Helen LaVerne Pederson

Helen LaVerne Pederson was born December 3, 1928 in Sparland, Illinois and died November 4, 2014. Helen was the youngest of 12 children born to Lewis Griswold and Nellie Reay. She love being the youngest and she spent lots of time with her siblings and their wives and children. Throughout her life she told several great stories about her life with her mom. She worked in a textile mill as a weaver as her first job. She also worked as a bingo caller at the Eldorado and the Rainbow Club she also helped make the food while her husband Jim was a bartender at Ligouri‘s . She married James Edwin White who passed away March 7, 1982 and they have four children. Nellie Egan (Bill), Shirley Bearden (Wayne) , James White, and Janice Baetje (Mark). She has 9 grandchildren, 19 Great Grandchildren, and 5 great great grandchildren with more to arrive soon. Helen married Wayne Pederson on September 29, 1984 and they enjoyed their time together until this last August when he passed at the age of 92. She spent a lot of her time taking care of others and some of our favorite memories of her are her pie making marathons at Thanksgiving and Christmas. She always made sure that we all got pies and pumpkin bread. The most important thing to her was her family whether it was her parents and siblings, her spouse and her children or her grandkids and great grandkids. We have all been blessed to have such a loving and giving person to love us and to be such a great example of service.

She is loved and will be missed by us all.