Helen Marie Clark, 83

Helen Marie (Johns) Clark, 83, passed away lovingly in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, on Sept. 28, 2016.

She was born Aug. 31, 1933, in Juliaetta, Idaho, to Phil and Iva (Johnson) Johns as the youngest of three children. She lived with her family in Juliaetta until they moved to Phoenix, Ariz., for her mother’s health. Her family eventually moved to Southern California and before finishing high school, Helen married Gary Oelrich in 1950. After Gary’s service in the Air force, they settled in California to raise her family. Together they had three children, Raymond, Leatha and Kelly, all of whom are still living.

Helen and her family moved back to Juliaetta in 1965 to a ranch near the home where she was born on American Ridge until moving to Spokane, Wash., in 1969. After a divorce, Helen married Fran Haun in Salt Lake City, Utah, until his passing in 1991. She was heartbroken, but never gave up on life or love. Within a few years she relocated to Lewiston, Idaho, and reconnected with her former high-school friend Gale Clark whom she had known in the late 1940s. They became inseparable and married, living comfortably in Lewiston until Gale passed away accidentally in 1999. After traveling extensively she eventually moved to Bonners Ferry to be closer to her daughter, Leatha, for the last few years of Helen’s life. She joins her former husbands in Heaven and is once again reunited with her family who preceded her, including her mother, father, many friends, aunts and uncles and her sister, Margie Emmons from Lewiston, and her brother, Dick Johns, who had relocated to Florida to retire.

Helen loved music and traveling. She toured much of the United States and Canada with her former husband Fran in their motor home, living in Palm Springs during the winter. After Fran’s death Helen continued to travel, with Gale by her side, piloting her motor home all across the country. She loved travel to Hawaii and visited there many times. Considered one of the highlights of her life she traveled to Kelowna, British Columbia, in Canada, several years ago with her sister-in-law Margie Johns, her daughter Leatha and daughter-in-law Keri-Lynn and attended a live concert by famed singers Il Divo where she sat in the front row and got to meet all four singers personally. She has probably set a world record for the most number of Il Divo CDs owned by any one person! She enjoyed visiting her daughter, Kelly in California, and getting to know her grand-daughter, Erica’s new family.

She held many jobs within her lifetime: homemaker, the first female Washington state security guard for the Pinkerton Security company in Spokane; hearing aid technician, life insurance sales person and real estate agent to name a few. She enjoyed volunteering for hospice, and always had a kind word for everyone she met.

She is survived by her three children, Kelly Roberts in California, Leatha Lockhart (Len Schulte) in Bonners Ferry, and Raymond Oelrich (Keri-Lynn Oelrich) in Kelowna, British Columbia. She has many grandchildren, including Kelly’s two daughters, Erica Duran (Alex Duran) and Ami Kern (Adam Kern) in California. Erica and Alex gave Helen two great-grandchildren, Wyatt and Annabelle Duran. She has six grandchildren from her son’s family, Benjamin, Tristan, Cody and Dakota Oelrich, children of Raymond and his wife Keri-Lynn ,and two older grandchildren from Raymond, Ryan Oelrich in Honolulu and Jordan Dean Harlton-Oelrich (Kymmy Pearson) in Salmon Arm, British Columbia.

In the last years of her life and especially the last several months she had her daughter Leatha by her side virtually every day. In the last few weeks while in hospice care Leatha was by her side nearly every hour, day and night, with Kelly and Raymond holding space until Helen passed away at Leatha and Len’s home in their loving care. In the last week of her life she was visited by her family, nieces and nephews to say their goodbyes and be by her side, holding her hand, brushing her hair and singing to her. Her kitties were never far away.

As a young woman, Helen had an extended family who came to her home ranch in Idaho nearly every week from her brother and sister and their children, and in total nearly a dozen kids from all three families formed a life-long bond while growing up in Idaho. Those roots kept Helen and her daughter in Idaho until the day Helen passed away.

Funeral services will be held on Monday, Oct. 10, 2016, at 10 a.m. at Mountain View Chapel in Lewiston, Idaho. Burial will follow at Lewis Clark Memorial Gardens, 3521 Seventh St., across from the chapel.

In lieu of flowers the family asks any donation be made to a local hospice in a city of your choice, or to your local SPCA, where Helen adopted her two loving companions, Bubba and Cece, who were always by Helen’s side.

In notes before her passing, Helen said she wanted everyone to know: “Boy, what a life it’s been!”