Helen Manns, November 6, 2018

Helen was baptized in the Montpelier Lutheran Church, and was confirmed at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church near Litchville, ND. She started grade school in Montpelier, ND and attended other rural schools throughout North Dakota. She stayed with her sister, Alice and Ted Wheeler while attending Marion High School and played on the Girls basketball team, where she earned the silver track shoe and a silver basketball. She graduated as Salutatorian in 1934. She then worked in Fargo for a year working for the owners of Levits Furniture Store, cleaning and ironing with a Mangle Iron. While in Fargo, she stayed with Martin & Tesse Stiedel helping out and babysitting. While living at the Terrace in Bismarck, while she was going blind and without the sheet music for the old songs, she still loved singing with the residents’ choir.

She married Albert H. (Bert) Manns on November 30, 1935 in Valley City, ND at the home of the Methodist Minister. Her sister, Ann Hunt and her husband Ralph stood up for them. To this union they raised seven children. They lived with his mother for a while. The summer of 1938 they moved to Climax, MN. In the fall they moved back to North Dakota living on the Shippley farm across the road from his mother.

In 1943 when his mother moved into Montpelier, they moved onto this parent’s homestead where they raised Herford cattle, Appaloosa horses and Tamworth hogs along with grain farming. She always raised a large garden, canning vegetables and fruit. Teaching her children to do the same. She helped with the farming and animals. She taught the girls to sew their own clothing, on a foot-operated Treadle sewing machine.

Helen loved to do crossword puzzles, word search, read and write poetry. All of Helen’s children remember how she would read scripture to them in the dim light off a kerosene lamp every night and close our day with a prayer for everyone. She was the total biblical fulfillment of a perfect wife and mother. Like those who wrote the laws of our nation, One Nation under God, she always taught us that you never criticize anyone for their color, religion, beliefs etc. She always stressed, love, forgiveness and be kind to everyone. After her own children were grown and moved away she enjoyed babysitting for two of the Montpelier school teachers. She loved having her own grandchildren, great and great, great grandchildren come to visit.

She was Manns County Treasurer for 14 years. She was a member of the Montpelier Presbyterian Church, where she taught Sunday School. She was ordained to the office of Ruling Elder in the Montpelier Presbyterian Church on the 18th of March, 1956. She enjoyed quilting with the Women’s Circle at the Montpelier Lutheran Church.

After Bert passed away on January 8, 2000, Helen stayed on the farm until she fell and broke her ankle in July of 2007. Since then she has lived at High Acres Manor in Jamestown. The Terrace in Bismarck and after going legally blind she was moved to Missouri Slope Lutheran Care Center in Bismarck.

She has done some traveling to visit her children in MT, CO/NV, ID/AZ & AK. She loved to fly in small and large planes and pan for gold in the cold, Alaska water where she would sit in her seated walker, with her rubber knee high boots on for hours as long as someone brought her buckets of gravel & sand for her to run through the sluice (trough) box.

Helen will be deeply missed by her son, Mick (Cec) Manns; daughter-in-law Peg (Tom) Manns; daughters Virginia (Dale) Monson, Eileen (Larry) Beasley, Joyce (Bill) Stevenson, and Connie (Barry) McCormack; Bert’s sister and brother-in-law Ethel (Bill) Maulding; 31 grandchildren, 37 great-grandchildren and 13 great great-grandchildren; numerous nieces and nephews. Along with her dear friend & High School classmate, Mimm (Meriam Manbeck) Trapp. They think they were the only two living class mates left from the Marion High School class of 1934.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Gilbert & Helga Berg, her mother-in-law Olive (Albert III) Manns, husband Bert Manns, son Thomas, daughter Myrle Manns, great-granddaughter Nicole Brothers, sisters Bertha (Len) Boyer, Alice (Ted) Wheeler, Ann (Ralph) Hunt, brothers Leonard (Julia) Berg, Albert “Ick” (Lorraine) Berg, Elmer “Bud” (Ruby) Berg, Cliff (Marion) Berg, and Fred Berg; Bert’s sisters Lillian (Joe) Schafer, Frances (Lee) Hunt and Alpha (Jim) Delair.

Visitation will be 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, Monday, November 12 at Eddy Funeral Home. A graveside service will be 2:00 PM, Monday, November 12 at Sunset Memorial Gardens, Jamestown, ND. A memorial service will be held at a later date in July 2019.

Online guest book: eddyfuneralhome.com

Arrangements by Eddy Funeral Home