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Dec. 24, 1923 – May 2, 2015

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Memorial services for Helen Frances Miller Salter, 92, who died peacefully Saturday, May 2, 2015, will be announced at a later date for friends and former students.

Mrs. Salter was born Dec. 24, 1923, in Pavo, Ga., and grew up in Valdosta, Ga., the daughter of Robert E. and Uldene S. Miller.

She was a dancer from an early age, studying with Marie Crockett. In 1944, she moved to New York City to study at George Balanchine’s School of American Ballet and performed with Mr. Balanchine’s Ballet Society.

In 1946, Helen married Charles E. Salter and became an army wife. She was the loving mother of Joanna, Beth and Sheppard Salter. She taught ballet, ballroom dance and cotillion in most of the places she lived.

In 1964, the family moved to Tallahassee. Mrs. Salter opened Salter School of Dance, which she ran for 26 years. She taught thousands of girls and women classical ballet and tap dance. She and Chuck Salter were the founders of the Tallahassee Civic Ballet in 1973.

Mrs. Salter loved gardening and was a member of the Dogwood Garden Circle and of the Women’s Club of Tallahassee. She knitted innumerable hats for preemie babies over the last 20 years of her life. She was a founding member of the Sewing Ladies.

In 2007, Mrs. Salter moved to Natchez to live with her daughter, Beth. She loved the friends she made at First Presbyterian Church, knitting with the prayer shawl ladies and gardening. She never saw a weed she didn’t want to pull.

Mrs. Salter was predeceased by her parents; three brothers, R. Eric Miller, Kenyon Miller and Grantland Miller; and her husband.

Survivors include one sister, Madge Moore; three children, Joanna Booth and husband, John, Beth Troutman and husband, David, and Sheppard Salter and wife, Lynn; six grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Memorials may be made to the Tallahassee Ballet, The School of American Ballet (NYC) and First Presbyterian Church of Natchez.

Online condolences may be sent to abbeyfh@comcast.com.