Fergus Falls - Martha E. Helgeland, 95, formerly of Thief River Falls, died Saturday, November 25, 2000 at Broen Memorial Home in Fergus Falls.
Funeral services were held at 11 a.m. on Monday, November 27 at the Light and Life Auditorium at Broen Memorial Home with Rev. Harland Helland and Ed Starkey officiating. Interment was in Greenwood Cemetery in Thief River Falls with Glende-Johnson-Nelson & Nilson Funeral Home in charge of the arrangements.
Martha E. Newton was born on December 2, 1904 at the home of her grandparents in McIntosh, the daughter of Carl and Mathilda (Enerson) Newton. She graduated from McIntosh High School and attended Normal Training School in Duluth and McIntosh. She taught at rural schools in the Gonvick, McIntosh and Thief River Falls areas. During the summers, she worked as a cook for a threshing crew in North Dakota.
When she was teaching school in Thief River Falls in 1930, she met O. Edwin Helgeland at a basket social. The couple married on June 12, 1937 at McIntosh and made their home on a farm east of Thief River Falls. Martha continued to lived on the farm after Edwin's death in 1986 until spending time with her daughter and then moving to Broen Memorial Home in Fergus Falls in 1997.
Throughout most of her married life, she was an active member of Trinity Lutheran Church in Thief River Falls and its women's group where she made layettes, infant quilts and jellies. She was also an active homemakers club member and secretary of her township board for many years. Along with her husband, Martha was influential in the development of Pioneer Village and Abundant Life Church in Thief River Falls.
She is survived by a daughter, Joyce (J. Arthur) Johnson of Fergus Falls; a son, Orrin E. (Shirley) Helgeland of Burwell, Neb.; five grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and a brother, Clifford Newton of Aitkin.
Martha was preceded in death by her parents, husband, and three brothers, Teodure, Edward and Norman. A00003B2000NV29