with Rev. Gary Edwards officiating. The family will receive friends on Tuesday from 6:00 to 7:00 P.M. in the funeral home chapel prior to the service or at the home of her son, 142 Pleasant Drive, Johnson City, located in the Central Community. The graveside service will be conducted at 10:00 A.M. Wednesday, July 18, 2012 in the Mausoleum of Peace at Happy Valley Memorial Park. Those wishing to attend the graveside service are asked to meet at the cemetery at 9:50 A.M. on Wednesday. Honorary pallbearers are Robert and Mary Turner, Karl and Jessica Turner, William T. Turner, II, Rachel N. Turner, Fred Simerly, Carroll Billheimer, Alton Wallace, Keith Thompson, Pat Carper, Betty Ford, and Mary Morrison.Read Obituary