Helen J. Renkes
May 18, 1919 – February 17, 2000
Sydney, Australia, December 1944
Image courtesy of Diane Weskalnies, daughter of Isabelle Vaitkunas
Source: Quad-City Times
MORRISON, Ill. — Services for Helen J. Renkes, 80, of 507 Portland Ave., will be 2 p.m. Sunday at Morrison United Methodist Church. No visitation will be held. Burial will be in Grove Hill Cemetery, Morrison.
Miss Renkes died Thursday, Feb. 17, 2000, at University Hospitals, Iowa City.
She owned and operated Morrison Ice Box for 20 years. Before that, she managed, with her sister and brother-in-law, Esta and John Gentz, the restaurant and bar at Morrison Country Club and helped manage Juls Danish Farm Restaurant, Rock Falls. In early years, she was employed as chief administrator at Morrison Community Hospital and was a nurse for Dr. W.W. Robinson.
She was born May 18, 1919, in Morrison.
During World War II, she served four years in the Army Corps of Nurses. She was a surgical nurse on the USS Hope in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater. She attained the rank of captain.
Memorials may be made to the church.
Survivors include 11 nieces and nephews; and sisters-in-law, Madelyn Renkes, Jerry Renkes and Carmel Renkes, all of Morrison.