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Mary Helen (Coakley) Kirkpatrick © Enid News and Eagle 8-12-2010 Submitted by: Jo Aguirre
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Mary Helen Kirkpatrick
December 21, 1935 - August 14, 2010
Mass of Christian burial for Mary Helen Kirkpatrick, 74-year-old Kremlin resident, will be 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 14, 2010, at St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church. Rev. Larry Kowalski will officiate. Burial will follow in Calvary Cemetery under the direction of Henninger-Hinson Funeral Home.
Mary Helen (Coakley) Kirkpatrick was born Dec. 21, 1935, in Enid, Okla., to Dan and Abbie Coakley of Kremlin, Okla. She attended the Kremlin School, graduating in 1954 and immediately entered and subsequently graduated from the Enid Business College. She then accepted employment with a local law firm. She attended the Kremlin School, graduating in 1954 and immediately entered and subsequently graduated from the Enid Business College. She then accepted employment with a local law firm. She married Roy "Doug" Kirkpatrick Sept. 1, 1956, at the Catholic church in Pond Creek. She remained in Oklahoma until orders and transportation were arranged for her to journey to Europe to join her husband, who was stationed on the East German border with a U.S. Army Cavalry Regiment that operated out of Fulda, Germany. She and her husband toured Germany and its adjacent countries as much as his military commitments would allow. The highlight of her Europe visit was attending the World's Fair in Belgium in 1958.
She birthed the first of three sons, Robert Gene, in the U.S. Army Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany, in June 1957. Mary Helen accompanied her husband to his next assignment in Fort Knox, Ky., and remained with him until he received orders for an unaccompanied tour to Korea in 1962. She returned to Kremlin with her son, Robert, and was employed by F.W. Zaloudek as their bookkeeper. Late 1962 saw her returning to Fort Knox with her husband on his return from Korea. They moved to Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, in 1966, where her husband was assigned to an infantry unit being formed for deployment to Vietnam. She gave birth to her second son, Timothy, in the U.S. Naval Hospital in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1967 -- her husband Doug was TDY in Thailand at the time.
Late 1967, she returned to Kremlin while Doug's unit deployed to Vietnam. She resumed her employment with the FW Zaloudek Case dealership as bookkeeper. 1969 saw her joining Doug in Fort Riley, Kan., where, as the wife of the senior non-commissioned officer of his unit, she found herself counselor, arbitrator, and at times negotiator, for the wives of the enlisted soldiers of Doug's unit. She performed this voluntary function with tact and compassion and was rewarded with the recognition and respect of not only those she assisted, but all the ladies of the unit.
Helen made many lifelong friends during her years as a military wife and continued communications through the years. Doug's retirement from the Army in December 1970 saw her return to Kremlin and her service to the community. She gave birth to her third son, Michael Sean, Dec. 29, 1975, eight days after her 40th birthday.
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