| Notes |
- Helen worked after high school graduation for a number of firms: John Deere, Hartzfeld Jewelers and Lerner's Vogue. Then she worked 10 years for JR Lobaugh, Realtor. During this time she also attended junior college classes in Kansas City, Missouri. She wrote a ltter every day for a year to her future husband while he was overseas in Korea.
Helen Grace Margaret Unger Kouba was born in Kansas City, Kansas on May 24, 1927, and passed away on May 6, 2023 in Bridgeton. She was preceded in death by her parents, Agnes and Albert Unger, older brother, Bill, and husband, Emil R. Kouba.
Helen was baptized as a small child, and faithfully attended First Baptist of KCK. She wrote that she “learned to love the Lord Jesus and to accept Him as my Savior.”
After high school graduation in 1945, she went to work full-time to support her parents. She sent herself to community college at night. She worked for almost a decade at JR Lobaugh’s insurance agency, earning her broker’s license and managing the office. At church, she was involved in teaching Sunday School and singing in the choir, where a certain Air Force Airman had been invited to meet the girl next to her in the choir loft! Helen told her mom that she met a man who had the funniest name she’d ever heard; Emil Kouba! When he left for Korea, they wrote each other daily. They married on August 14, 1955, and moved to Manhattan, Kansas where they welcomed their first son, Kevin, days before graduation! They moved to St. Louis with Emerson Electric. In 1958 they settled into their new home in Florissant, and joined Florissant Presbyterian. They welcomed a second son, Douglas. Later they joined Ferguson Presbyterian, where Helen was ordained as a Deaconess, serving the sick and elderly.
Friends often came to visit Helen & Emil, and she worked tirelessly to welcome overnight company and frequent dinner guests. They welcomed a daughter, Carol.
The family joined Hazelwood Baptist in 1972, where Helen taught youth in Sunday School and helped at Vacation Bible School. She helped sick neighbors, delivered Meals on Wheels, and transported kids so often she said she needed a “chauffeur’s hat.”
After joining First Baptist Ferguson in 1978, Helen made housecalls for each child enrolled in their preschool Sunday School classes. Helen & Emil taught for over 25 years, including their five grandkids.
They took family vacations each summer, seeing almost every continental state. Helen & Emil went to Hawaii in 1980 to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary, and were in Alaska during 9/11. Emil counted their wedding anniversary each month on the 14th and they celebrated with hamburgers. They reached 771 months before Emil’s death in 2019.
She and Emil loved supporting their grandkids, Philip, Andrew, Katherine, Emily and Laura with popcorn parties, rides to lessons and AWANA, attending their concerts, plays, and sporting events.
Helen survived breast cancer in 1994, a broken neck in 2016, and three strokes in 2018. She was an avid reader until Macular Degeneration dimmed most of her vision. Even into her 90’s, she loved keeping up with friends and family through Facebook.
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1927 - 2023 (95 years)
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