Helen Mary Lilly Kleinschmidt Olson (90)passed away Monday 25 February 2013. She was born on 26 September 1922 to Edward and Hilda Kleinschmidt and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. She had an older sister,Ruth Kleinschmidt Polk, and a younger brother, Edward Kleinschmidt. Helen graduated from Manual Training High School in 1940 with honors. Answering the call like thousands of other women during WWII and wanting to serve her country, she joined the U. S. Cadet Nurse Corps and earned her Registered Nurse (RN) Baccalaureate degree. She entered her training at the Indianapolis City Hospital in 1943 and graduated in 1946. The U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps program started in 1943 when representative Frances Payne Bolton introduced legislation to create the corps to help mitigate the nursing crisis that existed in the United States at the time. President Roosevelt signed the bill into law in June 1943. The program was 30 months of intense training and working while living in a dormitory environment. This program was very successful with over 124,000 nurses across the nation graduating in the 5 years of its existence. The nurses who joined the Corps promised to remain active in nursing in either military or essential civilian nursing services for the duration of the war. Helen was to be commissioned a Lieutenant t in the Army had the war continued. The training program was intense and exhausting many times leaving the girls to work all night and attend their classes during the day. She told of memories of attending USO dances and discounts she would received because of the uniform. Stories of taking care of newborns and being able to detect an infection served her well as a mother of 4.
After the war Helen served in the tuberculosis ward of Indianapolis City Hospital. As was required, all the nurses were periodically tested. During this time her parents’ friends who lived across the street invited her to meet their nephew Victor E. Olson Jr. A 17th Airborne paratrooper who participated in the successful Operation Varsity in March 1945. They fell in love and were engaged and set a date of August 1948 for a wedding but in early in 1947 Helen tested positive and was sent to Sunnyside Sanitarium (north east of Indianapolis) for treatment. She was treated there for 9 months. Fortunately, she was cured. However this stay at Sunnyside delayed their wedding until June 1949. Victor was enrolled at Indiana University in Bloomington on the GI bill studying for his Baccalaureate and Masters degree in Geology. After graduation in 1952 they started their family. They had four children: Cynthia Kay, Richard Alan, Ruth Ellen and Lisa Marie.
Helen and Victor lived in many places during their 30 years of marriage including Indiana, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Maryland and Mississippi. In 1980 their marriage came to an end with Victor’s untimely death at age 60. After his death, Helen decided to go back to work as a nurse and entered a 300 hour refresher course at the local hospital.
Her training from the U. S. Cadet Nurse Corps served her well in various jobs and as a wonderful mother to her four children.
Helen loved to read which inspired her to volunteer to teach adults to read at her local library when she lived in Mississippi. She loved animals and they loved her and she nurtured and cared for many dogs, cats, fish, birds and one time a chicken over her life time. She enjoyed gardening and raised many types of flowers. She was a wonderful cook and a fabulous mother. She was an excellent Scrabble player and played often in her later years. She was a God loving woman and served her church and her God faithfully all her life.
Helen was preceded in death by her husband, parents, brother and sister. Her survivors include her daughters, Cynthia Olson Manock, Ruth Olson Busch and Lisa Olson Belkofer, her son, Richard Olson, her sons-in-law Stephen Manock, Guy Busch and Bob Belkofer, and her 3 grandchildren, Hannah Busch, Joshua Busch and Laura Belkofer.
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