User:Helenannette

Helen Annetta Mitchel (Burgess) (my mother still living in Dixon, Missouri, just turned 80). (3rd Daughter of Laura May BROWN (Mitchell)

HELEN ANNETTA MITCHELL

b. 13 Aug. 1916 at Wilsonville, Furnas Co. Nebraska Daughter, and 3rd Child of Marion Elton Mitchell and Laura May Brown (story of Parents and childhood to be added at a later date)

1934 Graduated from high scool at Wilsonville, Nebraska.

Helen learned to play the piano very well while young, so she inherited her Mother's piana. She was unable to move it to her home, so gave it to the Methodist Church in Wilsonville. The unusual "Piano Stool" was given to her great-niece, Wendy Mitchell.

m.#1 To Wm. Van Cleve, in Oregon, ca 1936; div. ca 1940 They adopted a boy Myron Doyle" b. 16 March 1938. He now lives somewhere in Claifornia.

m.#2 mid-50's  ...maried to Frank Burgess, who was in the Military Service, and she spent a few years in Europe when he was stationed in France and Germany. He was discharged from Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, and she still lives in that area.

Frank and Helen adopted two children in Europe, Faith Helen, and Loren Lee, age about 4 and 3 years in 1957. Soon after they had returned to Missouri, Frank went back and got their new littley baby brother, Billy, and an older brother and sister, Ralph and Gunda. They all live in Missouri or mid-west, except Ralh, who lives in England.

Occupations: Beauty Operator in Denveer and elsewhere; Drove City Transit Bus in the Oakland Bay area in 1947; Good seamstress; needlework, remodled houses whereever she lived. She learned to do masonry from a frind in Missouri, and became proficent in building with stones of any shape or size. The rock-veneer on an existing building, plus additional walls and rooms on her home, complete with castle-like "Rotunda", is indeed a work of art. This big project subsequently called for putting in stained-glass windows, (salvaged from some old condemned building), the roof, fireplace, spiral staircase, which encircles a rockery and planter with bubbling waterfall; and she figured out a way to do it all, mostly by herself. Besides all this she has been a Licensed Nurse for 25 years or more. (Now retired from Ft. leaonard Wood, Mo.). Helen lives alone (near Hayden, North west of Dixon, MO), in her "Rock Castle" by a little man-made lake, her friend and neighbor, "joe Blackwell" named it "Lake helen", after helping her make it. She has stocked the lake with fish, and has an out-side gold-fish pond with water-lillies, etc. Roses and many other flowers, enhance the tranquil setting.

Helen's latest hobby is making beautiful stained glass pieces of any description one can imaginel window hangings, standing pieces, weather-vanes that turn, night lights, and even jewelry boxes, kleenex holders, and waste-baskets. A huge Canadian Goose, with wings that flap several times, after one pull of a string, is her most recent accomplishment.