Helen R. Jones

Helen R. Jones, age 92, of Lincoln, passed away May 6. Helen was born February 12, 1924 to Reuben C. Neuhauser and Bertha (Boysen) Neuhauser in Pierre, South Dakota. One of seven children raised on her father’s ranch 60 miles west of Pierre, she graduated from Pierre High School and Northern State Teachers College, in Aberdeen, South Dakota. She married Lester V. Jones, of Ipswich, South Dakota, on June 30, 1944. Lester was a 1943 engineering graduate of South Dakota State University.  After serving in the US Army Air Corps during WWII, the couple joined Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and moved to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1947. They remained in Lincoln for the rest of their lives.

Helen was a member of Heritage Presbyterian Church for almost 70 years and served many years as a Deaconess and member of many church and social groups.  She was manager of the Norwood Park Elementary School cafeteria for a decade.  Helen was devoted to her family.  Her son Kenneth was born in 1946 and her son Gordon in 1949. Both sons graduated from Lincoln Northeast High School where they played varsity football, basketball and golf and Helen attended all their games.  Both also received degrees from the University Of Nebraska, College Of Engineering.

She was very proud of her husband’s service to the country during WWII and her son’s service in the US Navy and US Army during the Vietnam War. She was a firm disciplinarian, even when faced with a threat from a 3 year old son to “eat the worms in his hand” if he had to come inside for dinner!  She believed in creativity, letting her sons build tree houses high above the ground. She encouraged entrepreneurship and hard work which she learned first-hand growing up on a ranch during the great depression.  She was passionate about education and proud that both of her sons also received Masters Degrees in Business Administration and went on to lead significant businesses in the paper industry and Silicon Valley.  The Lester V and Helen R. Jones Scholarships have provided over 40 LNEHS students with 4 year “full ride” scholarships to the UNL College of Engineering, and other support and encouragement for LNEHS students to pursue careers in engineering, science and math. She was very proud that her grandson, Zachary, has continued in the engineering and business family tradition.

Helen was preceded in death by her parents, husband and her brothers Robert and Duane Neuhauser and her sisters Bernice (Neuhauser) Pade, Doris (Neuhauser) Knopf.  She is survived by her brother Raymond Neuhauser, sister Jean (Neuhauser) Newmiller , 29 nieces and nephews, her sons and their wives Signe Kim Lauiridsen-Jones and Judy (Finley) Jones and her grandson Zachary Jones.

Services will be held at Heritage Presbyterian Church,  35th and F street, Lincoln, Nebraska at 11:00 AM  Monday, May 9, 2016. Interment will follow at Lincoln Memorial Park.

Visitation to be held Sunday May 8, 2016 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. with family present during this time at Roper and Sons Funeral Home, 4300 ‘O’ Street.

Memorials may be given to Heritage Presbyterian Church.