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Helen Robbins

Helen Robbins Helen Robbins

Helen Lorinda Gess Amestoy Robbins, 94, died Nov. 2, 2022, at her home in Nashua.

The daughter of Julius and Alma (Applegren) Gess, she was born Feb. 13, 1928, in Wolf Point. She graduated for Wolf Point High School in 1946 and then went to Concordia College that fall, graduating in 1950.

She started working at the Farmers Union in the education department. Then, she met Fred Amestoy and they married in 1953. The couple moved to Hinsdale where they bought a dairy farm and had 20 cows that they milked.

Their son, Lyndon, was born in Glasgow July 9, 1954, which was over the Wolf Point Stampede weekend which they never made it too. Three years later, they moved to Wolf Point and had Heather, four years and one day later on July 10, 1958, once again during the Wolf Point Stampede, which they missed again.

The family moved to Missoula where she started teaching kindergarten in at their church, Atonement Lutheran. She taught there for six years. Prior to the divorce, she signed a contract to teach second grade in Nashua.

She joined Our Redeemer Lutheran Church and took part in the choir and teaching Sunday school.

In Nashua, she met bachelor janitor, Robert Robbins, and they married in April 1971. Robert, with 30 years as a janitor, and Helen, with 20 years of teaching, retired and started helping more with Grama Alma. She would go back to the second grade to teach a bird unit and then she would teach calligraphy to the art class.

She joined Valley View board for about five years. She joined the senior citizens and made the chokecherry syrup for the pancake suppers that they would have at the ball games.

She loved sewing. She would make jean quilts for all her family and friends. At the end of every summer, the children would arrive home with clothes that she made from the material they would pick out. She would do all of the family’s mending. She would also cut squares or strips for the ladies at the church’s quilting club. She played the piano for church and would laugh and say, “Did you hear all the mistakes?” And, they would all say they didn’t hear a thing.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Robert Robbins; brothers, Victor and Robert Gess; sister, Lorraine Morrison; son, Lyndon Amestoy; and grandsons, Justin and Johnathan Baker.

She is survived by her daughter, Heather Johnson of Nashua; and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18, at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Nashua with Pastor Bonnie Novak officiating. She will be buried by her husband in the Nashua Cemetery.

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