Helen Erickson

Helen Alfreda Erickson, 90, Bismarck, died August 30, 2007. Services will be held at 12:00 noon Tuesday at House of Prayer Lutheran Church, Bismarck, with Rev. David Swonger officiating. Burial will be in the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery, Mandan. Visitation will be held from 1:00 pm until 5:00 pm Monday at Eastgate Funeral Service, Bismarck. Visitation will continue one hour prior to services at the church. Helen was born on June 14, 1917, at Starkweather, ND, the daughter of John and Mary Melin. She was raised in Starkweather on the farm with her two brothers, Edwin and Albert, and one sister, Anna. She went to country school in Starkweather and had many fond memories of country life on the prairie. She started her work career as a beautician in Sheyenne and continued it in Fargo and Minneapolis. During the 1930s, she followed her brother Edwin out to Los Angeles and in the 1940s she worked as an assistant manager at a Thrifty White Drugstore in Hollywood, CA. After a 12-year courtship with Lawrence Erickson that started with a Saturday night dance in Sheyenne, Helen Alfreda Melin and Lawrence Erickson were married on June 7, 1952, in Starkweather, ND. In 1952, she and Lawrence moved to Redondo Beach, CA, where Lawrence worked for Rockwell International. During her years in California, she worked as a cook for the local school district and was able to be at home before and after school for her two boys which was very important to her. In 1975, they retired and moved back to Bismarck where Helen started volunteering for various organizations around Bismarck. Family was very important to her, it didn't matter what kind of job you had or how important you were, she was more interested in your family. Helen is survived by her two sons, Larry, his wife, Leora, and Rodney, his wife, Cindy, all of Minneapolis, MN; one granddaughter, Keeley Witzel and her husband, Matt of Minneaplis, MN; one sister, Anna Knudson of Devils Lake, ND; and numerous nieces and nephews. Helen was preceded in death by her husband, Lawrence and her two brothers, Edwin and Albert. The family prefers memorials be given to the House of Prayer Kitchen Fund.

Helen Erickson

June 14, 1917 - August 30, 2007