Helen Maxine Johnston, 1928 – 2010

JOHNSTON, HANDY, ISHERWOOD, DAINES, SEABA, SCHLABACH, GINGRICH, MILLER, GRIGGS, ARONIS, WARD, WATSON

Posted By: Sandy Ficken (email)
Date: 4/14/2011 at 16:15:04

Celebration of life services for Helen M. Johnston, 82, South English, were held at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 21, at the Powell Funeral Home and Cremation Service, North English. She died Sept. 16, 2010, at the English Valley Care Center, North English.

Chaplain Mary Beth Siemann officiated at the service.

Burial was in White Pigeon Cemetery near North English.

Memorials may be made to the North English Community Center or Iowa Hospice.

Messages and tributes may be left at www.powellfuneralhomes.com, under obituaries.

Helen Maxine Johnston was born March 6, 1928, near Fremont, the daughter of William Edgar and Zella Isherwood Handy. She graduated from Fremont High School in 1946.

She married Allen LeRoy Johnston April 21, 1947, at the Catholic Church, What Cheer. After farming for years south of Parnell, they moved to South English. In 1974, she started working at Amana Refrigeration, retiring in 1990.

The couple enjoyed taking their camper to San Juan, Texas, before his death in October 1992.
In 1996, she and Russell Daines became committed companions. They enjoyed 12 years together until his death in November 2007. They lived in San Juan and South English. They loved to play cards, camp, play bingo and garden. She loved to sew.

In 2009, Kenneth Seaba became her committed companion. She often said she wished she could spend a good 10 years with him. They especially enjoyed playing cards and fishing together.

She became a resident of the English Valley Care Center, North English, in June 2010.

Johnston is survived by one son and his wife, Max and Sandy Johnston, Marengo; daughters and their husbands, Betty and Stan Seaba, Wellman, and Dixie and Earl Schlabach, Wichita, Kan.; eight grandchildren, Angie Gingrich, Alicia Miller, J.R. Seaba, Mary Lynn Griggs, Gary Johnston, Sarah Johnston, Laura Aronis and Kyle Schlabach, and seven great-grandchildren.

In addition to those already mentioned, she was preceded in death by her parents; an infant daughter, Mary Lea; brothers, Harold, Leslie and Kenneth Handy, and sisters, Lucile Ward and Mary Watson.

The Williamsburg Journal Tribune, Williamsburg, Iowa, 23 Sep 2010, pg 11