(12/16/1937 – 3/15/2020)
Just before midnight on March 15, Helen Louise Burgess Lindhorst died as a result of a respiratory infection to which she was made vulnerable by congestive heart failure and advanced vascular dementia. She died on hospice in her daughter’s home with her children all present.
Helen was born in Yakima, WA in 1937 just after the Great Depression. This experience was imprinted on her in unique ways including her passion for gardening and putting up food, gleaning potatoes and hunting wild asparagus during her early years in Idaho, and her love of sewing and creating. Back in the 1970’s, she taught her daughters how to sew their own clothes and refused to buy them store-bought jeans, something her children never forgot. She continued to sew, crochet and knit throughout her life, winning blue ribbons at the SE Idaho State Fair every summer for her crocheted afghans, but to her utter frustration, never winning more than a white ribbon for her quilts.
A dyed-in-the-wool optimist, Helen married the crown prince of pessimism, Vernon Henry Lindhorst in 1961 and they built a house and home together in Ammon, ID until Vern died suddenly in 2012, shortly after celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. Helen designed the kitchen in her home, and repeatedly painted it the same sunny yellow throughout the 40+ years she lived on Georgia Lane. Helen’s focus on the bright side of life sometimes prevented her from acknowledging the harder things happening, a trait that was challenging for her children, particularly in the last year of her life when her declining health became ever more serious and life-inhibiting. In her last months, whenever Helen woke up, she would sweetly say, “Well, good morning!” And when asked how she was feeling, she would always answer, “just fine,” no matter what was happening. And yet, despite her love of romances and sweet treats, she was captivated by the news no matter how harsh, catching the morning, noon, evening and late editions each day, and faithfully reading the Idaho Falls Post Register from cover to cover before completing all the puzzles in the comics section.
One of Helen’s great acts of creativity was the birth of her four children in a three and a half year period. In the first year of having four children in diapers, her doctor ordered her husband to take care of the kids on Saturdays to prevent Helen from going insane. She used that time to become a genealogist, learning the intricacies of micro-film, studying county records and visiting cemeteries across the country as she traveled, eventually producing two self-published books of family history. As her children grew, she encouraged a passion for reading and history that has produced lifelong joy for them and her grandchildren. None of the family can pass a bookstore without finding something that needs to come home with them. She also taught all of her children (and their sixth grade classes) how to dance, but that particular skill did not stick with any of them.
Helen loved the desert, whether the high desert of Prosser, WA where she graduated from high school in 1956, the Mojave desert around Las Vegas where she and Vern had their children in the 1960’s or the sagebrush desert of the Snake River Plain where she lived for 53 years. She was a lifelong Cougar after graduating in 1960 alongside her mother from the School of Education in the first class from Washington State University, after its change from Washington State College. She actively took part in the fierce intra-family rivalry each Apple Cup season, such was her love of football and competing.
Helen had cornflower blue eyes which could spot deer hidden in the trees, and the hawk and osprey on their poles during long road trips. As the family’s navigator, Helen knew where she was when no one else did, whether on the backroads of eastern Washington or the cornfields of Kansas and Nebraska where her husband grew up. Helen was a physical education teacher for a short while, and she loved biking, hiking, camping, and cross country skiing until early heart disease in her 50’s began to limit her activities. She and Vern hiked and backpacked the Teton Crest Trail, camped many weekends in a corner of the dam at Palisades Reservoir and picked huckleberries every August in Targhee National Forest.
Duplicate bridge playing was one of Helen’s passion in her later years. She became a Life Master in her 50’s, traveling with her friends from the Idaho Falls Bridge Club to tournaments and events. Bridge was her main social outlet after her husband died, and she faithfully played every week, especially in games organized by her dear friend, Corky Parks. Her children refused to learn bridge, but the entire family loved a good card game. Every gathering included rounds of Hand and Foot where the biggest strategic move was to figure out how not to sit behind Helen since she liked to take risks and prevent the next player from having opportunities to win.
At the end of her life, Helen told her children she had a good life, despite the anguish of losing her husband and her youngest daughter Tracy to sudden deaths. She lived independently until the last 10 months before reluctantly allowing her children to take turns taking care of her, first in her home in Idaho and eventually in one of theirs in Seattle. She is survived by her children, Taryn (Cindy), Ross (Amy) and Pam (Jack), and her grandchildren Jared, Melynda (Jason), Marcus (Reanne), Timothy and Stephen. She wished she could have lived long enough to meet her first great-grandchild due in August. She is also survived by her siblings, Richard (Lindy), Kathy (Larry), David and Dorothy (Russ) and her in-laws Nadine (Jim) and Jan (Garry) and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.
No services will be held because of the covid-19 crisis which has closed all funeral homes in Washington state. If you feel so moved, the family encourages donation to the Grand Teton National Park Foundation (https://www.gtnpf.org/donate/) in Helen’s memory.