Helen Mae Belle Severson

• 1930 - Volin Township, Yankton County, South Dakota.
• 18 Jun 1943 - Married - Manchester, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire

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Helen M. Severson, age 93 of rural Volin, South Dakota passed away Easter Sunday, April 5, 2015 at Avera Sister James Care Center, Yankton, South Dakota. Burial will be in the Vangen Lutheran Cemetery, Mission Hill, South Dakota.

Helen was born March 2, 1922, to Alfred and Huldah (Peterson) Hoxeng near Volin, South Dakota.

She attended grade school at Pleasant Valley School, rural Volin, South Dakota. Her family was active in church activities at Zion Lutheran Church (now named Faith United Lutheran Church), also in rural Volin, South Dakota.

When her family moved to Washington State, so her father could look for work in the lumber industry, Helen elected to stay in South Dakota and attend Augustana Academy, a Lutheran High School boarding school in Canton, South Dakota. There she met her future husband, Mel Severson. After graduating from high school, she attended Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, studying for a degree in elementary education.

After completing her junior year of college, she and Mel decided to get married, as it appeared that he would be sent overseas by the Army Air Force, and she was adamant that they should marry before he went, so that, in her words, "He would be certain there would be someone here for him when he came home." She took the train from South Dakota to Manchester, New Hampshire, sitting on her suitcase in the aisle most of the way because of the many military personnel traveling.

Helen and Mel were married June 18, 1943. When Mel was shipped overseas in the fall of 1944, Helen returned to live in Yankton, South Dakota near her parents. When Mel returned, they lived in the Volin area on Helen’s parents’ homestead farm, with a few years in the DeSmet, South Dakota area. When they returned from DeSmet, the family joined Vangen Lutheran Church in Mission Hill, South Dakota.

Helen put her elementary education to good use, raising her children, being a farm wife, folk dancing with Sons of Norway, serving in various capacities at her church, visiting the hospitalized and homebound, visiting neighbors, and doing various kinds of needlework, including a Scandinavian needlework called hardanger. After her husband’s death in 2006, Helen moved to an apartment in Yankton, South Dakota, to Majestic Bluffs Assisted Living in 2012, and to Sister James Nursing Home in 2013.

Blessed to have shared her life are daughters: Valerie Philipp of Madison, South Dakota; Velma Larson of Volin, South Dakota; Valborg Severson of Yankton, South Dakota; Vi (Jim) Ramsey of Cape Town, South Africa; son, Mark Severson of Gulfport, Mississippi.

And 17 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren; numerous nieces and nephews, one brother-in law; and special friend, April Peterson of Stickney, South Dakota.

Helen was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, Mel in 2006, daughter, Virginia in 1965, sons, Paul in 1982 and Joe in 1991, brothers Julian, Milton, and Raymond, sister, Hannah, son-in-law, Phillip Larson, and daughter-in-law, Rita (Rieck) Severson.