Helen Hackney Fletcher
RANCHO?BERNARDO, CA – Helen Hackney Fletcher of Rancho Bernardo, California was born July 25, 1918 and passed away October 13, 2016. She was 98 years old. Born in Sault Saint Marie, Michigan to Helen and David Hackney, she spent her childhood there and recalled spending summers on a houseboat and enjoying swimming and canoeing.
She attended Milwaukee-Downer College for two years and transferred to Northwestern University in Chicago, majoring in music. She was social chairman in the of Alpha Chi Omega sorority and through those activities met Roy W. Fletcher, Jr. They were married December 5, 1941 and two days later Pearl Harbor was bombed, bringing their honeymoon to a halt, as he was called back to duty as a Navy pilot. During part of the war years she worked in Portland, Oregon at the ship yards, and was happy to contribute to the war effort. Following the war she and her husband lived in Bakersfield, California while he worked for an oil company as a Geologist. Their first daughter Nancy was born there. Shortly after, they moved to Marquette, Michigan where her husband ran her family’s business, The Soo Hardware Company, and their second daughter Sue was born. She was a devoted mother and volunteered in schools, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, the hospital and as a Girl Scout leader. The family spent many summers at Middle Island Point creating lasting memories both with family and friends. She was also very supportive of her two daughters during their ski racing years, always traveling with them whenever meets were out of the area. Upon retirement she and her husband traveled all over the world, flew cross-country in their Cessna to spend winters in Coronado, California, where they eventually took up residence. It was a great location for family visits and she loved walking the beach and taking exercise classes in the pool. In 1994 they moved to a retirement community in Rancho Bernardo where they were very happy for 22 years. During part of that time she volunteered in the schools sharing her love of music and sang in the choir at her church.
She was preceded in death by her husband in 2014. One of the family’s fondest memories was of them sitting on the couch holding hands.
She is survived by her two daughters and their spouses, Sue and Greg Evans and Nancy and Dan Heer, her grandchildren Merritt Evans, Gretchen Spires and Alison Meiners, and her great grandchildren Carmen, Dylan and Jesse Spires, and Adyson and Kate Meiners.
She was buried next to her husband of 72 years in the Salt Lake cemetery. She had a full and rich life and will be deeply missed.