Helene Anabel (Anderson) Hedges was born August 12, 1922, at the rural home of her parents, Carrol and Edith (Crawford) Anderson. She passed away January 29, 2023, at the age of 100 years, 5 months and 17 days. Funeral Service will be Friday, February 3, 2023, 10:30 am at Memorial United Methodist Church in Lyons, NE. Visitation is Thursday from 5-7 pm also at the Memorial United Methodist Church. Burial at Lyons Cemetery, Lyons, NE. Memorials can be made to Memorial United Methodist Church in Lyons, NE. Pelan Funeral Services of Lyons is assisting the family.
Helene attended Jefferson Country School through the 10th grade and graduated from Lyons High School in 1939. After attending National Business Training School in Sioux City, Iowa, she worked for the Iowa State Health Department. She moved to California in 1942, worked at the army base Camp Cooke and later was a Stenographer at Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank for 3 years until the end of World War II.
Helene met Sgt. Frank Hedges (formerly of Walthill, Nebraska) who was stationed in California after being a Japanese Prisoner of War for 42 months. They were united in marriage on March 21, 1946, in Glendale, California and moved back to Nebraska in 1949. They farmed for 14 years in the Jefferson neighborhood. They were blessed with 2 sons, William Frank and Michael Carrol. They left the farm in 1965 and moved to Lyons.
Helene was a Burt County Executive Secretary for the Selective Service System in Tekamah from 1962 until 1973. She was also the Executive Secretary at the Cuming County office in West Point until the Selective Service was discontinued in 1975. She did office work for Swine Service Specialists for 11 years until retirement. After her husband passed away in 2012, she lived with her son Bill until 2020 when she moved into Oakland Heights.
Helene was a member of the Lyons Memorial United Methodist Church and United Methodist Women of the Church, Jefferson Aid Club and special Pinochle Clubs. She loved reading, and the many “get togethers” when relatives and friends came for visits. Helene and Frank were blessed to celebrate their 65th Wedding Anniversary in 2011.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Frank; parents; sister, Margaret Steen and her husband Kenneth Steen; brother-in-law, Norman Stammer; brother, Elton Anderson and his wife Alice Anderson; niece, Susanne Anderson; nephew, Larry Anderson; infant great granddaughter, Sophia Oxendale; niece, Joyce Deman.
Survivors include her sons, William “Bill” Hedges of Lyons and Michael Hedges of Clayton WI; sister, Berniece Stammer; five grandchildren: Jorma Hedges, Sarah Oxendale, Aaron Hedges, Hayley Jones, and James Hedges; three great grandchilden: Ty and Teagan Oxendale and Jaiden Jones; eight special nieces and nephews; two special “double cousins”.