Helen O'Day Barrett
Helen O’Day Barrett was born April 14, 1915 in Van Wert, Ohio. She was the second child born to Lulu and Gaylord O’Day. Times were tough in those early years and she spent four long years with her grandparents in Ohio before being reunited in Missoula with her siblings and mother.
Helen acquired a job as a shop clerk and then a tailoress to support herself. It was 1933 and jobs were hard to find during the Great Depression. On weekends, she and her sister Ruby would go to the Big Band Dances. Helen was quite the dancer and often reminisced about the fun and good times she had. She made many lifetime friends during those salad years.
She met and married her forever love in 1940. He was tall dark and handsome; a perfect foil to her petite stature and fair colored hair. World War II came between them. She wrote him every day. Helen’s brother Floyd was in the Pacific front while her husband Barney was in the European front. Late in the war, a telegram came. No one wanted to open it as it could only have the worst news, and it was. Her younger brother was killed on board ship by a Kamikaze pilot.
In 1945, Barney landed home in Washington State. Helen saw him and ran and pulled him out of the ranks with a huge welcome home embrace. His sergeant made him rejoin the ranks and then dismissed him to Helen’s loving arms.
After the war, Helen and Barney bought businesses and sold them. They adopted their only child and moved to California. They traveled Montana and California for eighteen years and eventually retired to Missoula.
Helen always loved to travel. During the war, when her husband was state side, she rode the railroads from one ocean to the other and often remarked how she loved the sound of the whistle blowing on the night air. She and her husband traveled the world and truly had great golden years.
Helen was gifted with a talent for music. She loved to play her organ by ear and often serenaded her guests. She was a great cook who loved to entertain friends and family at her dining room table. Helen was accomplished in sewing, crocheting and knitting. She won several Best of Show Blue Ribbons at the Missoula County Fair. She was a shopper, selective and deliberate. Her husband said, “Helen can spend twenty minutes picking out a loaf of bread” and often did. But there was never anything less than perfection that came out of her oven.
Both Helen and Barney were sharp of mind until the very end. He was the anchor in her life and she was the sparkle in his eye. They had a full long and loving relationship for sixty-eight years. They were the focus of each other’s love. Their lyrics to the song “I’ll Be Loving You Always” was exactly the way they lived.
Helen was a loving mother, grandmother and aunt. She had long and well-lived life. She came through hardships in her young life and triumphs in her adult life. She loved to find the moon each evening, a habit that began during the war. She would think to herself, “Barney is looking at this same moon” and that would comfort her. Spring was her favorite season. She would peer into the surrounding landscape looking for any hint of green. And with her passing, spring will never be so light and gay.
Helen was preceded in death by her husband, Barney, mother, Lulu and father Gaylord, one sister Ruby, brother Floyd and her grandson Bud Shiel. She is survived by her devoted daughter Kathleen, two sisters-in-laws, Geraldine and Janet Barrett; two brothers-in-law, William and James Barrett; and numerous nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews and one brother.
The Rosary will be held at 7:00 p.m. Friday October 30 at the Sacred Heart Church of Bridger. Reception will be held at the Scott home. Helen’s funeral will be at 11:00 a.m. Saturday October 31 at Sacred Heart Church followed by a reception there.
Cremation has occurred. Interment will be in the Rockvale Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests those wishing to do so, make donations to the Hospice program at Beartooth Hospital and Health Center, P.O. Box 590, Red Lodge, Mt 59068
Remembrances
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