Horst, Helen May (1907-1960)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1960 Sep 22 p. 8

Birth date: 1907 Oct 9

text of obituary:

HELEN MAY HORST

Helen May Horst, daughter of Jacob S. and Anna (Beck) Horst, was born Oct. 9, 1907, near Peabody, Kan., and died Sept. 11, 1960, in the Bethel Hospital, Newton, Kan., aged 52 years, 11 months, and two days. Death came as the result of a long respiratory affliction. She was so seriously ill at the age of nine years that the doctor gave the family no hope that she could live. The great miracle of her life is that she lived as long and as well as she did. At the age of 12 she was baptized by Bishop T. M. Erb and became a member of the Catlin Mennonite church near Peabody. She always manifested a deep sense of loyalty to Christ and the church.

Helen retained a life-long love and appreciation for her grade school and high school friends and experiences. She especially desired to be a school teacher, but due to her illness this dream was never realized. However her teaching and leadership abilities were expressed through various avenues. She served as a leader and as a Sunday school teacher. She held a keen personal interest in each child she led or taught. In he later years she contributed much to the work and guidance of the women's Missionary and Service auxiliary in sewing for relief and making up Christmas bundles to be shipped overseas. Since early in life she took special interest in crocheting and needle work.

One of the great paradoxes of her life is the nursing care she gave to others, in which she shared so freely of her meager health and strength. In this, as in her other work, she was a loyal and faithful servant and friend. She expressed the spirit of her Lord, sacrificially giving the best of her life to comfort and strengthen others even though it cost her personal inconvenience and suffering.

She was predeceased by her father and an infant sister.

Surviving in addition to her mother, Mrs. Anna B. Horst, are three brothers, two sisters, and their families, Melvin J., Sweet Home, Ore.; Edna (Mrs. Allen White), Peabody, Kan.; Frank, Calico Rock, Ark.; Laurence M., Chicago, Ill.; and Dorothy (Mrs. Paul Diener), Hesston, Kan.

Funeral services were conducted Sept. 15 at the Baker Funeral home in charge of the pastor, Paul Friesen, assisted by Rev. Maurice Yoder and Harry Diener. Interment was in the adjoining cemetery.

A book in Helen's memory is being placed by friends in the Peabody Library.