Helen Almeda Lamroe
Helen Almeda Lamroe, a longtime Moses Lake resident whose life experienced two world wars and the invention of most modern technologies, passed away Friday at Samaritan Hospital after suffering from heart failure. She was 93.
Numerous family and friends gathered on Monday, Sept. 5, for funeral services that were held at Kayser's Chapel of Memories in Moses Lake. The funeral procession traveled to Pioneer Memorial Gardens for committal and interment services where she was laid to rest next to her husband of 72 years, Harold I. Lamroe.
The eldest of eight children, Helen was born on May 18, 1912, in Emmett, Idaho, to William and Meda Lake Beutler. She was raised and educated in this small town where the children worked on a dairy farm to support the large family.
Despite the demands of the farm, Helen succeeded in graduating from Emmett High School in 1930.
At 20, she married Harold on April 29, 1932, in southern Idaho. Battling the economic hardships of the Great Depression, the Lamroes moved around the Pacific Northwest in search of work that could support their family.
Along the way, Harold took jobs as a welder and construction worker to make ends meet and support their first of three daughters.
In 1940, they moved and settled in Seattle where Harold worked as a plumber and pipe fitter in Seattle's Navy shipyards to support the war effort while Helen operated a boarding house for college girls in the University of Washington district.
The Lamroes had two more daughters, and operating a boarding house allowed Helen to be a homemaker while helping to support the growing family.
In the early 1950s, Helen and Harold sold the boarding house and she began working for J.C. Penney as a bookkeeper.
Helen was a master seamstress and loved baking and cooking for her family and friends. When she wasn't busy raising her three children and caring for the needs of Harold's brothers and sisters, for whom she was the surrogate mother, Helen joined several philanthropic fraternal organizations to give back to the community.
She was a guard captain of the Daughters of the Nile Hatasu Temple No. 1, and an active member of the Eastern Star while living in Seattle for more than 35 years.
The Lamroes also loved to dance and were members of the Tuxedo Club at Seattle's historic Olympic Hotel.
In 1975, Harold and Helen made the move over the mountains and settled in the Columbia Basin area to be close to family. The Lamroes bought a small picturesque farm in Warden where they owned an apple and cherry orchard while raising a few cattle. Fifteen years later, they moved to Moses Lake where she lived until her death.
She is survived by three daughters and two sons-in-law, Barbara and Pamp Maiers of Moses Lake; Sharon Gregory of Westminster, Colo.; and Joyce and Dr. Norm Brown of Phoenix. She also is survived by three sisters and three brothers, 10 grandchildren and three grandchildren-in-law (John and Bonnie Sellen of Seattle; Jeff Sellen of Lynnwood; Wash.; Joy Maiers of Moses Lake; Mike Brown of Phoenix; Stephanie Maiers of Melbourne, Australia; Charles and Sheryl Deuel of Moses Lake; Christina Maiers of Seattle; Paul Gregory of Boulder, Colo.; Staci Maiers of Washington, D.C.; and Pamp and Kimberly Maiers of Moses Lake), 14 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-granddaughter.