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Obituary for Helen Blackburn
Helen Margott (Wiese) Blackburn 87 died of Alzheimer’s disease Monday December 14, 2015 at Stuart Community Care Center. Funeral services will be held at 11 A.M. on Saturday, December 19th at the Johnson Family Funeral Home in Stuart. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service at the funeral home. Burial will be at Dexter City Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be directed to the Alzheimer’s Association and sent in care of the funeral home. Online condolences may be left at www.johnsonfamilyfuneralhome.com.
She was born Feb. 10, 1928 in Shelby Township, Shelby Co. to Frank and Charlotte Wiese. She attended Newtown Country School in Shelby Co. and also Grand River No.7 in Hebron, IA completing the 8th grade. In 1941 the family moved to land west of Dexter on Highway 6 and started a truck farm, growing fruits and vegetables which they sold to grocery stores and the public. Her father planted 200 hundred apple trees. Later, after planting many acres of chrysanthemums for sale, the truck farm now became Wiese Greenhouse and Apple Orchard. You can imagine, it took the whole Wiese family to get all of the work done.
Helen was a hard worker her entire life. At the age of 16, after working hard in the family business, she moved in with a family in Des Moines and worked as housekeeper and nanny. She moved back home at age 17 to help her mom who had baby number 5, Frances.
In April 1947 she was united in marriage to Harry Blackburn. They moved to Seattle WA while Harry finished his Navy tour. They lived in various places after that, Stuart, Des Moines, and Adel. While in Adel, she and Harry also raised turkeys to sell. She always had a big garden and did a lot of canning. During this time she had 3 children and taught them the value of hard work as well. In the spring she drove back and forth to Dexter to work for her parents at Wiese Greenhouse. She did this until 1969 when her parents asked her and Harry if they would like to buy the business so they could retire. RIGHT NOW! They couldn’t wait to get started implementing all of their fresh ideas.
They worked side by side until 1989 when they sold Wiese Greenhouse and moved into a small house in Stuart. They continued to work side by side restoring it. They were so proud of the changes they made.
Helen enjoyed traveling with her husband and seeing beautiful displays of nature. They were avid photographers and at one point even learned to develop and print their own pictures. One year they took a long dreamed- of trip to Germany to visit her roots. It was quite an adventure but she was glad to get back to the USA! Having a picnic, even on a cold winter’s day, was always a favorite past time. Helen continued her love of flowers as was evident in her beautiful and colorful yard. She also loved to crochet, read, put together jigsaw puzzles, bake countless loaves of bread etc. Her hands were never idle.
Helen is survived by sisters Anna Andrie of Carlisle IA and Fran Cooper of Winterset. IA and son Walter Wiese of Buena Park CA; daughters Diana Blackburn of AR, Esther “Byrd” Martens (Bill) and son Harry Lee Blackburn (Becky) of Grimes IA. ; her 7 grandchildren, Josh (Kellie) Martens, Stephen Martens, Jessica Martens, Sarah (Matt) Thompson, Nathan Blackburn, Janel (James) Parrott, Brittany Blackburn; 2 great granddaughters, Kaydence and Hannah Martens. She is also survived by nieces and nephews and friends (and especially Jean Bohall , her beloved care giver who always went above and beyond what she had to do).
She was preceded in death by her husband Harry Blackburn, parents, Frank and Charlotte Wiese, and sister Gertrude Herron.
