Helen Elizabeth Westerlund
-- 1918 ~ 2011 --

Our dear mother, grandmother, and friend Helen Elizabeth Westerlund, formerly of Pleasant Grove and American Fork, passed away peacefully with family and friends at her side on September 24, 2011.

Helen was born on Wren’s Nest, the Anderson family farm, on November 29, 1918, in Centerville, South Dakota. She attended the University of South Dakota and taught sixth grade in a one room schoolhouse in rural Centerville.

Raymond S. Westerlund of Chicago (deceased, 1972) won her heart and they married in California in 1944. Helen and Ray moved to Provo in 1947 where he worked at Geneva Steel for over 20 years as Foreman in the Roll Shop. Utah Valley has been home to Helen for 64 years.

Helen was genuinely kind, non-judgmental, and generous. She was a gracious homemaker who loved and enjoyed her children and their friends and who served hundreds of her famous apple pies to countless friends and family. She loved her roses, gardening, and was actively involved in the Centerpoint Church for many years, where she played the piano and organ and still attended, for more than 60 years. Helen was a committed Christian and the first president of the Utah Valley Christian Women’s Club. In the mid-60s, she and a friend started a women’s Birthday Club in which she still participated in more than 50 years later.

Helen loved to travel and visited family in Germany and France several times and traveled three times to her ancestral roots in Sweden.

Helen is survived by her two children, John (Gail), Flagstaff, AZ and Janet, Seattle, WA, and three grandchildren, Brittany Jo Cole (deceased, 1986) and Katie, Tempe, AZ and Marty, Flagstaff, AZ. John and Janet would like to thank Cove Point Retirement Community for more than three years of loving care and The Berkshire Rehabilitation.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, October 1, 2011 at 11:00 am in the American Fork Community Presbyterian Church, 75 North 100 East, American Fork, Utah. A viewing will be held Friday, September 30, 2011 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, at the Warenski Funeral Home, 1776 North 900 East, American Fork, Utah and also on Saturday morning from 10:00 to 10:45 am prior to services at the church. Interment will be in the American Fork City Cemetery.