Helen D. Shepherd, a registered nurse and homemaker, died in her sleep Friday at the Charlestown retirement community. She was 93.

Helen Deputy was born on a family farm near Chestertown and later moved with her family to what is now Charles Village.

After graduating from Eastern High School, Mrs. Shepherd earned her nursing degree from the Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Nursing.

While working at the old Hospital for the Women of Maryland on Bolton Hill, Mrs. Shepherd met her future husband, Robert Gordon Shepherd Sr., whom she married in 1938.

His career as an organic chemist took them first to Connecticut and later to New Jersey and New York, where Mrs. Shepherd continued her nursing career. He died in 1986.

In the late 1970s, the couple retired to Selbyville, Del., and later to Guilford. For the past 17 years, Mrs. Shepherd lived at Charlestown.

Mrs. Shepherd was a watercolorist, sculptor and jewelry maker. She also enjoyed traveling.

Services were held Tuesday at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Chestertown.

Surviving are two sons, Paul Shepherd of Ellicott City and John Shepherd of Lawrence, Kan.; and five grandchildren. Another son, Robert G. Shepherd Jr., died in 2005.