Helen Dawson died on March 12, 2018, one day before her 96th birthday. A long-time resident of Bethel, she had lived in Gracepointe Crossing in Cambridge since August 2016. A celebration of Helen’s life will be held at 11:00 AM on June 16th at West Bethel United Methodist Church.
Helen was born in Minneapolis on March 13, 1922, the second of five children of Alek and Anna Manick who’d immigrated to the U.S. before WW1 from what is now Ukraine. The family moved to a farm in Henriette, Minn., in 1931. She graduated from high school in 1940, trained as a teacher, and then taught in rural Isanti County schools. She was a substitute teacher in the St. Francis school system for 30 years.
In 1947, Helen married Fred Dawson, who died in 1979. They had three daughters, who survive her: Mary of Bethel, Deanna of Greenbelt, Md., and Kathy (Norman Allott) of Dublin, Ireland. She is also survived by granddaughters Emma Allott (Sven Johnson) of Durham, N.C., and Zoe Allott (Donal O’Shea) of London, England; great grandson Finn O’Shea; and 14 nieces and nephews.