- Date Of Birth: June 22, 1922
- Date Of Death: November 4, 2020
- State: Iowa
Helen M. Petersen, 98, of Elk Horn, Iowa, passed away Wednesday, November 4, 2020, at Salem Lutheran Home in Elk Horn.
Helen Marie was born June 22, 1922, in Elk Horn, Iowa, to Hans and Freda (Larsen) Petersen. She graduated from high school and went to nurses training in Marshalltown with her sister Alice. She continued to work there for two and half years when she moved back to Elk Horn.
As youths, still in school, a boy used to steal Helen’s sled at the top of a hill and coast to the bottom, leaving Helen to walk down the hill sledless. The boy’s name was Glen Petersen and years later in 1946 Helen married him. She said, “I got even with him though – I married him!”
Helen and Glen had one daughter, Debbie. Helen didn’t work as a nurse too much when Debbie was small, but she eventually went to work at the Salem Nursing Home, where she was the first nurse on staff there.
In February of 1957, the family moved to Marshalltown for two and a half years and then moved to Atlantic in 1960. Glen worked as a mechanic and then as a heavy equipment operator for Cass County, until he retired in 1980. Helen worked as an office nurse for doctors, Emil and Millard Petersen.
