Helen L. Reinsch

Helen was born February 9, 1927 in Axtell, KS, to Melvin and Anna Schulte. She was the second of seven children. Her parents were poor, but so was everyone else as the United States because of the Great Depression (1929-1939). The family lived with her widow grandfather, Henry Schulte, on his farm northeast of Axtell. Later they had their own farm where they had cows, chickens, pigs, and a rooster who would go after her brother Kenny, then one of the other kids would have to rescue him.

Money and jobs were scarce during the Depression. Helen’s mom made dresses for the girls out of flour sacks from the local elevator. One Christmas her dad was laid off from work and the kids were told there would be no gifts that holiday. But while they were eating supper on Christmas Eve, there was a loud knock at the front door. Her dad opened the door and a boy pushed a huge box inside the house. “Merry Christmas,” he said and dashed away into the night. The box was from the Boy Scouts and inside were a pair of overalls for each boy, shirt material to make them shirts, material to make dresses for the girls, and toys for the younger kids.

On the farm they had a big front yard with lots of trees and in the summertime all the kids would sit on an old quilt and read books or play games. When it was hot, they would get in the cows’ water tank and splash around to cool off.

They had an old car that was a Model T and the neighbor boy would drive it and run the kids and the older Deters children into Axtell to school. There was a big hill on the way and the car would only make it halfway up. So Helen and the other kids would climb out the windows and doors to push the car the rest of the way up the hill. Then they scrambled back into the car and off to school they went. When winter covered that hill with snow, kids from Axtell would walk the railroad tracks out to sled down it.

One of those winters Helen and her brother Kenny walked home from school in a blizzard. They were determined to get the farm chores done before dad got home. The other kids stayed with grandpa in town until dad picked them up after work. It was snowing so fast and hard that Kenny and Helen had a hard time staying on the road. It took them over 2 hours to walk the 2 1/4 miles home. When they got there, a neighbor lady was there and she got a pan of snow and started defrosting them. They were so stiff they couldn’t talk or move their arms. That night the chores didn’t get done.

Sometimes Helen and her siblings had to pick several gunny sacks of field corn and run it through the sheller. Her parents used the money from the sale of corn, eggs, and cream to buy groceries on Saturday nights and they gave a nickel to each child to buy candy. They always went to the same guy at the store because he gave them the most candy.

One night a week “The Hound of the Baskervilles” came on the radio. The scary story came on after bedtime, but Helen and Kenny were allowed to listen to the radio drama as long as they kept the lights off. When the broadcast ended, they would be so scared they couldn’t get to bed fast enough. The tree outside their bedroom would sway in the wind casting an eerie shadow on the window shade as they hid under the blankets.

Besides roller skating and basketball, Helen liked to wrestle and could always get the best of Kenny by using the scissor cut. He would have his two friends come over to wrestle with her, but she would always catch them in a scissor cut. She was 13 years old and wrestling in a dress.

Her folks moved to Baileyville, KS in 1944 where she finished her senior year of high school. She wanted to join the army and become a nurse. World War II was going on, so her dad was against the idea and signed her up for business school in Kansas City. She hated it. One day on her way to business school she saw a big sign that said “Help Wanted.” She got off at the next stop and walked back to the building. Helen went in, applied for the job and got it. She went to work the following Monday at Hallmark Cards and worked there for two years until she received an offer to work at REA in Axtell, KS.

She boarded with Dorothy (Deters) Walrod during the week when she worked at REA and on Friday nights she paid a friend to take her home to Baileyville. One Friday he couldn’t take her home, but Norbert Reinsch and his male friend were visiting Dorothy and she said they would take her home. They did and when she offered to pay Norbert, his friend said Norbert would settle for a hug and a kiss. Helen answered that a hug and kiss were more fun in the dark.

They dated for 18 months before they married on June 23, 1948. They lived at Norbert’s home farm near Summerfield, KS for five years. Three children were born then—Norbert, Jr. (1949), Robert (1950), and Nancy (1952).

They moved to Kansas City in 1953 after Norbert had gotten work in the city. Norbert eventually got a job at TWA as a sheet metal mechanic and retired from there after 28 years. They bought their first house on 81st Street near Gladstone, MO and had three more children—Michael (1954), Debbie (1956), and Linda (1957). They sold that place in 1958 and bought a 14 acre farm at 7724 North Broadway in Gladstone and four more children were born there—Doug (1960), Jeff (1962), Lori (1963), and Frank (1968).

For awhile Helen raised chickens and sold eggs. Every year she enjoyed planting a large garden and working it with her children. In the fall she would order peaches and can them. Most mornings the children awoke to the sound of her washing clothes in the basement. She loved having family and friends over—the picnics, the card games, the neighbor kids sleighing down their big hill. Probably the most fun she had was hiding all the Christmas gifts from her ten kids and then letting them think that Santa had brought them during the night or while the family had been driving around looking at all the houses decorated for Christmas.

Helen is survived by her sister: Darlene Haug; and her 10 children: Norbert F. Reinsch, Jr., Robert M. Reinsch (Debbie), Nancy Reinsch Johnson (Stan), Michael J. Reinsch (Delorse), Debra L. Dobbins (Ed), Linda S. Nelson (Greg), Douglas R. Reinsch (Tracy), Jeffrey D. Reinsch, Lori J. McKinnie (Gary), Frank G. Reinsch (Carey); and 23 grandchildren and 25 great grandchildren. Helen is preceded in death by her Husband: Norbert F. Reinsch, Sr.; Grandson: Richard Nelson; Son-in-law: Stan Johnson; Daughter-in-laws: Connie Reinsch and Tracy Reinsch; Siblings: Rosemary Rude, Kenny Schulte, Cora Ann Heiman, Jerry Schulte, Robert Schulte.

Visitation: Sunday, February 4th, Rosary at 2:30 p.m. and Visitation at 3:00-5:00 p.m. at Holy Family Catholic Church, 919 NE 96th Street, Kansas City, MO 64155.

Funeral Mass, Burial, and Luncheon: Monday, February 5th, 10:00 a.m. at Holy Family Catholic Church, 919 NE 96th Street, Kansas City, MO 64155.

Internment: Resurrection Cemetery, 5001 NE Cookingham Road, Kansas City, MO, 64156.

Please honor Helen's life by requesting a Mass in her memory.