Obituary of Helen Lee Seyfried

Dr. Helen Lee Thompson Seyfried of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, age 96, died in Rochester, Michigan on Saturday, August 18, 2012. She was born in 1916, in Watertown, New York, to the late Doctors John Wilson and Bertha Haller Thompson. She attended St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, where she was a Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority member and where she received a liberal arts education before continuing to the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine (KCOM), the first institution of osteopathic medicine in theworld, located in Kirksville, Missouri. She completed her medical training and degree at KCOM in 1939. She was united in marriage to her beloved husband of 45 years, the late Dr. Lloyd Alvin Seyfried, on the Ides of March 1939, in Toledo, Ohio. The Doctors Seyfried established their practice in Detroit, Michigan, at the Detroit Osteopathic Hospital (1939 the late 1970s), where they specialized in ear, nose and throat and plastic surgery. Dr. Helen, one of the very first women on the Detroit Osteopathic Hospital staff not only paved the way for other female medical professionals, but would become known for performing delicate surgeries of the middle ear to restore her patient's hearing. The doctors Seyfried were amongst the first husband and wife teams to practice medicine together and were often written about in the Detroit newspapers. While Dr. Seyfried was one of the first woman surgeons in her specialty, she was also, amazingly a mother of two. She managed not only a successful and demanding surgical practice, but accomplished balancing that with a successful family and home life as mother and wife. She loved to cook and entertain and attributed her love of music to her grandfather who was a piano dealer in Watertown, New York. The Doctors Seyfried enjoyed an active life. They travelled and vacationed frequently to Chateau Montebello in Quebec, Canada, extensively throughout Europe, and the Caribbean. Dr. Helen Seyfried is survived by her children, Dr. Sandra L. Seyfried and her husband, Allan A. Burnett, of Bingham Farms, Michigan, and Mary Ann Weisberg and her husband, Bruce, of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. And by the daughters of her recently deceased brother, Dr. Frederick Haller Thompson, Frederica Wellons and Judith Thompson of Americus, Georgia. Dr. Seyfried will be interred in a private ceremony at White Chapel Memorial Cemetery in Troy, Michigan. A private memorial is forthcoming and to be held at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Birmingham, Michigan. The family has asked, in lieu of flowers, that memorials, notes and communications be sent to Dr. Sandra Seyfried in care of Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, 1800 West Maple Road, Birmingham, Michigan 48009.