Helen Lucille (Henderson) JANSON

HENDERSON, JANSON, MASTERS, KELLY, LOFGREN, JANSON-LOFGREN, NISHIMURA, SHIMAOKA

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 6/18/2017 at 21:11:59

March 22, 1923 --- May 26, 2017

Maryville, Missouri --- Helen Lucille Henderson was born March 22, 1923 and raised on a farm three miles southwest of Seymour, the daughter of Robert Clarke Henderson, a farmer and registered breeder of Belgian work horses, and Mima Ann (Masters) Henderson, a school teacher. Helen loved to be read to at an early age from which she developed a life-long love of reading. She rode her pony to a nearby country school in Wayne County from which she graduated after passing the county-wide eighth-grade exams and matriculated to Seymour High School. During her senior year she was chosen to recite the poem, "Paul Revere's Ride" to a high school assembly. She majored in Institutional Management in the College of Home Economics at Iowa State University, concentrating on dietician's work, and graduated in 1943. At Iowa State she met and married Eldon Joseph Janson, a Norwegian-American from Clarion, who was studying veterinary medicine.

Doc was part of the ISU College of Veterinary Medicine's graduating class whose army assignment was to practice veterinary medicine in SW Iowa in order to help ensure a safe food supply for the troops and those on the home front. Helen and Doc moved to Gravity in 1943 where they put down roots and began to raise a family and to participate in community and school affairs. Helen inculcated in her children and others a love of reading and a sense of curiosity about people and events, both past and present. She and Doc worked to enlarge a view that went beyond current geographic boundaries and present circumstances. Helen was a skilled seamstress, making new shirts for the boys and dresses for the girls each summer before the school year began. She was also an excellent cook who became particularly noted for her elegant pie crusts and tasty pies. For Christmas Helen turned the kitchen into a factory for producing exceptionally tasty tea rings which she would give to Doc to distribute throughout the community, particularly focusing on elderly folks. Helen loved to make seasonal decorations for her house, particularly in the fall, and enlisted Doc and the kids in bittersweet expeditions to locate and gather it in. She was also a masterful garden overseer and canner of jams, jellies, pickled beets, pickles, sauerkraut, tomatoes, tomato juice, and frozen vegetables. When she found it necessary, Helen was strong-willed and gently persistent.

Helen's work as a Cub Scout den mother and developer of a summer library program benefitted many children in Gravity. Her work with the American Field Service (AFS) program facilitates cultural exchanges between the Bedford Community School District and countries around the world which enriched us all. Helen's work with the Taylor County Museum, the Taylor County Historical Society, and the Taylor County Genealogical Society touched the lives of Taylor County residents and others, both around Iowa and the United States. Helen was honored in 1989 by being designed "Iowa Mother of the Year" for her contributions to family and community life and for her work on behalf of others. Helen also received the Governor's Volunteer Award in 1989.

Besides helping with soup suppers (chili, oyster stew, and pie) and many other food-associated fund raisers in Gravity, Bedford, and Clarinda, Helen was also active with the Gravity and Bedford PTA's, the Gravity American Legion Auxiliary, the Gravity Canasta Club, the Gravity Women's Study Club, Lioness of Bedford, the Iowa Veterinary Auxiliary, and the St. John's Lutheran Church Library Board in Clarinda. In addition, she volunteered for the Iowa Society for the Blind to transcribe materials from regular print into Braille text with a Braille typewriter she purchased. Helen also served as the book chair for the two-volume Taylor County History and served on the editorial team to compile and publish an initial volume of Tombstone Record of Taylor County, Iowa as well as a supplemental volume the following year. Helen also contributed to historical work on the Underground Railroad in Taylor County, and was working at the time of her death on nominating to the local Hall of Fame Lulu Johnson, a Gravity resident who became the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. from The University of Iowa. Helen touched the lives of many by using her skills, knowledge, and abilities in positive ways to help others and to work with others to make community life more informative and interesting.

Helen passed away May 26 in Maryville, Missouri. She was preceded in death by her husband, Dr. E. J. Janson (2000); her first-born daughter, Marilyn Ann Janson in infancy (1944); her son, Robert Dean Janson, while serving in Army counter-intelligence (1969); her brother, Howard Henderson, in a car crash while making a rural call as a veterinarian in SW Iowa (1957); her father, Robert Clarke Henderson (1965); and her mother, Mima Ann Henderson (1972).

She is survived by three children (Dick Janson, Decorah; Jeanne Janson, Mobridge, South Dakota; and Janet Kelly, Lawrence, Kansas) six grandchildren (Joe Kelly and Erin, Lawrence, Kansas; Jonathan Kelly, Boise, Idaho; Kirkja Janson, St. Paul, Minnesota; Tor Janson, Decorah; Per Janson, Brooklyn, New York: and Lara Janson, Chicago, Illinois); two great-grandchildren (Annika Janson-Lofgren and Anneli Janson-Lofgren, St. Paul, Minnesota); one AFS son and his family (Masao and Yoshimi Nishimura, daughter Nami and her husband Tetsutaro Shimaoka, and son Akihiro, Tokyo, Japan); and numerous Henderson and Janson nieces and nephews and their children.

A memorial service celebrating Helen's life will be held 10:30 a.m. on July 18 at St. John's Lutheran Church, Clarinda. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Taylor County Museum or the Taylor County Historical Society.

Both Helen and Doc donated their bodies to the Kansas University Medical School in Lawrence, Kansas, to assist future doctors with their medical education. Afterwards their bodies were cremated with their ashes being interred in the Norway Township Cemetery, Wright County, Iowa.

Walker-Merrick Funeral Home, Clarinda, provided arrangements.

Clarinda Herald-Journal --- Clarinda, Iowa
June 6, 2017