Charlotte Ann Helf

Charlotte Ann (Kamps) Helf

In the early morning of May 18, 2016, Charlotte passed away peacefully at Emerald Valley Assisted Living in Appleton of natural causes. She was 86 years old at the time of her passing.

Charlotte Helf was born in Combined Locks on March 6, 1930. She was the second child and first daughter of Edward and Hattie (Van Lieshout) Kamps.

Charlotte spent her whole life in Combined Locks, excelling early in school and graduating as her senior class valedictorian in 1948. She then went to work in the office for Shannon Distributors where she worked for 6 years. She married Gerald (Jerry) Helf on September 23, 1953, and together they raised two children, William Helf of Marion, Iowa, and Lisa (Helf) Ison of Isom, Kentucky.

Being an active member of St. Paul Catholic Church was an important part of Charlotte's life. Many church members will remember her dedication to the church kitchen and any and all events involving food--and there were a lot. Together with her mother, Hattie Kamps, they organized and worked countless beef roast dinners for the parish picnic at The Pavilion and later, Charlotte made hundreds of lemon meringue pies for the Dutch Treat. In addition, she assisted her mother (and later took over) organizing funeral lunches for parish funerals. Her daughter remembers using morning recess time at Janssen School to go over to the church basement with her friend Rene (Ristau) Daniels to set the tables for those luncheons while Charlotte hustled around the kitchen making her famous potato salad. Charlotte, along with a wonderful group of women from St. Paul's, also cooked for numerous retreats and other parish activities.

Besides her work in the kitchen, Charlotte was also an active member of the Mission Sewing group and she taught taught religion classes for grade schoolers for many years. Because of her love of music, Charlotte was most proud of her 55+ years of service as a member of the adult church choir.

Charlotte was also passionate advocate for education, volunteering for many school activities her children were involved in and serving on the Kimberly School Board from 1972 until 1982. Believing school was of utmost importance, Charlotte pushed her children to achieve perfect attendance, and her children have often told the story of how she sent Bill back to school when he accidentally came home for lunch at recess. His misdeed would have gone unnoticed had Charlotte not called the school to let them know what happened. Her daughter credits her 36-year teaching career to the fact that Charlotte always stressed the importance of a good education.

Charlotte was preceded in death by her infant brother, Richard; her dad, Edward, in 1981; and her mother, Hattie, in 1990.

Charlotte is survived by her son, Bill; her daughter, Lisa and husband, David Ison; grandson, Zeke Edward Maggard of Baltimore, Maryland; her sister, Laverne (Kamps) VandenHeuvel of Little Chute; and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, friends and three very special great-nieces, Arianna, Kyra, and Sabrina VandenHeuvel who Charlotte babysat for many years.

Memorial services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 21th, 2016, at St. Paul Catholic Church, 410 Wallace Street, Combined Locks, with Fr. Andy Kysely officiating. Friends may call at the church on Saturday from 9:30 a.m. until the time of the mass. Interment will be in St. Paul Cemetery. For online condolences, please visit www.verkuilenfh.com. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the St. Paul’s Religious Education Program.

 Service Information