Helen Schmidt

Helen Schmidt fell asleep in Jesus on September 19, 2020 at Corn Heritage Nursing Home in Corn, Oklahoma. She was born November 18, 1928, to Edward F. and Marie Jantzen Schmidt to a family of twelve children. She was raised on the farm near Bessie, Oklahoma. Her formal education through the 8th grade was at Flynn country school. After grade school she began working for her Aunt Katie, who was not well, and Uncle Barney Regier for four years, returning to the family home for the weekends. When milking cows and cleaning the hen house was no longer a challenge, she left home to explore the world.

Leaving by Greyhound bus she and a friend, Dorothy Penner, went to Newton, Kansas. Her oldest brother, Martin, was working there at the time. She stayed with him until accepting a job in housekeeping at Bethel Deaconess Hospital in Newton. When cleaning floors was no longer a challenge, she attended Hesston College for one semester. While a sister and brother were already at Grace Bible Institute in Omaha, Nebraska, she decided to go join them. After three years there she was not allowed to graduate without her high school education. While working as a nurse’s aide at Saint Joseph Hospital during the day time, she went to school in the evening hours, riding the street bus to and from school. Then she received her high school diploma after two years of night school in Omaha, Nebraska. Then one more year at Grace Bible Institute to graduate.

After being challenged by a friend to enter nurses training, she wandered off to Atlanta, Georgia, all by herself and entered a three year program of nurses training at Georgia Baptist Hospital. After graduating, her first job was in a small hospital in Rome, Georgia, for two years. Then moving back to Oklahoma, she accepted a job as an IV nurse in Ada, Oklahoma, for one year. Realizing she needed more training, she went back to Atlanta, Georgia, for pediatric training and worked at Baptist Hospital Pediatric department. Upon completion of the course, she moved to Colorado, where her youngest sister, Katie, and family lived. She was employed at Swedish Medical Center in Englewood, Colorado, for fifteen years. She then moved to Oklahoma to help care for her parents. Having purchased a house in Cordell, she worked at Cordell Memorial Hospital for 23 years. She loved nursing as her career.

Several overseas trips were taken; Hawaii in 1967, Europe in 1969, visiting Ireland, England, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. In 1997 she flew to Bolivia, South America for the whole month of February to visit her sister, Mary Lou, and family.

Retirement years in Cordell were full of life and enjoyment. She was a member of Herold Mennonite Church, which had its beginning by both her grandparents. She moved to her own apartment in Cordell Baptist Village where her sister, Ann Schmidt, was living. Then Helen moved to Corn Heritage Village after a stroke where she lived until her home going.

Helen received the Lord as her Savior in her early teens and was baptized August 6, 1944, by Rev. C. B. Friesen.

She was preceded in death by her parents, two sisters, Alice and Mary Lou, and seven brothers, Alfred, Martin, Norman, Paul, Robert, Eddie and Louis. Survivors are two sisters, Annie and Katie.

Amen. Goodbye.

Visitation: 3:00 p.m. ~ 8:00 p.m., Monday, September 21, 2020 & 9:00 a.m. ~ 8:00 p.m., Tuesday, September 22, 2020 at Ray & Martha’s Funeral Home, Cordell, Oklahoma. Funeral: 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, September 23, 2020 at Herold Mennonite Church, Bessie, Oklahoma. Interment: Herold Mennonite Cemetery, Bessie, Oklahoma.