Helen Ruth Hopkins 1934-2011
RILEY PAULEY HOPKINS
Posted By: Connie J Swearingen-Volunteer (email)
Date: 6/25/2012 at 17:45:16
Sioux City Journal
June 03, 2011Helen R. Hopkins, 76, of Mapleton died Tuesday, May 31, 2011, at Burgess Health Center in Onawa, Iowa.
Services will be 10:30 a.m. at Armstrong Funeral Home in Mapleton, with Pastor Kurt Seboe officiating. Burial will be in Heisler Cemetery near Mapleton. Visitation will be after 4 p.m. today, with a prayer service at 7 p.m., at the funeral home.
Helen Ruth Hopkins was born Dec. 20, 1934, one of 10 children born to Earl and Mary Idella (Riley) Pauley. In the Depression years, she first grew up with her family in a modest home dug into a hill near Smithland, Iowa. Photos of the young family in their home are displayed in the Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, N.Y., and articles telling their story were published in the Sioux City Journal and the Des Moines Register. The family later moved to Mapleton, where Helen graduated from high school with the class of 1954.
She married Willard Bridgeman and the couple had four children. They later divorced. On Feb. 28, 1968, Helen married Ralph K. Hopkins in Onawa. They had two children. He passed away Dec. 13, 1982.
In her youth, she worked at a chicken processing plant in Mapleton, and later at the Arlington Hotel. She was employed as a janitor at Maple Valley School.
She enjoyed playing cards, bowling, fishing and hunting. She was known for giving of herself and often her home to care for her parents and siblings when in need. She extended that care to her children and their families, but was also known to carry out the discipline in her own "unique" methods that often involved a broom.
Survivors include five children, Bernita Langwell of Le Mars, Iowa, Rebecca Towne and her husband, Allan of Mapleton, Richard Bridgeman and his wife, Ronda of North Carolina, Kenny Hopkins and his wife, Tina of Mapleton, and Dale Hopkins and his wife, Shelly of Mapleton; numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren; a sister and her husband, Elaine and Harold "Fuzz" Hopkins of Albia, Iowa; and may nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Ralph; her parents; a son, Ronald Bridgeman; five sisters, Betty, Elsie, Wilma, Delores and Mary; and three brothers, Roy and Frankie in their youth and Earl "Pete" Pauley Jr.
The family is confident that Helen lost her spirit to live as a result of the Mapleton tornado on April 9, 2011. They would like to thank Helen's grandson and his wife, Audie and LeeAnn Bridgeman, for opening their home and their hearts to Helen when she lost her family home that night.
Headstone
Monona Obituaries maintained by Linda Ziemann.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen