Helen Tlapek

The soul of Helen Page Hanes Tlapek has moved on. Thanks in large part to the faith she shared with them, her children have hope and faith that her loving spirit has returned to God after a lifetime of unwavering devotion to them and their father.

She was born Sept. 9, 1922, and passed away Saturday, April 4, 2015.

Helen Tlapek was a person of independent thought, with compassion and understanding that inspired people to confide in her. Their confidence was not misguided. Helen was possessed of a good intellect, and she made good decisions. Her virtues were many.

Her devotion to family was inspired by a strong family. Due to the death of her father, Charles Moses Hanes, when she was 11, her family was headed up by a remarkable mother, Mary Ellen Debaun Hanes, and her mother's sister Margaret Debaun. Her mother's side of the family was from Cairo, Illinois. Her father was partner in the Hanes-Kilgo construction company. The Hanes family made its home in Jerseyville, Illinois.

Helen and her three brothers, Charles, Bobby and Inky, as well as her four sisters, Mary Ward, Mutt McKinnon, Anna Carmody and Kathy Holmes, all attended college. Helen earned her RN from St. John's Mercy School of Nursing in 1944. She was the last of her siblings to die, and she remembered the others often and missed them sorely.

For a while, Helen worked as a nurse on the B&O Railroad.

She met Jim Tlapek because a fellow nursing student was dating one of Jim's brothers. She and Jim were married in St. Louis, May 11, 1951. They moved to Cape Girardeau and began a lifetime faithfully devoted to each other and their children in a marriage which spanned 60 years until Jim died in 2011 at the age of 96.

Helen lived to the age of 92.

There will be no visitation.

The funeral Mass will be at 11 a.m. Monday at St. Vincent Church on Ritter Drive in Cape Girardeau, with the Rev. David Hulshof officiating.

All five of Helen and Jim's children will gather with as many of the grandchildren as can attend. Paul Tlapek (spouse Renee, son Benjamin), Margaret Tlapek (spouse Gary Seesing, daughters Frances and Clare, son Jack, child Lily), Janet Tlapek (daughter Madeleine), Gregory Tlapek and Therese Tlapek (spouse Bud Owens, children Anna and Joseph).

Private burial will be at St. Mary Cemetery.

The family asks that you send a note or simply honor her memory by being a strong mother, making a good decision or being courageous enough to challenge convention when it needs it, especially when it would be easier to do otherwise. She was a remarkable woman and precious to her children.

Ford and Sons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.