Helen Serena (Bork) JOHNSON

BORK, JOHNSON, HANSEN, BEERS, WOLF

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 12/30/2006 at 00:24:28

April 5, 2005
©Belmond Independent 2005

Helen Johnson, 97, of Fort Dodge, died on Sunday, April 3, 2005, at the Bickford Cottage. Funeral services were held on Wednesday, April 6, at the First Congregational, United Church of Christ, with Rev. James Meadows officiating. Interment was in the Belmond Cemetery.

Helen Serena Bork, was born on July 28, 1907 in Morgan, Minnesota. She graduated from high school and later received a bachelors degree from Northwestern University. While at Northwestern she was a member of the Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority. She also received a teaching degree from Iowa State Teachers College. Helen taught kindergarten for five years in Belmond. In 1936, she married Theodore Johnson in Fort Dodge. He was a teacher and superintendent at Belmond until 1947 when they purchased the Falls Cafe at Granite Falls, Minnesota. In 1952, they moved back to Fort Dodge where Helen and her two sisters were co-owners of a dairy chemical company. Their husbands worked for them with Stanley Beers as the sales manager and Theodore was the production manager. In 1975, they sold the business. In 1998 Helen and Theodore moved to the Bickford Cottages. She was very active at Bickford Cottages including a Bible study group. Helen was a member of the First Congregational, United Church of Christ, the women's circle, P.E.O., and a charter member of Tri T. She enjoyed gardening.

She was preceded in death by her husband in 2000; an infant son; her parents, Jesse and Emma (Hansen) Bork; and her sisters, Gertrude Beers and Vivian Wolf. Helen is survived by her sons, William Johnson of Coralville and Winston Johnson of Santa Rosa, California.