|
| |
Helen Mae Hein
© Fairview Funeral Home, Inc.
Submitted by: Jo Aguirre
© Fairview Funeral Home, Inc.
Helen Mae Hein
December 23, 1927 - March 3, 2024
Memorial services for Helen Mae Hein, 96, of Fairview, will be held at a later date. Arrangements are by Fairview Funeral Home, Inc., with burial being in the Fairview Cemetery.
Helen Mae Hein was born December 23, 1927 at Grandfield, Oklahoma to Carl Frederick Herman William Kaufeldt and Pearl Alice Meaders (Daniels) Kaufeldt and passed away March 3, 2024 at the Linwood Village nursing home in Cushing, Oklahoma.
Helen attended Loveland Schools in the "Big Pasture" area and graduated in 1946. While growing up she helped milk up to 55 cows every day both before and after school, and helped with gathering eggs from some 300 chickens and raising up to 60 turkeys. Every morning the train would blow its horns at the road crossing a little over a mile south of the home place, which was a signal for the kids to quickly finish up the milking and get cleaned up to meet the school bus, which was on its way.
Summers were spent helping tend a large garden and doing other farm work including the very hot, demanding and exhausting tasks of "chopping" cotton and shocking oats. Because Helen was the oldest of her immediate siblings, she usually drove the truck to haul the oats into the barn in addition to manhandling a pitchfork to throw the oats into the truck. As a reward from her dad for all of the hard work, Saturday afternoons were reserved for going into town with her two sisters and one brother, where each would get 10¢ for a pint of ice cream and 15¢ for admission to the matinee at the theater.
After graduating from Loveland, she attended Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, Oklahoma, where she met Ellsworth Lowell Hein; they married at OBU on September 14, 1951. After they both graduated from OBU, Helen moved with Ellsworth to Fort Worth, Texas where he attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. While there, she played piano for First Baptist Church, Grapevine, Texas, where Ellsworth served as music and education minister.
In 1956 Helen and Ellsworth moved to the Fairview area, where she helped take care of the farms and cattle, raised her family, and played the piano (always on a volunteer, unpaid basis) for many years for worship services, choir rehearsals and specials, revivals, Bible schools, weddings, funerals, and all other activities at First Baptist Church, Fairview, Oklahoma; she later served in the same capacity at other smaller churches in the area. Helen was known for an expressive, "heavy-handed" style of playing reminiscent of the distinctive old-time revival sound which generated enthusiasm in anyone privileged to hear her play.
Helen's greatest passion was singing and playing hymns and church music on the piano. She began playing for worship services at Loveland Baptist Church at around the age of 12; as she always told the story, they had to nearly drag her up to the piano because she was so scared to play that first time in front of people. She told them she knew only a few songs, and the people in the church replied that they would sing just those songs then. Helen has played for each and every church she has subsequently been a part of during her lifelong calling of over 78 years of playing music for churches of all sizes in several states across the U.S., including at Redfield, SD, Carson City, NV, Albuquerque, NM, Myrtle Beach, SC, Mountainberg, AR and on various mission trips, including those to Mexico and India with Partner 135, formerly known as the Tom & Kay Cox Worldwide Evangelistic Association. Helen has through her life been the regular church pianist at Loveland Baptist Church in Loveland Oklahoma; First Baptist Church in Grandfield, Oklahoma (revivals and special occasions only); Wallace Avenue Baptist Church in Shawnee, Oklahoma (substitute only); First Baptist Church in Grapevine, Texas; First Baptist Church in Fairview, Oklahoma (longest tenure); First Baptist Church in Ringwood, Oklahoma; First Baptist Church in Longdale, Oklahoma; Liberty Southern Baptist Church in Enid, Oklahoma; New Covenant Fellowship in Goltry, Oklahoma; Iglesia Bautista Maranatha near Ringwood, Oklahoma (substitute only); and Isabella Church of the Nazarene in Isabella, Oklahoma. She played, sang, and practiced for hours at home, and despite her increasing arthritis she was still playing for the residents of the Fairview Fellowship Home in Fairview, Oklahoma for the weekly Sunday afternoon church services and on occasion for groups and special events such as the VFW and monthly Saturday evening sing-a-longs up until her daughter Michelle moved her to Agra.
