Obit: Brockmeyer, Helen Mae (1907 - 2003)

Contact: crystal@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Brockmeyer, Erwin Dale, Parks, Schneider

Source: Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wis.) Thursday, 1 May 2003, p 12, c 1, 2

Brockmeyer, Helen Mae (2 Dec. 1907 - 30 April 2003)

Brockmeyer, Helen M.

Madison – Helen Mae Brockmeyer died in the morning of April 30, 2003, in her sleep at Covenant Oaks, Oakwood Village in Madison. Born on Dec. 2, 1907, in Minneapolis, Minn., Mrs. Brockmeyer was the third child of Leonard and Mary Elizabeth Erwin Dale. Little Hoddy as her Papa called her had ten brothers and sisters of which only Billy Dale of Mankato, Min., and Deb Parks of Augusta, Mont., survive. Helen married Win Brockmeyer on Thanksgiving Day, 1932, in Mankato, Minn. Her husband was the captain of the 1930 and 1931 Minnesota Football teams and a very successful Minnesota and Wausau High School Football coach. Win Brockmeyer died in 1980 and Helen chose to live along for the next twenty-four years. She often remarked that she had a wonderful husband and no one could ever take his place.

Helen is survived by her children, Michael Brockmeyer of Madison, Wis., Patti Schneider of Janesville, Wis., and Debra Brockmeyer of Tampa Bay, Fla.; and their spouses; her four grandchildren; her six great-grandchildren; and her cat, Precious. 

For many years Mrs. Brockmeyer was a homemaker. In the 1950’s she began working in retail, in the 1960’s she became a Doncaster representative and in the 1970’s, 80’s and early 90’s she was a bailiff at the Marathon County Courthouse. She lived in Wausau for 58 years before she moved to Madison in 1995. While in Wausau Helen was a member for the First Presbyterian church, the Wausau Club, the Wausau Country Club, and she served as a member of the board of the University of Wisconsin Marathon County.

During Brock’s coaching years she was a surrogate mother for many of his boys, counseling them, making sandwiches for them and cheering them on. In ping pong they called her the “wall” for no ball could get by her and in Bridge she was an unbeatable winning machine, unless she played with her husband, who paid no attention at all to the game.

Helen grew up in difficult times. She and her sisters would go to Dayton’s in Minneapolis to try on all the chic clothes, which they could never afford. Hoddy had a real sense of style about her, always impeccably dressed and always ready to take back the garment that wasn’t perfect. Throughout her life Helen was never more than a size 4, but the size of her spirit was heroic. With her red hair ablaze she had quite an Irish temper and a deep, abiding feeling for fairness and concern for the underdog. To her deep chagrin “looking nice” didn’t mean much to her children, but they did pick up her sense of fairness. She was a beautiful, graceful, sweet and loving wife, mother and grandmother who always treated people with kindness and dignity. She loved and was loved and we miss her already. Her family wishes to thank the staff at Covenant Oaks for the comfort and kindness they provided her in the last months of her life.

Her life will be celebrated on Saturday, may 3, 2003 at 2 p.m. at Resurrection Chapel in Oakwood Village-West, 6201 Mineral Point Road, Madison. In lieu of flowers please consider donating in her name to Covenant Oaks, Oakwood Village, 6209 Mineral Point Road, Madison, Wisconsin, 53705.

Cress Funeral Service (608) 238-3434