Helen Kolden Alne

She was the fifth child of John Wahl and Oline Overaa Wahl. Upon

graduation from Astoria High School, she enrolled in the Emanuel

Hospital School of Nursing in Portland; she was a member of the

graduating class of 1943.

Upon graduation, Helen worked as an RN at Emanuel Hospital.

Helen and Vernon O. Kolden married Sept. 13, 1944. She and

Vern had two daughters, Gail Marie and Janice Ruth. In October

1948, Helen and her family moved to Neah Bay, Wash., for Vern to

work as an accountant at Crown Zellerbach Logging Company. In

early 1955, Vern was diagnosed with a terminal illness. The family

moved back to Portland. Vern died in December 1955. In 1956,

Helen returned to her nursing career, working at Emanuel Hospital

as night supervisor and later as Head Nurse of the Recovery Room.

In August 1967, she married Ernest Alne and moved to San

Gabriel, Calif. Helen embraced becoming the stepmother to

Ernest’s adult children, Daniel and Marilee. Helen loved being

Grandma Alne to Marilee and her husband Bill’s three daughters.

She also returned to her profession as a Registered Nurse at San Gabriel Community Hospital.

After 40 years in California, Helen and Ernest returned to Portland.

Helen’s primary focus in life was caring for others. This caregiving extended to family, friends

and neighbors. She was “Mom” or “Auntie Helen” to many. Her nephew, David G. Tangvald and

niece, Claire M. Tangvald, considered Helen their ‘second Mom’ after their mother’s death in

1953.

Helen was preceded in death by her husbands, Vernon and Ernest; her stepson, Daniel; her

nephew, David; all of her siblings and their spouses; and several Alne and Kolden sisters- and

brothers-in-law.

Survivors include daughters, Gail Kolden (David Sheets) and Jan Poujade (Harold) of Portland;

stepdaughter, Marilee Schroeder (William) of Atherton, Calif.; grandchildren, Kristen Vilhauer

(Thomas) and Kimberly Schroeder of California and Kari Britt Schroeder (Jonas Zimmermann)

of Switzerland; great-grandsons, Luke, Torben and Anders Vilhauer of California; Bjorn

Zimmermann of Switzerland; and niece, Claire Tangvald of Seattle.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m., Friday, Nov. 1, 2019, at Hearthstone at Murrayhill,

10880 S.W. Davies Rd., Beaverton, OR 97008. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the

Youth Drop-in Center at Bethel Lutheran Church, 5658 North Denver Ave., Portland, OR 97217.