Helen Marion Schoen

Memorial services for Helen M. Schoen, age 92, of Albert Lea will be held at 1:30 p.m., Monday, June 29, 2015 at the Bayview/Freeborn Funeral Chapel. The Rev. Dwight Netzer will officiate. Interment will be in the Freeborn Cemetery. Visitation will be from 4-6:00 p.m. Sunday, June 28, 2015 at Bayview and one hour prior to the service on Monday.  
Helen died on Wednesday, June 24, 2015 at her home.
Helen Marion Schoen was born on December 16, 1922 on her grandmother’s farm Northwest of Manchester, the daughter of Gaylor and Mabel (Thostenson) Olson. She was baptized and confirmed at West Freeborn Lutheran Church. She grew up on farms near Manchester and lived for three years with Ruth and Jeff Thisius while she went to high school. Helen attended District 21 Country School and graduated from Freeborn High School in 1941. On September 20, 1941 she was united in marriage to Robert Schoen at the West Freeborn Lutheran Church. To this union five children were born: Robert Jr. “Bobbie”, Steven Robert, Peggy Ann, James Paul, and Pamela Marie. During WWII Helen volunteered for the Red Cross rolling bandages. She was a wife, mother, cook at Kenny’s Café, and did interior and exterior painting with Yvonne Christensen.
Helen was a  member of the Freeborn Congregational United Church of Christ. She was a Den Mother, a 4-H Leader, a member of the Fourth Monday Nighters, a volunteer for Project Charlie in the school, a past President, Secretary, and Treasurer of the Oakview Ladies, a member of an extension club, Know Your Neighbor, the PTA, a Sunday School Teacher, a past President and Secretary of the Women’s Fellowship, a member of the Religion and Education Committee of the UCC, clerk for the Freeborn Congregational UCC for 22 years, and sang in the choir and cantata. Her hobbies included baking donuts, cookies, pies, and lefse. Favorite pastimes were golfing, playing cards, dancing, knitting, crocheting, doing counted cross stitch, embroidery, as well as cooking and baking.
Survivors include her children Steven Schoen and his special friend Mary Spire and his children Fauve and Elke; Peggy (Dean) Goettsch and their children Tony and Annette; Pamela (Steve) Sahl and their daughter Amanda (Chris) Cavallaro, great-grandsons Vinnie and Marco, and great-great-granddaughter Madison; daughter-in-law Barb Schoen and her children Jesse (Lisa) Schoen, their children Annie, Lucy, and Aaron; Josh Schoen; and Laura Schoen and her son Evan; long-time special companion Rudy Phillips and his family: Vickie, Sandy, Karen, and Ryan; brother Walter “Bud”  (Ramona) Olson; sisters-in-law Cordelia Olson and Joyce Olson; brother-in-law John (Virginia) Schoen; many nieces, nephews, cousins, and close friends Betty Johannsen and Norma Jones.
Helen was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Robert Schoen, sons Robert Jr. “Bobbie” and James “Jim”, brothers Gerald, Arvil, Irvin, Wilfred, Fremont, and Vernon Olson, and sisters Bernice Vanden Hul and Irene Johnson.