Helen G. Kraul

Helen G. Kraul, 91
LISBON -- Helen Genevieve Lowe Kraul, 91, of Bethel and Portland, died on Thursday, April 28, 2011, at The Lamp in Lisbon where she had been a resident since July 2010. Two and a half years prior to the Lamp she had been a resident of Market Square.
Born in Greenwood on Sept. 12, 1919, the daughter of Alister and Rose McFaul Lowe, she was the second youngest of five siblings. After her birth the Lowe family soon moved to Bethel where she lived on Vernon Street and attended local schools. She graduated as Valedictorian from Gould Academy in the Class of 1939 where she was very active in sports.
After graduation she worked as a waitress for two winters at the Soreno Hotel in St. Petersburg, Fla., and two summers at the Mountain View House in Whitefield, N.H. She then moved to Portland, attended and graduated at the top of her class from Northeastern Business College. She first worked in the office of C. H. Robinson Paper Co., in Portland, until October 1942. She then took a job as the office manager of National Cash Register Co. There she worked for 40 years, retiring on April 30, 1982, where she was a very dedicated employee. She never missed a day of work in her life.
Helen was married to Karl O. Kraul on April 19, 1963. Helen purchased two lots on Raymond Pond in the 1960s where she and Karl built a summer cottage. They enjoyed every summer at the Lake up until 2004 when failing health kept Helen from returning to her cottage on the lake.
Helen was a devout Catholic. She was a lifetime member of the Bethel Historical Society and a member of the Portland Trails Association. For many years Helen was the secretary of the Raymond Pond Shores Association. She loved jigsaw puzzles and would always have one going on her puzzle board when you went to visit her. She also enjoyed crosswords, word search puzzles, feeding the birds, tending her flowers, working outdoors around her home, and a visit from friends; prior to her failing health she loved attending the Gould Academy Alumni reunions where she would catch up once again with school friends, especially Ginny and Mary.
She is survived by her nieces, Jane Lowe Ryerson and Katrina Lowe, a nephew, Alan T. Lowe all of Bethel; sister-in-law, Ramona Grover; stepdaughter, Grace K. Miller of Standish; step grandsons, Joseph Miller and Karl David Kraul both of Portland; and great-nieces and nephews of Bethel, Dixfield and Peru. Helen was predeceased by her husband Karl in 1990; two sisters, Grace Westleigh and Mary Lowe Philbrick Foster, two brothers, Charles E. and Robert J. Lowe; one niece, Charlene Philbrick Benedix Buck, and one nephew, James R. Lowe.
Graveside services will be held on Sunday, May 1, at 11:30 a.m., at Pine Grove Cemetery in West Bethel. Arrangements are under the direction of Greenleaf Funeral Home, 37 Vernon St., Bethel. Online condolences may be shared with her family at www.chandlerfunerals.com.
Helen G. Kraul