At various times through the years Helen taught music and piano to the younger grades at Progressive School and by giving private lessons at her home on the farm or at the students' homes, often not charging for the lessons because of her desire to spread her love of music. She was always involved in every imaginable church activity and for years taught a teenage (junior) Sunday School class, organized or helped with Vacation Bible Schools, helped out in the church kitchens, etc. She refused to be discouraged or defeated by the rampant sin and immorality of society, choosing rather to always present a positive outlook by relying on prayer and the strength she gained from trusting God. Without exception, Helen looked for and found the good side of people, and she never hesitated to tell anyone about the source of her strength, her savior Jesus Christ.
No one could produce a thinner, flakier or tastier pie crust than Helen, which she learned from her mother (a great cook), and no one could top her light and fluffy meringue, which turned out nearly perfect every time. From her mother-in-law she learned how to make the increasingly-rare German delicacies of cottage cheese pockets (verenika, not the more prevalent baked kind with onion gravy), cherry mousse, borscht, cracklins and other vanishing German hybrids of Volga River Russian dishes. During harvest throughout planting seasons, Helen made literally dozens and dozens of delicious raisin fried pies and Ranger cookies to keep the family and farm helpers fed and on the go.
She is survived by: son Fred Lowell Hein and wife Alana Dawn (Gunsaulis) Hein of Edmond, Oklahoma; daughter Michelle Renee (Hein) Hernandez of Agra, Oklahoma; and son Carl Ellsworth Hein and wife Samantha Lynn (Miller) Hein of Catoosa, Oklahoma; ten grandchildren: Autumn Michelle (Hein) Ross of Enid, Oklahoma; Nathaniel Ray Hein of Edmond, Oklahoma; Baylee Michelle Hernandez of San Francisco, California; Aaron Moises Hernandez and wife Allison Nicole (Beattie) Hernandez of Hermantown, Minnesota, Caleb Joseph Hein and wife Emily Marie (Dietrich) Hein of Claremore, Oklahoma; Andrew Landreth Hein and wife Kassandra Lynn (Jones) Hein of Bixby, Oklahoma; Isaac Jonathan Hein, Samuel Lazarus Hein, Malachi John Hein and Hannah Lynn Hein of Catoosa, Oklahoma; and six great-grandchildren: Desiree Eloise Ross and Marcus Desmond Ross of Enid, Oklahoma, Karson Andrew Lawrence Hein of Bixby, Oklahoma; Riley Jo Hein and Annie Mae Hein of Claremore, Oklahoma, and Charlotte Lou Hernandez of Hermantown, Minnesota.
Preceding Helen in death were her husband Ellsworth Lowell Hein, her parents Carl Frederick Herman William Kaufeldt and Pearl Alice Meaders (Daniels) Kaufeldt, sisters Pearl Aline (Kaufeldt) Scriven and husband Dale Scriven, and Kathleen Juanita (Kaufeldt) Counts and husband Don Counts, brother Glen Dale Kaufeldt, half-sisters Wilma Maxine Daniels Johnson and Dezera Edith Daniels Wood, half-brother David Edmond Daniels, and one unborn child.
Memorials may be made through Fairview Funeral Home, Inc. to Partner 135 or the Oklahoma Homes for Baptist Children.
|H Surnames - Fairview Cemetery|Major County Page| |Home|
This site may be freely linked, but not duplicated in any way without consent.
All rights reserved! Commercial use of material within this site is prohibited!
© 2000-2024 Oklahoma CemeteriesThe information on this site is provided free for the purpose of researching your genealogy. This material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, for your own research, as long as this message remains on all copied material. The information contained in this site may not be copied to any other site without written "snail-mail" permission. If you wish to have a copy of a donor's material, you must have their permission. All information found on these pages is under copyright of Oklahoma Cemeteries. This is to protect any and all information donated. The original submitter or source of the information will retain their copyright. Unless otherwise stated, any donated material is given to Oklahoma Cemeteries to make it available online. This material will always be available at no cost, it will always remain free to the researcher.