Helen C. Douthit

Helen Clark Douthit, 92, peacefully rose to heaven on Sept. 22, 2009 at the Classy Retreat Adult Family Home in Spokane with family at her side. She was born Helen Edith Koehneke on July 9, 1917 in Chicago, Ill. She joins her mother and father, Sophie and Alvin Koehneke, her brother, Paul Koehneke, and her loving husbands James C. Clark, Jr. and Donald J. Douthit with our Heavenly Father in eternal life. Helen was crowned beauty queen at the University of Iowa in 1936. Carrying that beauty she danced through life with a perpetual smile and touched each one of us with her red, white and blue spirit and love for life. She married Jimmy Clark in 1940. After the war they lived in Hopkins, Minn. where she was employed by Minneapolis Moline until her retirement. She moved to Sioux Falls, S.D. and became Don Douthit's beautiful bride in 1972 after Jimmy passed away. She is survived by her daughter Barbara Litchfield and husband Scott of Spokane, grandson J.C. Hyer and wife Barb and family of Wilbur, Wash., stepdaughters Diane Cook, Connie Anderson, Sue Carey, Dorothy Olshove, Kathy Pfeifer, Vickie Douthit, Debbie Bolger, nieces Lynn Woelker and Claire Bassler, and nephew Jim Koehneke along with several stepgrandchildren and great stepgrandchildren. Services will be held at the Miller Funeral Home in Sioux Falls, S.D. on Sunday Oct. 4, 2009 at 2 p.m. The family requests memorials be directed to the loving care givers at the Classy Retreat Adult Family Homes c/o Tonya and Brian Bunker, P.O. Box 30726 Spokane, WA 99223. A local celebration of Helen's life will be held at a later date.