Helen R. Speidel

Helen Rosalia Speidel, age 94, was carried to heaven to be with Jesus on Thursday, January 30, 2025 at The Courtyard at Sussex memory care in Sussex, WI.

Helen was born on October 6, 1930 in Monango, North Dakota, to Reinhold and Caroline (Gebhardt) Fiechtner. She grew up on the farm that was homesteaded by her grandfather. She attended a one room rural elementary school, On days without precipitation she and her brother road to school in a cart pulled by a pony. She loved to play basketball and graduated from Ellendale High School.

In 1950 Helen married Paul Speidel in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Monango where she and Paul had been baptized and confirmed. They lived in several towns in South Dakota where Paul was a school teacher. In Pierre Helen worked for the South Dakota Bureau of Records in the Capital Building. In 1964 the family moved to Menomonie because Paul was hired to be a professor at Stout. Helen worked at the Stout Alumni Office until she retired.

Helen loved to play bridge and care for the flowers in her beautiful yard. In 1997 she became a widow. Helen sang in the choir, enjoyed participating in Lutheran Women’s Mission Society, faithfully worshiped at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, regularly attended Bible Studies, and served with the Ladies Aid. Helen’s life was a thank you and praise to her Savior for rescuing her from God’s eternal punishment that she, like us, deserve. Helen rarely complained. She cherished the many blessings God gave to her.

She was a wonderful mother to her three children, Tom, Tim and Tammy. We will miss mom, but we rejoice that she is free from the difficulties and troubles that she endured in this world. Her race is over. She stands in the eternal winner’s circle of heaven’s glory now with all the believers who have gone before her. Together they praise God and have eternal life in heaven where everything is a blessing living with Jesus.

Helen is survived by her sister-in-law Ellen Fiechtner of Aberdeen, SD, her son, Rev. Thomas (Sue) of Lisbon, WI, her daughter Tamara (Blair) Lindwurm of Sioux Falls, SD, her daughter-in-law Karen (Kietzer) of Apple Valley, MN; 10 grandchildren: Laura (Jason), Matthew, Julie, Benjamin (Emily), Rebecca (Bryan), Joseph (Char), Peter (Lisa), Andrew, Rachel (Scott), and Nicholas; 7 great grandchildren; 18 nieces and nephews.

Helen was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Paul Speidel, her older brother, Arlan, her younger sister, Laura Kehren, and her son, Timothy.

The family would like to thank the caregivers at Comforts of Home in Menomonie, The Courtyard at Sussex, and St. Croix Hospice for the tender care they showed as they attended to Helen.

The funeral will be held on Monday, February 3rd at St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Menomonie, WI at 11:00 with viewing at the church starting at 9:30. Rev. Geoffrey Kieta will officiate. A luncheon follows at the church. Burial will be in the spring at St. Paul’s Lutheran Cemetery in Menomonie.

Memorials may be made to St. Paul’s Lutheran Elementary School for their regular expenses.

To share a memory, please visit obituaries at www.olsonfuneral.com.