MARENGO:  Helene Dorathea Catharina Danker, 99, a resident of Rose Haven Nursing Home in Marengo,  and formerly of Keystone, died Friday, July 10, 2009 at Marengo Memorial Hospital following an extended illness.
     Funeral Services will be held at 11 AM., Monday, July 13, 2009 at St. John Lutheran Church in Keystone with Rev. Doug Morton officiating. Interment will be held at the Keystone Cemetery.  Friends may call at the church from 10 AM, until service time on Monday.  Phillips Funeral Home in Keystone is in charge of arrangements.  A memorial fund has been established.
     Helene ws born January 12, 1910 in Wentorf, Scheswig Holstein, Germany to Franz and Elise (Barg) Heitmann.  She was educated in Germany and emigrated to the United States in 1925 with her parents and three sisters.  They settled immediately in Iowa.  She married Bernard Danker on June 24, 1927 in Vinton.  They lived in rural Benton County until they moved to Keystone in 1943.  Helene had been a member of St. John Lutheran Church in Keystone and the Kane Homemakers.  For the past ten years she was a member of St. John Lutheran Church in Marengo.
       She is survived by a daughter, Dorothy (Roy) Wandling of Waukon, a son, John (Leona) Danker of Marengo; eleven grandchildren; thirty great-grandchildren; many great-great grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews. 
        She was preceded in death by her husband, Bernard in 1984; a daughter, Frances and two sons, Alfred and Kenneth  (Sharon); her parents and three sisters, Elizabeth Hansen, Meta Heitmann, and Martha Fitzsimmons.
     She will be remembered for her many talents, including sewing, knitting, gardening and especially her tulips.