Memorial services for Helen Eleanor Hesselroth Kanzenbach will be held on Saturday, July 2, 2016 at 2 p.m. at Stewart Family Funeral Home, Tyler, Texas. The Reverend Joanne Williams-Elliott of Liberty Hill United Methodist Church will officiate.
Interment will be held at a later date at the columbarium at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas.
Mrs. Kanzenbach gently passed away Saturday, May 7, 2016 in Tyler, Texas. She was born April 24, 1921 in the village of Braham, Minnesota to Hilma and Frank E. Hesselroth. Proud of her Swedish ancestry, privileged to love and grow up in her home town of Braham, she often shared her memories of a happy childhood.
Helen was a member of the Braham Evangelical Lutheran Church and the confirmation class of 1939. She loved music; she played the coronet in the high school band and as a member of the Girl’s Trio, and won first place in the competition at Gustavus Adolphus College in 1939. After graduating Braham High School, she applied for nurse’s training at Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her career as a Registered Nurse spanned a lifetime and touched many.
As an R.N., surgical nursing was her heart. She easily assimilated into the local workforce as her military husband took her to exotic places in the world. She had a baby in Japan, continued her nursing career while raising her four children in Alaska, later moved them all to Texas, still involved in nursing. Later, the Army took the family to Korea for two years where she became a leading figure in the Red Cross for the entire South Korean peninsula. After returning to the states, she continued to nurse until her retirement and full time career as “Mom,” “Grandma,” and “Gigi” (Great-Grandma).
Helen was preceded in death by her beloved husband of 56 years, Melvin A. Kanzenbach; her brother, Franklin Hesselroth and her daughter, Kathleen Helen Kanzenbach Weinstock.
She is survived by her loving family including son, James Michael Kanzenbach of Madison, Alabama; two daughters, Marjorie Anne Schmidt of Grapeland, Texas, and Carol Lee Townsend of Jacksonville, Texas; a very dear niece, Sue Bays of Golden, Colorado and nephew, Raye Kanzenbach of Roseville, Minnesota.
She leaves a legacy to her family, to grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren. She left the greatest gifts, the special things she taught us: Love of God and America, love and respect for one another, the importance of education and a good work ethic, the duty to leave the place (or the world) a little better than you found it, a positive attitude and the joy of music and humor and fun, but most importantly and always emphasized was the powerful and eternal love that binds our family through thick and thin, now and forever.