Willett, Anna Louise (Helmke) 1867 – 1898

WILLETT, HELMKE

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 5/19/2024 at 21:00:45

Source: Decorah Republican Jan. 27, 1898 P 5 C 3

The Great Reaper at Work.
Sorrow and mourning came to many hearts and homes in Decorah, last Tuesday morning. For a week friends had waited with a suspense intensely painful for the result of a visit to Chicago, which Mr. and Mrs. Norman Willett had taken for the purpose of seeking surgical aid to Mrs. Willett. For months it had been feared she was becoming the victim to a trouble which only the knife of the surgeon could cure. Could it be cured at all? If not, was death approaching, and his presence near at hand? These were the questions to be solved by the trip to Chicago, taken on the 17th inst. The operation was performed on Monday morning. There was small chance of success, but the first indications were not unfavorable, as a dispatch received Monday indicated. But one that followed this Tuesday morning, announced the worst. Death had visited her.
Anna Louise Helmke, was born in California, in 1867, and was married to Norman Willett, February 6th, 1894. Early in life she began fitting herself for the work of a teacher, and successfully pursued that avocation for several years, all in her native state, except one year spent at Denver. At the age of 13 she united with the Congregagational{sp} Church in Santa Cruz, of which Dr. Willett was then pastor, and her church relations have ever been very deer to her heart. After marriage, when the movement of events settled that Decorah was to be her home, she at once entered with a loving heartiness which was her marked characteristic, into all the work which the church offered. Her vivacity, earnestness and steadfast Christian purpose soon won for home warm friendships, and a foremost place with the young Christian workers of the city. In her home, in the Sabbath school and among the Endeavorers, she will be sadly missed: but there is one consolation: She went out from the associations with the Christian assurance that if it was to be that she should not return, “all is well.”

Phelps Cemetery
 

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