Helen Marie Brose

Helen Marie Brose, born September 7, 1930, to Walter and Marie Gallinger, in Cumberland, Wisconsin, passed peacefully on Friday, February 3, 2017.  

She is survived by her husband of over 60 years, Val; son, Dale, of Santa Maria, California; daughter, Paula, of Santa Maria, and daughter, Kathy (Jon) Pierce, of Rancho Cucamonga, California, as well as her grandchildren: Lauren Brose, and Jonathan, Tyler and Melissa Pierce.  Her first great-granddaughter is to be born in April.  Helen is also survived by her sister, Mary, of Boise, Idaho, and several nieces and nephews in Washington and Idaho. She is predeceased by her brothers: Bill, Jack and George; sisters-in-law: Mary, Betty and Hazel; brother-in-law, Ellery, and her favorite yellow lab, Yukon Jac.

In 1939 her family moved from the family farm in Wisconsin to Grand Coulee Dam, Washington, where her dad and brothers worked on the construction of Grand Coulee Dam.  After graduating from Grand Coulee High School in 1948 she managed the telephone company in Grand Coulee.  She then went on to work for Boeing in Seattle, where she met her husband, Val.  After a move to San Diego and Florida and back to San Diego, Val was transferred to Vandenberg Air Force Base and they have resided in Santa Maria since 1958.  She was a homemaker until Dale was in junior high school when she went to work at Sears in the old store as well as the new store in the Town Center, where she was a teletype operator in the catalog department, retiring in 1995.  She was very involved in all of our school activities, sports and scouting.

She and Val enjoyed traveling, having traveled to every state in the United States, all Canadian Provinces and several trips to Europe. They were at their best when they were on the road.  She enjoyed gardening - especially raising orchids, cooking, shopping, crocheting afghans, sewing, gambling (any one-armed bandit would do, as long as it paid), attending NASCAR and sprint car races (Sammy Swindell was her favorite driver), and watching Kobe Bryant and the Lakers; but most of all - fishing at Cachuma, the Eastern Sierras, American and Sacramento Rivers, and trout fishing in Rush River as well as Twin Lakes in Washington. Her favorite was salmon fishing on the Sacramento River with her son Dale, and in her 80s she could still catch and land a 40 lb. salmon. It was an ongoing deal: I will go to the races but then we go fishing!

She will be greatly missed but she is at peace and we shall see each other again.

We would like to thank her caregivers, Percy, Bless, Michelle and Annie of All Family for all of their love and support of our mom, as well as Dignity Health Hospice nurse Trina, Mrs. Oklerblom and Chaplain Dominick Simonelli.

There will be no services for Helen at her request.  If you would like to make a donation in Helen’s memory, please contact your local Alzheimer’s Association.