Helen Mary McBrady Sutkus was born on her family’s farm in Parnell Township of Traverse County in the state of Minnesota on the 20th of February 1915. She grew up on that farm and attended the country school in Parnell. At the age of 14 she moved in with a family in Graceville where she worked for her keep and attended St. Mary’s Academy for four years of high school. She then attended Morehead State Teachers College for a year to attain her teaching certificate. It was her dream to teach back in Parnell country school that she had attended. She applied for the position but then didn’t hear and didn’t hear from them. Finally she accepted a position as a telephone operator at the phone exchange in Graceville. The very next day she was offered the Parnell teaching job. But as it happened the telephone operator job turned out very well. She stayed in Graceville, where she met her husband, Anthony Sutkus. Over the years the telephone operator position was perfect as a part-time job while she was raising a family.
She married Tony Sutkus in October 1938 in St. Mark’s Church in St. Paul, during a snowstorm. They drove from St. Paul to Chicago where Helen first met her husband’s Lithuanian family, which was quite a shock to an Irish farm girl from Minnesota.
Helen and Tony lived in apartments in Graceville until 1941 when they moved into the house that Tony’s brother had built on a quarter section in Tara Township, Five miles northwest of Graceville. There Helen lived for the next fifty-three years, raising three children among other things. Tony died in 1974. Helen took over some of Tony’s insurance work. She also got involved in a catering venture with some women adventurers. She worked in a food nutrition program for a number of years. She was very active in Holy Rosary Church – the rosary society, CCD, lay presiders.
Whether through the church, or through work she did, or just through social contacts, Helen always had a wide variety of friends. That was probably the central focus of her life.
In later years she did a lot of traveling, often to visit her family – West Virginia, Massachusetts, Germany, Hawaii, Australia, France, New York, Oregon, Ireland, In 1989 her youngest, Cathy, was killed in an automobile accident in Seattle. That was the worst and hardest experience of Helen’s life. With inheritance from Catherine’s estate, Helen, her daughter, Irene, and daughter-in-law, Carol, would travel together somewhere each year –Florida Keys, New Orleans, Rome for the Jubilee year, the Yucatan, Alaska. She also took trips with her sister Julia, and brothers, Bob and Joe, along with Joe’s wife, Mary – Montana, Oklahoma, Arizona, Los Angeles. And she did other traveling –Thailand, China, Branson.
In 1993 Helen moved into a new house she had built in Graceville. At the time she argued that it was a waste for a seventy-eight year old woman to be building a new house for herself as she wouldn’t live long enough to enjoy it. She lived there for over fifteen years. And there she died.
She is survived by her son, William (Carol) Sutkus of Graceville, MN; daughter, Irene (James)Demile of Rogue River, OR; 3 grandchildren; 1 great-grandchild; sister Julia Honkomp of St. Cloud, MN.
She is preceded in death by her parents; husband Anthony (Tony) Sutkus; daughter, Catherine Sutkus; four brothers, Robert, John, Francis and Joseph; one sister, Mary Pat.
In lieu of flowers memorials are preferred to Graceville Senior Citizen Center.
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