Helen Louise Conway

RAPID CITY - Helen Louise Conway died at Clarkson Mountain View Nursing Home after a long twilight of Alzheimer's. She was born June 13, 1918, in Rapid City to Harry and Lois (Piper) Poppe. She graduated from Rapid City High School in 1936, attended Wessington Springs Bible College, and then National College of Business. She married Floyd Knutson in 1940. They had two daughters and she was widowed in 1945 and resumed working, first at Larkin's Grocery Market and then the New Valet Cleaners. She married Robert Conway in 1950, and had eight more children. Helen was a member of the VFW Ladies' Auxiliary and often acted as a flag bearer in parades. She was also a longtime member of the Marion Society of Blessed Sacrament Church, acting as its president for several terms. The 12 Apostles Group followed and she was instrumental in organizing funeral lunches and church cleanings. She also was a Girl Scout leader and scorekeeper for innumerable Little League ball games. Helen was a longtime member of the Canyon Lake Senior Center and an everyday exerciser there for years. She became involved with TOPS in 1967, earning her KOPS status less than a year later, and received her 20-year pin. She is survived by her devoted husband and ten children, Carrie (Knutson) and Ron Baker, Merry Knutson Steensland, Jean (Conway) and Kyle Kircher, Kathy (Conway) and John Drewitz, Frank and Kim (Magnuson) Conway, Kevin and Carol (Shabino) Conway, Jennifer (Conway) and Brad Nelson, all of Rapid City, Rob and Yani (Romuga) Conway, Everett, Washington, Kristin (Conway) and Bruce Brandt, Pine Haven, Wyoming, and Audrey (Conway) and Ken VanVolkenburg, Angola, New York; and two sisters, Mary Poppe Manzo and Gladys (Poppe) and Don Weiland, all of Rapid City. Helen also has twenty-six grandchildren and ten, almost eleven, great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by an infant daughter, Heidi, her parents, a brother, Glen Poppe and her first husband. She regaled her children with tales of the Depression and her family's good fortune because her father worked for the railroad, how she walked to high school in freezing weather from their home on East New York St. or out to Canyon Lake in the heat so that she and her sister could swim its width, and how the first family telephone was one she paid for. Her Alzheimer's was such a cruel fate for a person whose memory for names and details was legendary. Bob and her toy poodle, Cha-Cha, have been almost daily visitors at the nursing home, passing up many opportunities to travel. She will be missed and remembered by so many as a kind, affectionate, caring mother and a good friend. Visitation will be from 5:30 p.m. until 7 p.m. Sunday, with a Christian Wake Service at 7 p.m., at the Osheim-Catron Funeral Home. Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at 10 a.m. Monday at the Blessed Sacrament Church, with Rev. Kevin Achbach as the Celebrant. Interment will be at the Black Hills National Cemetery. A memorial has been established for the Canyon Lake Senior Citizens Center.