Helen McCormack, 95, longtime Des Lacs area resident, died on Thursday, May 17, 2012 in her granddaughter's home in Moorhead, MN.

Helen Luella was born at the family farm home east of Tuttle on February 22, 1917 to John and Mina (Tuntland) Riskedahl. She was one of nine children. She graduated from Tuttle High school in 1935 and then worked as a nanny in Chicago. Helen attended Valley City State College where she earned her standard teaching certification and taught in a country school near Tuttle before being hired at the school in Tuttle. Her first job was teaching grades one through eight all in one room. In the winter the school would be cold when she arrived in the morning and it was also her job to put coal in the furnace.

Helen married Fred McCormack on December 14, 1945 at the farm where she was raised. She had been introduced to Fred by another teacher in Tuttle, his twin sister Margaret. Helen and Fred made their home in the Des Lacs area and built a house south of town where they were together until Fred died in 1993. They enjoyed working on their home for more than 20 years before it was finished. Fred did the woodworking and she did the staining and varnishing. They raised four children before Helen resumed her teaching career at Des Lacs-Burlington where she taught until she was 70. Many will remember the 1959 Chevrolet Impala she drove to school until she retired in 1987. In addition, Helen seemed to thrive when she could work in her flower beds and vegetable garden and for many years she had the job of milking, by hand, a small dairy herd which included as many as 14 cows.

Helen was a member of the Des Lacs Methodist Church and enjoyed being part of its Women's Society. She was also a member of the Rolling Green Homemakers. Her friends in those organizations were especially dear to her. Also, she enjoyed the friendships she made while teaching in Burlington, friendships that lasted long after she retired from teaching.

In recent years Helen had lived with her daughter Mary in Fargo and had been in and out of nursing homes numerous times.

Helen believed there would be life after death. One of her last acts of kindness to her family happened last Christmas when she presented to each of her children and grandchildren a book titled "Heaven Is For Real" which is about a boy from Nebraska who visited Heaven and returned to tell about it.

Surviving family includes; sons: Fred (Jacki)of Maplewood, MN, and Craig (Jill) of Des Lacs; daughter Mary of Fargo; grandchildren: Jennifer, Melissa, Hayley, Jocelyn and Hannah McCormack and Ryan Ouradnik; great grandchildren, Audrey and Holiday Mathena; sister Judy Borlaug of Washburn and numerous nieces and nephews.

Helen was preceded in death by: her husband; her parents; daughter Nancy; brothers: Oliver, Alfred, Raymond, and Clifford; sisters: Clara Svendsen, Verna Pfiefle, and Hilda Cornelius.

Funeral Service : Thursday, May 24, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. in Vincent United Methodist Church - Minot.

Interment : Rolling Green Cemetery - rural Des Lacs.

Visitation : Wednesday from 2:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. in Thomas Family Funeral Home - Minot.

Memorials are preferred to the Des Lacs Methodist Church or Anne Carlsen School.