1907 - 2006

Helen Iona Deets passed away May 10, 2006, in Burien, Wash. at 98. Helen was born May 15, 1907, the daughter of Iona Carolus Deets and Charles Tilden Deets, in Davenport, Wash. She worked for many years for the City of Seattle until her retirement in 1972. Helen shared residence and travel with Alpha Ritchey in West Seattle.

Helen is survived by her sister-in-law, Dorothy Deets of Bellingham, Wash. Other close members of Helen's family, who will miss her quick wit, are nieces Charlotte Aamot of Bellingham, Barbara Adams of Stockton, Calif., and Lorettamae Schneider of Burlington, Wash.; and nephews Allyn Deets, Paul Lindstrom, and Merlin Reeck of Bellingham, Walter Deets of Kalispell, Mont., and Howard Garber of Lopez Island, Wash.

Helen graduated from Bellingham High School in 1924 and attended Bellingham Normal School (now Western Washington University) for a brief period before completing business school in Washington, D.C., where she worked for several years before returning to her beloved Washington state, which she called "God's Country."

At her 90th birthday party, great-grandniece Gloria Schneider-Kyle recapped Helen's life in the following way: "She has lived her life with courage, dignity and fire." No one who knew Helen well could disagree.