Helene A. MacDonald, 90, Dickinson, passed away peacefully Monday, June 14, 2010 at St. Joseph’s Hospital & Health Center, Dickinson following a brief illness. Helene’s funeral service will be at 2 p.m., Friday, June 18, 2010 at St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church, Dickinson, with Rev. Steven Schou officiating. Entombment will follow at the Dickinson Mausoleum. Visitation will be from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., with the family present to greet friends from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday at Ladbury Funeral Service, Dickinson. Visitation will continue one hour prior to service at the church on Friday. In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to the DSU Foundation in memory of Helene, or to the St. Cecelia Music Group.
Helene Alma Matthies was born May 12, 1920 in Wabasha, Minn., the daughter of Carl and Frieda Minna Marie Catherine (Kloock) Matthies. Helene’s mother died when she was 11 months old, and an aunt and grandparents helped care for her and two older brothers for several years until her father remarried when Helene was four years old. She was raised and attended high school in Willmar, Minn. thru the 10th grade, when the family moved to Minneapolis, Minn., and she graduated from Roosevelt High School. She attended the University of Minnesota, where she met her future husband, John H. MacDonald. She received her degree in Medical Technology from the University, and also earned her degree in pipe organ performance from the MacPhail Conservatory of Music in Minneapolis. They were married in 1944, and the two lived in several places, including Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and New York City, during the war and afterwards. In the 1950’s they moved to Dickinson, where John MacDonald joined the Dickinson State Teacher’s College (now DSU) science faculty. In 1960, she supervised the construction of a new family home on west 5th Street while her husband was away at graduate studies for the summer. For the rest of her life, Helene was active in church, university and community activities. For more than 50 years, she played the organ at St. John Lutheran Church, receiving special recognition from St. John’s during her 50th year there. She belonged to a number of local organizations, including the St. Cecelia’s music club and the P.E.O. Sisterhood, and a number of local and national environmental organizations, including the Badlands Environmental Association, Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund, and Defenders of Wildlife.
She had numerous interests which included music, gardening, travel, bird watching, environmental causes, politics, alternative and natural medicine, and outdoor activities. She spent many summer vacations with her family camping, birding, and hiking throughout the western US, Canada and Alaska. She had a special love for the badlands of North Dakota, and never tired of visiting and watching the wildlife in Theodore Roosevelt park. After her husband’s death in 1995, she enjoyed joining several international tour groups and cruises, including visits to Mexico, New Zealand, and Australia. At the age of 82, she became an avid kayaker, and was often seen gliding over the lakes and rivers of New Hampshire and Massachusetts on visits to her family there. Music was always one of the most important aspects of her life, and while she was comfortable playing anything from show tunes to Bach fugues, her greatest joy was to be able to play ‘Happy Birthday’ for someone, and she had a dozen arrangements of the tune available from simple to Baroque.
She was preceded in death by her husband, John, her parents, Carl and Frieda Matthies, her step-mother, Ruth Matthies, and two brothers, Leo and Arnold Matthies. She is survived by her son Kenneth and his wife Judith who reside in New Hampshire; two granddaughters, Sierra and Skye, and several nieces, nephews, and cousins.
