Klein, Helena (1876-1957)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1957 Feb 28 p. 8

Birth date: 1876 May 25

text of obituary:

HELENA KLEIN

Helena Klein, daughter of Jacob and Katherine Klein, was born in Austria on May 25, 1876. The family emigrated to America in1881 and settled on a farm near Butterfield, Minn. Here they were active in the Mennonite Church until 1899 at which time they moved to Wisconsin. Since there was no Mennonite congregation in Wisconsin the family joined the Methodist church. Helena was a member of the Hitchcock Methodist Church.

In 1910 the family moved to Georgia. Here she lived with her widowed mother, her sister Elizabeth and her brothers Gust and Edward. In 1917 her brother Rudolph died in Georgia. His wife preceded him in death and he had requested his brother Gust to be the guardian of his five children ranging in age from four to 12 years. In this same year the remaining family members, Katherine and her children, Helena, Elizabeth, Gust and Ed together with Rudolph's children, Alma, Orlando, Raymond, Freda and Mary moved to Montana.

At that time Helena assumed the role of mother to the five orphans. She accepted her responsibility willingly and enthusiastically. Through discouraging days of crop failures and difficult school problems, Helena was cheerful. Her faith in God and in the future was strong enough to overcome difficulties with vigor and zeal. She was a tireless worker. She sacrificed personal desires to promote her hopes for the children for whom she now felt responsible.

In 1923 the family moved to Hitchcock, Okla. in which community she continued to live until her death.

She leaves to mourn her death, Gust and Ed Klein, her sister, Mrs. Mary Schultz ane [sic] sister-in-law Mrs. Ed Klein, all of Hitchcock, and a brother-in-law, Edward Rupp of Mt. Lake, Minn.; nieces, Mrs. Stanley Nees of Poplar, Mont., Mrs. Clyde Crain of Hitchcock, Okla., Mrs. Glen Brown and Mrs. Lawrence Kellogg of Colorado Springs, Colo. and Mrs. Ben Duerksen of Windom, Minn.; nephews Orlando and Raymond Klein of Dallas, Texas, Edward Schultz of San Leandro, Calif., Walter Rupp of Long Lake, Minn. and Emil Rupp of Mt. Lake, Minn. along with many other relatives and friends.