Helen Timp

Monday, June 7, 2021 11:00 am

Helen Beatrice (Schmitt) Timp, 89, died of cancer at her home in Spillville, on Tuesday, April 27, 2021.

Funeral service will be 11 a.m., Saturday, June 12, 2021 at the St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in Spillville, with Rev. Robert Gross presiding.

Visitation will be after 10 a.m., Saturday at the church. 

The youngest of the seven children of Jacob and Mary (Soukup) Schmitt, Helen was born on Aug. 17, 1931, on the family farm a mile and a half northeast of Spillville. Helen’s favorite childhood memories were of playing near the spring and in the woods on the farm.

Helen attended St. Wenceslaus Catholic School in Spillville through eighth grade, then two years of public high school in Spillville and graduated from the public high school in Calmar in 1949. Following graduation, she worked as a bookkeeper at Balik Implement in Spillville until the birth of her first child.

Helen married Alvin Timp of rural Calmar on Saturday, November 28, 1953, in a double wedding with Helen’s sister Doris who married Einar Thompson. Helen and Alvin had known each other in high school and began dating after Alvin returned from military service. Most of their dates were movies or dances at the Inwood Ballroom in Spillville. Their wedding reception was at the A.B.C.S. Hall (Association of Bohemian Catholic Societies) in Spillville, the last wedding party held at that location. They lived in Spillville for a year, and then moved to a farm they rented southwest of town, later buying a farm of their own in the same area.

On the farm, Helen worked hard at housekeeping, extensive gardening, cooking and sewing. In her family’s estimation, she made the world’s best kolaches and other Czech pastries. Starting shortly before and for 23 years after Alvin’s sudden death in 1984, Helen worked as a nursing assistant at the Eastern Star nursing home in Decorah. Though it was hard work, she was dedicated to the profession and found satisfaction in helping residents in rehabilitation or in their last days.  Simultaneously, she worked as a substitute rural mail carrier for several years, all the while tending a garden and keeping up with farm chores. Ever the care giver, she took care of several of her siblings at the end of their lives.

At the age of 63, she left the farm and moved to Spillville, where she lived until her death. From her home, she had a breathtaking view across the street of the historic St. Wenceslaus church, where she and her ancestors received all their sacraments and are buried in the church cemetery. Helen was active in the parish, most recently as a sacristan.

Helen loved the outdoors and spent many happy hours working in her yard. She also loved canoeing the Upper Iowa River. She was proud of and interested in both her Czech and German ancestry. She was a member of the Czech Heritage Partnership based in Protivin. And she worked to maintain the cemetery at St. Clement Catholic Church, known as the German Church, outside Spillville. Her great-grandfather Jacob Schmitt who had lent his upper-story apartment in what is now the Bily Clocks museum to Antonin Dvorak in 1893 is buried there.

Helen was preceded in death by her parents and siblings Florence Moudry, Edward Schmitt, Edmund Schmitt, Mary Stine, Robert Schmitt and Doris Thompson, and granddaughter Jessica Timp.

Surviving are her children Mary Jean Timp (Michael Farley) of Des Moines, and their children Rachel Farley (Peter Clark) and their children Lucy and Oliver Clark of Austin, Texas, and Colin Farley of Des Moines; Sally Timp of Stevensville, Montana, and her children Cameron Kuhle of Anchorage, Alaska, and Rosalyn (Eugene) Kim of Holladay, Utah; Bill (Michelle) Timp and their children Ruby and William Timp of  rural Fort Atkinson; and Jacque (Gregg) Cohen and their children Max and Ann Cohen of Frisco, Texas.

The family thanks the nurses, nursing assistants and social workers of Winneshiek Medical Center Hospice for the wonderful care and support they provided to Helen and her family. They eased us all through the end-of-life journey.

Memorials in Helen’s honor may be directed to Iowa CareGivers, a statewide nonprofit organization working to address the shortage and high turnover rate of direct care workers such as nurse aides and home health aides. Send to Iowa Care Givers, 939 Office Park Road # 332, West Des Moines, IA 50265; or donate online or print a contribution form to mail by using link: https://www.iowacaregivers.org/make-a-donation/index.php#.Ylgri7VKhPY.