Helen Achenbach, founder of Delaware's famed Helen's Sausage House, dies at 92
Helen Mary Murphy Achenbach, founder and namesake of Delaware’s iconic Helen’s Famous Sausage House, the 40-year-old restaurant near Smyrna known for early morning hours, hearty breakfast sandwiches, and a dining room devoted to Elvis Presley memorabilia, died on Thursday, Aug. 31.
The Wilmington native was 92.
Achenbach "passed away peacefully with her favorite Elvis music playing softly, and family surrounding her," according to an obituary Tuesday from the Spicer-Mullikin Funeral Home posted on Delaware Online.
Achenbach spent most of her life in restaurants and sandwich shops.
In 1983, she and her late husband Melvin “Mudge” Achenbach opened Helen's Sausage House, a squat, white roadside building with a pink pig in a chef's hat off U.S. 13, just before the Delaware 1 toll road begins if you're heading south.
It quickly became an early morning, must-stop destination — doors open at 4 a.m. — for truckers, hunters, fishermen, bureaucrats, police officers, prison workers from the nearby James T. Vaughn Correctional Center, commuters, and whoever else passed through Smyrna before the restaurant closed at noon.
Achenbach and her sister Joan Thomas cooked egg and sausage sandwiches, home fries, and delectable bone-in, jumbo pork chops served between two slices of white bread, as well as other breakfast standards. While there is almost always a line at Helen's, it moves quickly.
Helen's also became known for its kitschy "Elvis Room," a small eating area that was a shrine to the King and the King's impersonators. Achenbach covered the walls with photos of Elvis, and even had a mannequin in one corner, and made no apologies for the decor.
"I'm an Elvis fan," she said simply during a 2005 interview and recalled fond memories of going to a back-in-the-day Elvis Presley concert in Philadelphia.
“The store was her pride and joy, where she loved her customers and her customers loved her," the obituary read.
In October 2001, the now-defunct Gourmet magazine named Helen's as one of its 100 favorite places to eat in the world. The Delaware breakfast restaurant was cited alongside food businesses in Morocco and Iceland.
Helen's was among the places Gourmet editors said they had been "keeping to ourselves, but now it's time to confess," wrote Ruth Reichl, a former restaurant critic for The New York Times, who was the magazine's then editor.
Helen's sister Joan told The News Journal that although she didn't read Gourmet (in fact, she never heard of the magazine until being contacted by a reporter), it was an honor to be singled out.
"They mentioned the big pork chop, so that's nice," Thomas said.
Achenbach, a lifelong Delawarean known to her adored grandchildren as "MomMom," had homes in both Smyrna and Pot-Nets Bayside.
She married twice, once in 1950 to Clifford J. Murphy Sr., and after his death, to Melvin “Mudge” Achenbach in 1967. Helen and Mudge had been partners with Mudge's brother, Ernest, in Ackie's Cafe, a long-gone downtown Wilmington tavern on West Eighth Street. Mudge passed away in 2000.
"Her family — and maybe Elvis — were the only things she loved more than the restaurant," read the obituary.
Helen's son Clifford J. "Butch" Murphy and his wife JoAnne had run the restaurant full-time from the early 1990s until they retired in 2022.
Murphy's son Clifford J. Murphy III, Helen's grandson, has since taken over the family business. He plans to open a second Helen's this fall on Main Street in downtown Newark.
On the Helen's Sausage House Facebook page on Tuesday, Murphy posted his thoughts about his grandmother.
"It is with an extremely heavy heart that we bid farewell to one of the greatest women we’ve known," the post reads. "She will be greatly missed by all her family and all of her extended family who were her customers over the years. Know that she loved serving you, and being a part of the Delaware community for so many decades. I only hope we can carry on her legacy."
Achenbach loved dancing, her pony Brandy, her many dogs, and the pigs and chickens she raised; being a part of the Holloway Terrace Fire Company Ladies Auxiliary for several years; hosting family holiday dinners, and eating crabs down at the beach, according to her obituary.
She is preceded in death by her sister, Joan Thomas; and husbands, Clifford J. Murphy Sr. and Melvin “Mudge” Achenbach. She is survived by her children, Diane Murphy Phillips (Wayne) and Clifford “Butch” Murphy, Jr. (JoAnne); grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Family and friends can visit the Spicer-Mullikin Funeral Home, 1000 North DuPont Parkway, New Castle, beginning at 10 a.m. Monday, Sept. 11. A celebration of Achenbach's life will begin at noon. Burial is in Gracelawn Memorial Park, 2220 North DuPont Highway, New Castle.
Contact Patricia Talorico at ptalorico@delawareonline.com and follow her on X (Twitter) @pattytalorico Sign up for her Delaware Eats newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Founder of Delaware restaurant once called 1 of world's best has died
