Obituaries » Helen Bishop
Helen Bishop
December 23, 1929 - April 21, 2023
Service Date: April 28, 2023
Funeral Home Memorial Services of Iowa
Helen Marie Bishop, 93, of Des Moines, Iowa, passed away at her son’s home on April 21, 2023, after a recent diagnosis of cancer, surrounded by her children.
Services will be held at Ankeny First United Methodist Church (206 SW Walnut St.) on Friday, April 28, 2023. Visitation will be from 10-11 a.m. with the service at 11 a.m. Burial will follow at Ankeny Memorial Gardens. The service will be live streamed at https://boxcast.tv/view/celebration-of-life-kxvbjy4st3kfnmqjyfj5
Helen was born on December 23, 1929, on her parent’s farm in Polk City, Iowa, the daughter of Anton Emanuel (Monny) and Claribel Maud (Price) Carlson.
Helen graduated from Boone High School in 1947 and moved to the big city of Des Moines at age 17 with her cousin and best friend, Betty Leonard, where she worked at Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Iowa, followed by Farmers Mutual Insurance and Merchants Bonding Company.
On January 16, 1949, she was united in marriage to Claude Bishop in West Des Moines, Iowa. They later moved to Ankeny, Iowa. Claude passed away in 2006.
Helen’s first job was being a mother to Robert and Susan. She and Claude raised Bob and Sue in Ankeny. She worked for the Ankeny Schools as a secretary at Terrace and then Northwest Elementary. She collected owls, Hummel figurines, and Boyd’s Bears.
Family was important to Helen. She was an involved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, attending plays, concerts, games, and even BMX races. She wrote in her personal history how when Bob left to work in Cedar Rapids, she felt he would be “half a world away. He left on a Sunday afternoon and I cried the rest of the afternoon and all night.” Good-byes were always hard for her, and all her family remembers her standing at the door or window, teary-eyed, waving her loved ones off to their respective homes.
She was a member of the Ankeny United Methodist Church.
She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, sister Jane Reed, and son-in-law, Dennis Link.
Helen is survived by a son, Robert Bishop and wife Laura of Monticello, Minnesota; a daughter, Sue Mather-Haugen and husband Duane; her grandchildren: Jeffrey BIshop (Kelly Huffman), Derrik Mather, Jacob Link-Mather, Jane Bishop Latour (Zach), and Daniel Haugen; two great-grandsons, Joseph and Johnny Mather; as well as her sister, Donna Lorenzen and husband Jerry.
Family and friends will now wave Helen on to her next home.