{"id":39398,"date":"2026-05-29T15:31:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=39398"},"modified":"2026-05-29T15:34:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:34:24","slug":"helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\/","title":{"rendered":"Helen Louise Denton (77) of St. Elmo"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>Helen Louise Denton, age 77, of St. Elmo, Illinois, passed away on Thursday, May 28, 2026 at her home surrounded by her loving family.<\/p>\n<p>Funeral Service will be held at 1:00 PM on Tuesday, June 2, 2026 at New Horizons Church in St. Elmo, Illinois. Visitation will be held from 11:00 AM until the time of service. Inurnment will follow at a later date. Kent \u201cPeeWee\u201d Denton will be officiating. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to New Horizons Church or the donor\u2019s choice. Online condolences may be expressed at www.pagelfuneralhome.com.<\/p>\n<p>Helen was born on September 26, 1948 in Champaign, Illinois, the daughter of Lee Henry Welch and Bertha A. Fender. She married her sweetheart, Kent Denton, on July 20, 1974 in Ramsey, Illinois. She loved flowers, especially sunflowers, spider mums, and hibiscus. Helen looked forward to her trips to Graceland with Kent, and they went as often as they could. Most of all, church was her happy place, and she enjoyed every moment she spent there.<\/p>\n<p>Helen is survived by her husband, Kent \u201cPeeWee\u201d Denton of St. Elmo; son, Gary Denton (Sheila) of Salem, Illinois; daughter, April Albaugh (Rob) of Highland, Illinois; step-son Bradley Denton of Salem, Illinois; step-daughter, Sherry Shamhart (Vern) of Wheeler, Illinois; 11 grandchildren, and several great-grandchildren; brother, J.R. Weeks of Champaign, Illinois; and sisters, Linda Kelly of Edgewood, Illinois, and Rosalie Zachary of Mahomet, Illinois.<\/p>\n<p>She was preceded in death by her parents, Lee Henry and Bertha Welch; and her step-son, Michael Denton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Helen Louise Denton, age 77, of St. Elmo, Illinois, passed away on Thursday, May 28, 2026 at her home surrounded by her loving family. Funeral Service will be held at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":39399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obits"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Helen Louise Denton (77) of St. Elmo - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Helen Louise Denton (77) of St. Elmo - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-29T20:31:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-29T20:34:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Helen-Denton-pic.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1353\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1685\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Greg Sapp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Greg Sapp\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Greg Sapp\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ea4a7a4f3418a551e6319888ef00a8f1\"},\"headline\":\"Helen Louise Denton (77) of St. Elmo\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-29T20:31:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-29T20:34:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":248,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/Helen-Denton-pic.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Obituaries\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\\\/\",\"name\":\"Helen Louise Denton (77) of St. Elmo - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/Helen-Denton-pic.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-29T20:31:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-29T20:34:24+00:00\",\"description\":\"Effingham's News and Sports Leader\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/Helen-Denton-pic.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/Helen-Denton-pic.jpg\",\"width\":1353,\"height\":1685},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Helen Louise Denton (77) of St. Elmo\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/premier-logo-v1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/premier-logo-v1.png\",\"width\":272,\"height\":69,\"caption\":\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ea4a7a4f3418a551e6319888ef00a8f1\",\"name\":\"Greg Sapp\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/author\\\/greg_sapp\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Helen Louise Denton (77) of St. Elmo - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","description":"Effingham's News and Sports Leader","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Helen Louise Denton (77) of St. Elmo - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","og_description":"Effingham's News and Sports Leader","og_url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\/","og_site_name":"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","article_published_time":"2026-05-29T20:31:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-05-29T20:34:24+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1353,"height":1685,"url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Helen-Denton-pic.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Greg Sapp","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Greg Sapp","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\/"},"author":{"name":"Greg Sapp","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/ea4a7a4f3418a551e6319888ef00a8f1"},"headline":"Helen Louise Denton (77) of St. Elmo","datePublished":"2026-05-29T20:31:25+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-29T20:34:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\/"},"wordCount":248,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Helen-Denton-pic.jpg","articleSection":["Obituaries"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\/","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\/","name":"Helen Louise Denton (77) of St. Elmo - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Helen-Denton-pic.jpg","datePublished":"2026-05-29T20:31:25+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-29T20:34:24+00:00","description":"Effingham's News and Sports Leader","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Helen-Denton-pic.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Helen-Denton-pic.jpg","width":1353,"height":1685},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/39398-helen-louise-denton-77-of-st-elmo\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Helen Louise Denton (77) of St. Elmo"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/","name":"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#organization","name":"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/premier-logo-v1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/premier-logo-v1.png","width":272,"height":69,"caption":"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/ea4a7a4f3418a551e6319888ef00a8f1","name":"Greg Sapp","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/author\/greg_sapp\/"}]}},"modified_by":"Greg Sapp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39398"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39402,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39398\/revisions\/39402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}