Helen Olson

Tuesday, June 8, 2021 2:07 am

Helen Elaine (Jacobson) Olson passed away peacefully of natural causes at the Barthell Eastern Star Home on Sunday night June 6, 2021, with her loving family by her side.

Funeral Services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, June 11, 2021 at Decorah Lutheran Church with Rev. Peter Kowitz officiating. Burial will be in the Phelps Cemetery in Decorah.    

Visitation will be from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, June 10, at Fjelstul Funeral Home in Decorah, and on Friday beginning at 10:00 a.m., one hour before the service, at Decorah Lutheran Church.

Helen was born to Martha (Stevens) Jacobson and Carl Harold Jacobson on Au 1, 1934, at her Aunt Ella’s house on John Street in Decorah, Iowa. Helen was baptized in a rural church and was confirmed by Rev. R. A. Ofstedahl at First Lutheran Church. She attended school in Decorah and graduated from Decorah High School with honors in 1952.  She was a telephone operator for Northwestern Bell in Decorah for one year. She then moved to New Orleans, LA and worked in the Trust Department of the Whitney National Bank of New Orleans for two years.

Helen met her beloved soul mate, Kenneth Lowell Olson, when she had returned to her hometown Decorah on a two-week vacation, while she was living in New Orleans, Louisiana. They met on a Friday. Six days later Ken proposed and six weeks from the day they met, they were married. Ken’s mother Luella made her wedding dress. Needless to say, Helen never returned to Louisiana. They were married on July 8, 1955 at the First Lutheran Church in Decorah by the Rev B.A. Johnson. To this union three children were born: Mark Lowell, Karla Louise, and Judy Lynn.

When Helen’s last child began school, she went to work for the Security Bank and Trust Company. She worked there for 29 years and thoroughly enjoyed all the customers and co-workers. Upon retirement she and Kenneth began spending part of the winter in Yuma, Ariz.. or Gulf Shores Ala. She enjoyed her family, dancing, singing, golf, playing cards, swimming, reading, and writing letters with her beautiful penmanship.

She was a member of the Mary Circle at First Lutheran Church and the Hospital Auxiliary. She volunteered at the hospital every Monday and ran the cash register in the dining room. She also counted the offering money at First Lutheran Church every May, June, and July. The last 4 ½ yrs., while a resident of Barthell Eastern Star Home, she enjoyed Hallmark movies and reading romance novels. Family was the most important thing in the world to her, therefore happy endings of movies and books gave her great pleasure.

Helen is survived by her three children and their spouses, six grandchildren and their spouses, and her four great grandchildren: Mark (Jennifer) Olson, Karla Olson, and Judy (Dale) Peter; six grandchildren: Rhonda (Chopper) Albert, Melanie (Scott) Rutman, Jon (Kristen) Olson, Melissa (Will Wilder; special friend) Olson, Sara (AJ Bryant; fiancé) Olson and Jason (Angela Zuniga; special friend) Olson; and four great-grandchildren: Ariana Albert, Chloe Albert, Vincent Steppe, and Jack Olson; two sisters-in-law: Jerene Jacobson and Florence Olson; brother-in-law, Donald Olson; nieces and nephews: Billy Jacobson, Rhonda Tramel, Gary Jacobson, Ranell Olson and Randy Olson. Also, by very special friends that meant the world to her: Nancy Carolan, Liz Wiger, Nicole Kimber, Trisha Johansen and Mary Murphy.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 55 years, Kenneth Lowell Olson on Oct. 24, 2010, her father Carl Harold Jacobson on September 3, 1984, her mother Martha (Stevens) Jacobson on April 30, 1979, and her grandparents Oscar and Ingebor Jacobson and Eric and Regina Stevens. Brothers Galen Jacobson (2014) and Roger Jacobson (2016).  Her mother- and father in-law Luella (Hattlestad) & Martin Lawrence Olson. Brother-in-law Ronald Olson. Sister-in-law Mabel Olson.