Helena (Burkardt) Ketterling

Helena (Burkardt) Ketterling, 83 of Devils Lake, ND passed away on Thursday afternoon, June 14, 2018 at Altru Hospital, Grand Forks, ND surrounded by her loving family.

Funeral Services for Helena will be held on Saturday, June 16, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. at the Gilbertson Funeral Home, Devils Lake, ND with Reverend Jim Paulson officiating. Burial will be in the Minnewaukan Cemetery at a later date.  

Visitation will be held at the funeral home one hour prior to the funeral service.

Helena “Helen” Ketterling passed away on Thursday, June 14, 2018 at Altru Hospital in Grand Forks, North Dakota surrounded by her family, at the age of 83.

Helena, formerly Helena Burkhardt, was born on May 3, 1935 in Lochau, Austria. After the Second World War, she crossed the Alps with her father, brother and sister into Germany. Her family settled in Kempten in Southern Germany.

Helena married Elmer Ketterling of Leola, South Dakota while he was stationed in Wiesbaden, Germany. The couple immigrated to the United States in 1972 with their two children, Douglas and Eva. They moved to Minnewaukan, North Dakota in 1976 and Elmer died the same year.

Helena worked at Sioux Manufacturing Plant and the Odd Fellow’s Home. After retiring in 1995, she spent a lot of time with her granddaughter, Camerin, who considers herself extremely lucky to have enjoyed twenty two years with the best grandma around. She enjoyed gardening, going to the casino, visiting Arizona to see family, camping with Mark and Eva, and chatting over coffee with family and friends.

She taught all those who loved her how to live with energy, spunk, and kindness and, more importantly, how to die with dignity.

Helena will be missed by her children, Douglas Ketterling and wife Mary of Paradise Valley, Arizona, and Eva Olson and husband Mark of Devils Lake; her sister, Rosa Young and husband, Joseph of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; four grandchildren, Camerin Ketterling, Carli Larson, Adam Nicholson and Ben Nicholson; nine great grandchildren, nieces and nephews in both Germany and the United States, and her miniature dachshund, Schatze.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Elmer Ketterling; her parents, Hugo and Mathilde Burkhardt; her mother-in-law, Eva Ketterling; and her siblings, Hugo, Arnold, Hanni and Hilde.

Those who knew her will miss seeing her walk Schatze, chatting with her at Mark’s Greenhouse, eating her schnitzel and krautkrapfe, and experiencing her no-nonsense attitude and never ending selflessness.