Helen Koerth Obituary

Helen Ruth Claire Lindell Koerth, former Lewistown resident, died on the morning of July 20, 2025, at her senior living home in Billings, MT with family by her side. She was nearly 98 years old. Born on August 31, 1927 in Roseau, Minnesota, to Charles Lindell and Helen Waag, she began life with resilience. Her mother died just eight days after her birth, and she was lovingly raised by her recently widowed maternal grandfather A. Waag and her Aunt Doris Waag until she was nine months old. Thereafter, she lived with her paternal grandparents (Karl and Cecelia Lindell) in Crookston, MN. She often spoke of her happy memories growing up, with winters in Crookston, summers with her cousins and Aunt Charlotte on their farm near Humboldt and frequent trips to Roseau, Lake of the Woods and Warroad to visit Aunt Ruth Sperling and the Waag family.

In time, her father, who was a prohibition agent under the Treasury Department and later a border patrolman, remarried and settled in Greenbush, MN with his new wife LaVern. Helen was living in Greenbush in the Fall of 1939 when she just missed her Grandfather Waag's train when it stopped en route to Southern California. He returned in the Spring of 1940, but died before reaching Roseau. Not long afterward, Helen moved to California with her father and stepmother, settling in the then-rural town of Fontana- a move she remembers for the trip through Montana to start school for the second time that Fall on the coast of Washington, only to move again only months later.

After graduating from high school in the Spring of 1945 she entered the Cadet Nurse Corps. The war was ongoing in the Pacific and because of the need for military nurses she obtained accelerated and subsidized nurses training. The war ended, but Helen continued her studies at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, California and thus began a nursing career that would span more than 50 years. She served in hospitals from Sacramento to the Bay Area and Southern California, North Dakota, Arizona and later in Lewistown, Montana, where the family moved in 1967.

Helen met Leonard Koerth, then a student at UC Berkeley, while completing residency requirements at Stanford University Hospital. They began dating in the summer of 1947 and married on January 3rd, 1949 in Reno, NV. In 1949, she began the great vocation of her personal life: motherhood. With her husband, Leonard (deceased 2000), she raised 10 children. Terry Eisen (John): Shannon, Matthew, Hilary, Jordan, Haley, and six great-grandchildren. Leonard Gregory Koerth (deceased). Jane Brown: Stephen, Cathleen, Kristine, Randilyn, and 13 great-grandchildren. Randall Koerth (deceased). John Koerth (Sharon): Joshua, Krimsen, Shawn, Kirsten and four great-grandchildren. Russell Koerth: Andrew and one great-grandchild. Dean Koerth: Lily, Eva and six great-grandchildren. Karen Robinson (John): Phineas, Zachary, and Annie. Melinda Anderson (deceased): Cyrus, Cierra and six great-grandchildren. Holly Hartley (Tim): HelenRose.

Helen often spoke of her wonderful memories camping with her family in Yosemite National Park, floating the Merced River on air mattresses and watching the Firefall at night. Years later, she would still be camping out in Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks, whenever anyone would take her even into her 80s. She swam and floated the creeks and rivers of Montana even into her 90s, with her grandchildren. Her family cherished time with her spent at the Sons of Norway Norwegian Camp in the Beartooth Mountains, where they learned all sorts of Scandinavian crafts, recipes and traditions with her.

Her faith was deep and lifelong. One of her proudest and most meaningful journeys was visiting the Holy Land, Israel, which "beat all". She lived her faith just as much at home. She asked for little and she never spoke ill of another. She leaves behind a life lived with grace, a heart open to all, and a circle of family and community who were forever changed by her care.

And now, we trust she is reunited with the ones she loved - her husband, her children, and especially her mother.

May she rest in peace, and may her memory be a blessing.

An interment has already taken place at the Lewistown City Cemetery on July 22, 2025.