Jessie (McGowan) HELMKE

MCGOWAN, HELMKE

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 9/13/2010 at 11:22:31

September 13, 2010
Fort Dodge Messenger, Iowa

October 31, 1901 -- September 10, 2010

HUMBOLDT, IA - Jessie M. Helmke, 108, of Humboldt, passed away September 10, 2010 at the Humboldt County Memorial Hospital. A memorial service will be 11 a.m. Monday, Sept. 13 at the Congregational UCC Church in Humboldt with burial at Elmwood Cemetery in Renwick.

Jessie McGowan Helmke was born Oct. 31, 1901 to James and Jessie McGowan who farmed near Goldfield in Wright County, Iowa. She graduated from Renwick High School and later received her BA teaching degree from Drake University. She taught school for one year in Lohrville, Iowa before her marriage on June 20, 1923 to Herbert Helmke at the home of her parents. They continued to live in Lohrville and she continued teaching until 1941 when they moved to Texas. They lived there only one year and then moved to California where her husband Bert passed away on September 9, 1945. Jessie returned to Iowa and taught school in Woolstock, Vernon Consolidated near Renwick and then returned to Lohrville to establish a remedial reading program. Later she moved to Humboldt and taught in the public school until she retired in 1965. She missed teaching so then continued on teaching half days at Saint Mary's for several years.

Jessie was a member of the United Church of Christ. She was a former of Delta Kappa Gamma Retired Teachers, and a fifty year member of the Order of Eastern Star. She was a past member of the Hospital Auxiliary and Historical Society.

She is survived by a host of friends and many nieces and nephews. The Mason-Lindhart Funeral Home is assisting the family.