Helen Wallhausen

Helen Anne Wallhausen, 83, of Cape Girardeau died Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at Saint Francis Medical Center after a brief illness.

Helen was born July 31, 1937, in New York City, daughter of Edward A. and Helen Irene McVey Kerrins. The Kerrins family returned to their former state of Rhode Island when Helen was 3, and she lived there until her 1962 marriage to Arthur L. Wallhausen Jr. at St. Michael's Church in Georgiaville, Rhode Island.

Helen was a graduate of St. Patrick's Elementary School and St. Francis Academy, Providence, and received the Bachelor of Education from Rhode Island College of Education (now Rhode Island College) in 1957. She taught first grade at the West Greenwich (Rhode Island) Elementary School for five years until her marriage.

Upon her marriage, she became an Army wife, living in Monterey, California, while her husband completed his military service at nearby Fort Ord, where she taught for a year in the post kindergarten. She then lived in Charleston, Missouri, for 21 years, before moving to Cape Girardeau in 1984.

After moving to Cape Girardeau, Helen earned a master's degree in education from Southeast Missouri State University. Then, starting at the age of 50, she spent two years living in Bloomington, Indiana, where she received a specialist degree in literacy education from Indiana University. She taught one year as an instructor in the College of Education at Southeast, and for one year, until her retirement, served as principal at Guardian Angel School in Oran, Missouri.

A gifted pianist, vocalist and dancer, as a child in the 1940s she performed on the radio and throughout Rhode Island and neighboring states as a member of the WJAR Radio Kiddie Review. She later used her creative talents as a teacher, both in Rhode Island and as a volunteer, teaching music and art in Charleston at St. Henry's School for several years, before joining the faculty as a full-time second-grade teacher. Her enthusiasm as a teacher was memorialized by one of her students, a St. Henry's fourth-grader, who told his younger sister, "You better enjoy your year in second grade with Mrs. Wallhausen, because it's all downhill from there."

Her creative talents extended to knitting, demonstrated by dozens of original patterns, including a cast of fairy tale characters with which she and her grandchildren staged puppet performances; and to the preparation of delicious food for family and friends.

A member of St. Mary' Cathedral Parish in Cape Girardeau, she formerly served as a member of the St. Henry Parish Council and the parish school board in Charleston, where she was also a member of the Junior Study Club and Cubmaster in the Boy Scouts program. She was also a member and former president of the Katherine Boone Music Club and served on the Sikeston-Charleston Community Concert Association Board.

She is survived by her husband; sons, Arthur III (Tre) and Matthew (Laura Kelpe) Wallhausen; grandchildren, Nicholas and Katherine Wallhausen; and a great granddaughter, Everleigh Brooke Burrows.

She was preceded in death by her parents and a brother, Edward Kerrins.

Due to the pandemic, there will be no visitation or funeral Mass at this time.

Private family graveside rites will be held at Calvary Cemetery in Charleston, where her mother is also resting. A celebration of her life will be scheduled in the future.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial contributions be made to a charity of the donor's choice or, if desired, St. Henry Church, 306 Court St., Charleston, MO 63834, or the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Annunciation, 615 William St., Cape Girardeau, MO 63703.

McMikle Funeral Home of Charleston is in charge of arrangements.

Online condolences may be shared at www.mcmiklefuneralhome.com.