M. Helen Fischer

Margaret Helen Fischer nee McKinney passed away on November 16, 2014 at her home in Umpqua Oregon, at the age of 104. She was born October 17, 1920 in Albany Oregon to Ernest Webster McKinney and Sadie Ann Mason. Helen is survived by her two sons Kenneth Michel (Jane), Owens Cross Roads, Alabama and Keith Michel (Janet), Mount Lake Terrace, Washington. She was preceded in death by her bothers Kenneth Ernest McKinney WWII KIA, Donald Gilbert McKinney, WWII KIA, Phillip Stanley McKinney, Sitka Alaska, Richard Leslie McKinney, Sitka Alaska, and sisters, Roberta Louise Cook Vancouver Washington., Doris Kathleen McCrae, Seaside Oregon. Helen grew up in Oregon spending part of her early life with her parents and siblings on a coastal mountain Oregon homestead. In her early high school years, the family moved to the city of Umpqua, where she graduated from Sutherlin High School. After High School graduation, she was employed in a variety of jobs for both family and the general public for about 2 years. In 1941, she joined her family in Yakutat, AK where she initially became an employee of Libby, McNeil and Libby; transferring to a civilian employee of the Yakutat Army Air Field where she met and married her first husband, Joseph Victor Michel in 1944. At the end of the second world War, like millions of couples Helen and Joe settled close to his family, raised two sons and became involved in community and school activities for the family for the next three decades. She was the definition of a home maker cooking and baking and canning good things to eat. When her widowed father became seriously ill she returned to Umpqua with her second husband Edward Fischer to care for her father. Helen rediscovered Oregon, got involved in all variety of Baking, Needlework, Sewing, Knitting and other crafts with always a blue ribbon or two to “show off”. Another late life discovery for Ed and Helen was how much they enjoyed seeing the world outside of the state of Oregon. Helen convinced Ed, who probably would have preferred to be a “homebody” that there was adventure and new learnings ahead in every new state, national park and/or country they visited such as Canada, the Philippines, and China, including a walk on the Great Wall! Ed predeceased Helen in 2009 but her life was soon filed with the close friendships she made with the twice weekly ladies exercise class at the Umpqua Community Center.