Helen Waller
Helen Marie Waller, 92, of Malta, formerly of Circle, died June 24, 2026, at the Phillips County Hospital in Malta.
She was born in Circle on Nov. 4, 1933, to Floyd and Clarissa Quick, the fifth of seven children.
She attended Stoney Butte School 12 miles west of Circle and then moved to Circle for high school. During her first few days in freshman typing class, she met a young man named Gordon. They must have had a strong attraction to each other because it wasn’t long until he figured out that typing was not for him. As the story goes, Gordy got up from his seat, walked behind the row of other students who were typing, stopped at Helen and whispered in her ear, “I’m dropping this class because only one of us in the family needs to know how to type!” He then promptly enrolled in a mechanics class.
She was very studious, sang in musical groups and cheered at football games where Gordon excelled. They both graduated from Circle High School in May 1951 and began their 68 years of marriage on Sept. 25, 1951. He enlisted in the U.S. Army to serve in the Korean War. While he was stationed in Germany as a mechanic, she moved to New York City and worked as a teletyper for KLM Dutch Airlines.
When he was discharged, she had saved enough money to purchase their first car and they returned to Gordon’s family farm 15 miles northwest of Circle. In 1965, they moved into their new house three miles north of where he grew up and began their own farming/ranching operation, while raising five children, Mary, Lois, Lorie, Lisa and Harold.
She worked in the fields alongside Gordy. He would drive the small tractor and till the outside round in each field, while she drove the big tractor and tilled the rest. She was not only a hands-on farmer, but she used those typing skills from high school and served as the farm’s bookkeeper.
In the early 1970s, she became very concerned because Farm Credit Services only allowed the husband’s name on all their paperwork and she said, “If something happens to Gordy, I can run this farm just fine.” Through her efforts and many trips to testify before Congress in Washington, D.C., she was successful in getting the law changed so the wife’s name can also be listed on farming paperwork.
With her unwavering devotion to stewardship of the land and her drive to make the world a better place for future generations, she was a champion for family farmers and ranchers and a leading spokesperson for natural resource protection. She was a 55-year member of the Northern Plains Resource Council, served as national president of the National Family Farm Coalition, an organization she helped to create. In 1980, the Smithsonian Magazine featured her family farm and the inspirational message of sustainability of our national resources and agriculture’s
