Helen Freidig

Helen E. Freidig, age 90, of New London, died Monday evening, January 25, at the Glen Oaks Care Center in New London.

Funeral services will be held on Friday, April 8, at 10:30 a.m. at Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic Church in Spicer. Interment will be in the church cemetery. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service at the church.

Helen Evangeline Freidig, the middle of five children of the Joe and Edna Kocourek family, was born in Bismarck, North Dakota, on March 10, 1925. Their log home lacked both running water and electricity, but Helen had fond memories of growing up on the farm and always considered herself a prairie girl. Among her memories of the Great Depression was the day a large band of Native Indians from the Mandan tribe rode down the hill to their farm seeking food.

In the summer of 1940, she saw a skinny farm kid playing baseball and went home to tell her sister that she had just seen her husband. Helen finally met Leo Freidig at a Saturday night barn dance in Center, North Dakota. They dated through her graduation from Mandan High School and were married on November 23, 1943. Children Claudia and Dennis soon followed. Leo's reputation as a top auto mechanic led to a job offer in Minnesota. Helen had relatives in the Willmar area, so they moved there in 1952. Their final child, Monte, arrived a year later.

The Freidig's made a life for themselves in Willmar and made many friends as wella�"from among the families at St. Mary's, where their kids attended school and from among their 13th & 14th street neighbors in SW Willmar. They enjoyed camping, fishing, dancing and playing bridge. Leo worked at the old Chevrolet garage before opening his own garage and finished his career at Roth Chevrolet. Helen worked at J.C. Penny, became the bookkeeper at Leo's Service Center and also served as a counselor later in life.

In the early 70's, they moved to a bayside home on Nest Lake and remained there for over 40 years, until they downsized into a townhome in New London. Helen moved into the Glen Oaks Apartments in New London after Leo's death in 2007.

Helen will be greatly missed by her family, friends and those she counseled. She found much comfort in The Serenity Prayer during the latter decades of her life.

She is survived by her three children, Claudia (and Richard) Hopkins of Spicer, Dennis (and Kari) Freidig of Auburn, CA., and Monte (and Jan) Freidig of Petaluma, CA.; seven grandchildren and seventeen great grandchildren. Also surviving is one sister, Betty Barth of San Diego, CA., and one sister-in-law, Ann Kocourek of Mandan, ND., besides other relatives and friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Leo; one great granddaughter, Gracie; one sister, Marion; and two brothers, Donald and John.

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