Helen Stoner Burkhiser

East Moline, Illinois Services for Helen Burkhiser, 82, of East Moline, are 10:30 a.m. Saturday at First Baptist Church, Moline. The Reverend Steven Wood will officiate. Burial is in Moline Memorial Park. Visitation is 4 to 8 p.m. Friday at Trimble Funeral Home, Moline. Memorials may be made to the church. Helen Mary Jane Stoner was born near Cincinnati, Iowa on April 22, 1919, and died at Trinity Medical Center, Rock Island, on Saturday, January 5, 2002, at the age of 82. Her death comes after a long battle with diabetes and congestive heart failure. Her girlhood days were spent on a farm near Cincinnati. Her mother, Katie Crouch Stoner, who was widowed when Helen was two, raised her and her three brothers. Her father, Raymond B. Stoner, died as the result of an accident while working in a saw mill. Raised during the Great Depression, her family lived on a small farm, growing their own food and attending Livingston Baptist Church. Helen loved teaching school. After graduating from high school, she taught in the one-room school she had attended. On August 7, 1938, Helen married Everett Burkhiser in Centerville, Iowa, and moved to Moline. She continued teaching after her marriage in various one-room schools in Davenport and spent one year in Bettendorf. She continued teaching when her family moved back to southern Iowa in 1947. Helen and Everett had two daughters, Phyllis, born in 1946, and Cynthia, born in 1950. After becoming discouraged with farming, Helen and Everett returned to Moline in 1954. This time to stay. That same year Helen enrolled in college and pursued a teaching degree. She graduated in 1962 and began teaching at Moline's Logan elementary school that fall. Twenty years later she retired to begin a second career, teaching Pioneer classes based on the Laura Ingalls Wilder's ''Little House'' books. She continued sharing her love of history with children through these classes until 1999. Helen was active in the First Baptist Church of Moline where she and Everett have been members since 1954. She was actively involved teaching children's classes and working on the Board of Christian Education for many years. Her hobbies included sewing, making quilts, collecting antiques and writing books. She was president of the Illinois Writer's Guild for several years and published several books including "Neta, Laura's Friend". She leaves her husband, Everett, her daughters, Phyllis Ellett and her husband Dennis, of Sherrard, and Cynthia Mattison and her husband, David, of Moline; five grandchildren and one greatgrandchild. Helen was preceded in death by her mother and her three brothers. This memorial may be viewed, and condolences sent to the family, at www.TrimbleFuneralHomes.com. END OF OBITUARY