Helen Sampley, 95, of Thief River Falls, MN went to meet her Savior on Tuesday, June 7, 2016 at the Thief River Care Center in Thief River Falls, MN with her loving family at her side.
Funeral service to celebrate her life will be held at 2:00 PM on Sunday, June 12, 2016 at the United Methodist Church in Thief River Falls, MN with Rev. JJ Morgan officiating. Burial will follow at Ebenezer Cemetery, Mayfield Township, Pennington County, MN. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service.
Helen Lenora Skalet was born on February 6, 1921 to Arthur and Lena (Warstad) Skalet on the family farm in Mayfield Township, Pennington County, MN. The midwife was Nurse Asp, who coincidently turned out to be the grandmother of her brother, Alton’s wife Evelyn. She was raised on the farm with her parents, and was the fifth of eight siblings, Thilda, Selma, Alton, Gladys, Stella, and the twins, Myrtle and Muriel. She attended country school. Helen received her confirmation at Ebenezer Lutheran Church.
After Helen got out of school, she was a Nanny in her early 20’s and worked in Park River, ND before going to California with her friend, Isabel Solheim at age 25. The first job she had in California was as a waitress at California Kitchen. She met John Cardella two years later in January 1948 and became an instant mother to John’s two children from a previous marriage, Anthony Ray (age 6) and Michael David (age 3). She gave birth to Donald Arthur on November 1, 1948. John died in 1957 due to a massive heart attack. Helen met Ed Sampley at Annabell’s Charboiler where she was working as a waitress at the time and they married in 1959. Ed died in 1968.
While Helen was living in California, she always came home to Minnesota on vacation to visit her mother and father, her sisters and brother. Family was always at the top of her list. She enjoyed her visits home and spoke lovingly of them. In 1999, Helen retired at age 78 and returned to her hometown of Thief River Falls, Minnesota where she lived the rest of her life.
She is survived by sons, Anthony (Sherry) Cardella of Carson City, NV and Donald (Sophia) Cardella of Temple City, CA; daughter-in-law, Cheryl Cardella of Mesa, AZ; 8 grandchildren, John, Jason, Kirk, Craig, Paul, Drew, Brandon, and April; 14 great-grandchildren, Haley, Myranda, Hunter, Jared, Violet, Faye, Avery, Charlotte, Katie, Kyle, Rachel, Vincent, Sierra, Carson; sisters, Thilda Haugen, Myrtle & Muriel Skalet; and many nieces, nephews, relatives and friends.
She is preceded in death by her husbands, John Cardella and Ed Sampley; son, Michael David (1980); parents, Art (1976) and Lena (1978); siblings, Alton (1979) (Evelyn) Skallet, Selma (1989) (Carl) Peterson, Gladys (2001) (Harold) Walseth and Stella (2015) (Edwin) Halvorson; and brother-in-law, Olaf Haugen.
Condolences may be sent at www.johnsonfuneralservice.com