Helen Jane (Martin) Vardeman (1924-2016)

VARDEMAN, MARTIN, BRANUM, PEPITON

Posted By: Mark Christian
Date: 4/23/2016 at 10:34:43

Obituary From Adams Soderstrum Funeral Home, Story County, Iowa.

Helen Jane Martin Vardeman passed from this life to the next April 5, 2016. She was born April 6, 1924 in Portsmouth, Ohio to Homer and Winnie (Branum) Martin. Helen was married July 7, 1944 in Pensacola, Fla. to Bruce Vardeman, her husband until his death February 21, 2001. She is the mother of David Vardeman of Portland, Maine, Joyce Ann Vardeman Pepiton of Jefferson, La., and Stephen Vardeman of Ames, Iowa.

Helen lived her early life in Louisville, Ky. where she met Bruce. After World War II, they returned to Louisville where he attended university on the GI Bill. After graduation, they moved to Robinson, Ill., and then to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where they raised Stephen, Joyce and David. The family lived there until the late 1970's when they returned to Louisville, and then moved to Ames in 1999. Helen had lived in the Northcrest Community since 2004.

Helen worked for a time outside the home as an assistant in the Grant Wood School library in Cedar Rapids. In middle age she became an avid reader and especially enjoyed the writings of C.S. Lewis. Helen loved the Bible, sound Bible preaching and teaching, and she loved the Christian church. Helen was a member of a local church wherever she lived, including Calvary Baptist and Immanuel Baptist Churches in Cedar Rapids, Westminster Presbyterian Church in Cedar Rapids, and Victory Memorial Baptist Church in Louisville. In Ames, before declining health, she regularly attended Willow Creek Church of the Open Bible.

Helen was a convinced Christian believer, who learned the Faith from her beloved mother, and taught it to her children by both word and deed. She was kind, modest, patient, compassionate, and resolute. Her adult children valued her simple devout counsel and listening ear. Helen's grandchildren delighted in her delight with them. Hundreds of extant photos testify to seemingly endless Scrabble and card games they enjoyed with Gramma. And her apricot fried pies were the stuff of legends.

Helen will be missed by those who have known and love her. But it is a far better thing for her that she is now in the eternal presence of the God of Glory by the finished work of Christ.

Graveside Service
APR 7. 09:30 AM
Ames Municipal Cemetery
310 E 9th St.
Ames, IA, US

Funeral Service
APR 7. 11:00 AM
Grand Avenue Baptist Church
612 24th Street
Ames, IA, US, 50010

http://www.adamssoderstrum.com/
 

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