Helen M. Palenyk

Helen Mae (Martin) Palenyk, 85, of Mason City, passed away peacefully Wednesday, September 29, 2010 at the Good Shepherd Health Center. Funeral services will be held 10:30 AM Saturday, October 2, 2010 at Major Erickson Funeral Home, 111 N. Pennsylvania Avenue with Pastor Kathy Graves, Trinity Lutheran Church officiating. Interment will be in Elmwood-St. Joseph Cemetery. Visitation will be one hour prior to services. Memorials may be given to the Helen M. Palenyk Memorial Fund.

Helen was born on her family farm northeast of Lyle Minnesota on a cold December day, five days before Christmas on December 20, 1924 to Melvin and Eva (Fossey) Martin. The doctor was busy that day as a neighbor on a near by farm was also having a baby, and he drove his horse drawn sleigh from farm to farm. She joined big brother, Lee in the family, and later little brother Andrew joined them. As a little girl, Helen loved playing with the kitties on the farm, dressing them up as her babies and pushing them in her doll buggy or placing them in her doll cradle. She also had a special bond with their farm dogs. Helens love for animals was one that she kept all of her life. Helen and her husband, Ozzie ran the Texas Pet Shop in El Cajon, California during the time they lived in San Diego in the early 1960s, with a wide range of critters to love, ranging from mice to monkeys. Helen always had a least one dog or cat in her home. It was with great sadness that she had to leave her beloved kitty, Libby, with her daughter Connie and granddaughter Sarah when she entered Good Shepherd in March, 2009. Connie drove Libby down from Minneapolis on many visits to the nursing home and the caring staff at Good Shepherd tried to see that mom got to see any animal that came to visit at the nursing home to satisfy her longing for her four legged friends. Helen was a life long Lutheran, being baptized and confirmed in the Six Mile Grove Lutheran Church in rural Lyle, Minnesota. This was a church that was built by Norwegian immigrants in the 1860s with her forefathers helping make the bricks that formed the walls of the church. Her father and mother and all of her grand parents and great grand parents are laid to rest in that church yard. Helen moved to Mason City after her graduation from Lyle High School. She graduated from Hamilton Business College in Mason City and worked in the office of Deckers Meat Packing Plant, where she met the love of her life, Oscar (Ozzie) Palenyk. Helen and Ozzie were wed in Des Moines on August 10, 1947. Helen joined Trinity Lutheran Church in the 1940s after she moved to Mason City. At that time the church was meeting in the Palace Theater.

Helen and Ozzie were the proud parents of two daughters, Patty Lee (Paul) and Connie Mae (Stafford). Helen was the loving grandmother to Jason and Joshua Paul and Sarah and John Tyler Stafford, and great-grandmother to Wyatt Paul, all of whom survive her.

During Helens marriage to Ozzie, they moved to Florida where daughter Connie was born, to Bristow, Iowa, back to Mason City, to San Diego, California and returning to Mason City as Ozzie searched for his ship to come in. Helen learned to drive later in the life, after her husband passed away. She enjoyed zipping around town in her little red Toyota to one of Jason or Joshs baseball games. She became very interested in baseball by watching their games, and soon became a big Twins Baseball fan, just like her father had been before her. Later in life, Helen worked for many years at McDonalds West. As the lobby lady she always enjoyed seeing the little children in the lobby and getting ice cream cones for the tots.

Helen was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Oscar (Ozzie) in 1978, her infant granddaughter, Hannah Stafford, 1998, and her brother Lee Martin in 2009.

Memorials:
Helen M. Palenyk Memorial Fund

Cemetery:
Elmwood-St. Joseph Cemetery

Visitation:
One hour prior to service

Service:
10:30 AM Saturday, October 2, 2010 at Major Erickson Funeral Home