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Simmons, Helen
Helen Simmons, 92, of Monticello, passed peacefully Wednesday, June 2, 2010, at the Monticello Nursing and Rehabilitation Center surrounded by her family and friends.
Funeral services will be held 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Monticello, with interment in St. Joseph Cemetery, Prairieburg. Fr. Keith Birch will officiate at the services. Friends may call from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday at the Goettsch Funeral Home, Monticello where there will be a parish Vigil Service at 7 p.m.
Surviving are three children, Joseph Simmons and fiancee, Claudia Havlicek; Leo (Shirley) Simmons, both of Monticello; and Michele (Lance) Rubin, of Joliet, Ill.; and her sister, Berdena Peterman, of Hiawatha. She is also survived by five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Joseph, a sister, Henrietta Prull, and brother, Clarence Prull.
Helen Elizabeth Prull was born Sept. 9, 1917, in Langworthy. She was the daughter of Eilert and Mamie Monk Prull. She received her early education in the Frog Hollow School and graduated from the Monticello Community Schools with the class of 1937. Helen's first job was working as a waitress in a restaurant in Monticello.
Helen E. Prull and Joseph Simmons were married on May 28, 1940, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. The couple moved to Chicago where Helen worked at the Schutter Candy Factory. In 1942, they returned to the Prairieburg area where they farmed. The couple built a new home on main hill in Monticello in the early 1950s. The couple purchased the Simmons family farm in 1959 and operated it until retiring in 1980. Helen also worked as a nurses aid at the John McDonald Hospital for many years. When the Monticello Senior Home opened she went to work there until she retired.
Joseph preceded her in death on Aug. 21, 1992. Helen moved to the Monticello Nursing and Rehabilitation center in November of 2008.
Thoughts, memories and condolences may be left at In lieu of flowers, a memorial fund has been established.
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