Helen Grahn was an adventurous grandmother on the go.
The licensed pilot would fly her grandkids to lunch in her private airplane. She'd put her convertible top down and zip around town in her 1978 Indy 500 Corvette Pace Car.
She'd drive her snowmobile, and take helicopter and hot-air balloon rides.
"My grandmother was pretty amazing for back in that time. She did a lot of things a lot of other women wouldn't think about back then," said grandson Gary Grahn, 57, Indianapolis.
He remembers her flying solo in races, once all the way from the Bahamas.
Grahn rarely stayed put. "We used to joke that we were going to get her a beeper, so we could find her," said Dawn Durrett, 53, Fishers.
"Growing up, my grandmother was the epitome of cool," said Durrett, who on her eighth birthday received from her a toy poodle.
Grahn always made a fashion statement. She was very much into style and trends, with many fur coats and hats. Even her cars were trendy -- lots of fancy convertibles and Cadillacs.
Ron Grahn, 54, Indianapolis, said one of his earliest memories of his grandmother was of her driving her Spitfire. "She was so proud of that car and loved to drive it," he said.
The Grahns had a cottage on Flat Rock River in St. Paul, Ind. -- a getaway when their kids were growing up and later the couple's retirement home.