On November 07, 1928, a daughter was born to Allen and Ruth (Dunlap) Bower. She was their first child and she was named Helen Arlene Bower. Before a year had passed, the stock market crashed and Helen, like so many others, would grow up a child of the Depression. In 1936, after years of struggle in agriculture, her father sold out and moved the family to the town of Vivian, South Dakota where Helen would grow to adulthood. Though times were hard she had a good and happy childhood; and although they were poor it didn’t seem to matter because everyone else was too.

Helen graduated from Vivian High School in May of 1946 as valedictorian of her class, an accomplishment which brought her much pride. That summer she attended Spearfish Normal School, later Black Hills State University, and obtained a teaching certificate. In September of 1946, although she was only seventeen years of age, she began teaching at South Kolls School (also known as the Marshall School) northwest of Draper, South Dakota. She boarded with the Gunnar Magnuson family and they became lifelong friends. Helen taught school for two years and though her teaching career was short it had a profound effect on her and she spoke of often for the rest of her life.

In the fall of 1947 Helen met a young man who would become the love of her life and on June 6th, 1948 Jess McMillan and Helen Bower were wed; a marriage which lasted for over fifty years until his death in December of 1998. This union was blessed with four children.

Helen and her family moved often those first years after her marriage as her husband worked as a farm laborer. In the fall of 1954 this work brought them to the Dykstra place just south of Murdo, South Dakota. She lived here until January of 1960 when, at long last, she and Jess moved a mile down the road onto a place of their own where she would live for the next fifty-five years. During these years she worked as a homemaker, carried rural mail part-time for her husband and raised her children. Helen taught the Story Hour group for several years, reading books and stories to a generation of Murdo’s preschoolers. In 1973 Helen began selling Avon products door-to-door, a job she would continue for the next twenty-five years. Her people skills made her a top salesperson and she won many awards for her salesmanship. Helen loved people and people loved and respected her. Helen said of her Avon career, ‘I began because I needed the money and something to do and I stayed because I loved the people.’

After her husband passed, Helen retired from much of her active life but still found pleasure in writing a weekly column for the local newspaper. In September of 2015 she moved into the Edgewood Assisted Living Center in Pierre, South Dakota, later taking residence in the Scotchman Living Center in Philip, South Dakota where she lived until her passing on September 12th, 2025 at the age of 96 years, 10 months and 5 days.

Helen is now reunited with her husband Jess, parents Allen and Ruth, brother Lloyd, sister Irene and husband Delmar Olsen, and her beloved daughter-in-law Cheryl McMillan.

She leaves to mourn her sons Michael and Casey (Marlene), daughters Kathleen (Virgil) Stickler and Teresa Schweitzer, grandchildren Miles, Corinna, Carrie, Carla, Eric, Mark, Brandon and Serena, 12 great-grandchildren, 3 great-great grandchildren and sister-in-law Karen Bower.

Prayer services will be held 7:30 p.m. CDT Tuesday, September 16, at Messiah Lutheran Church in Murdo.

Funeral services will be held 11:00 a.m. CDT Wednesday, September 17, at the Messiah Lutheran Church in Murdo with Pastor Ray Greenseth officiating.

Interment will follow the luncheon at the Murdo Cemetery.