Helen Elsie Kruger Harrison

After 36,655 days (100 years, 6 months and 4 days) of life, Helen Elsie Kruger Harrison has again been reunited with some of those she cherished during her sojourn here on earth. Having outlived her eternal companion, a daughter, her parents and all her brothers and sisters, plus countless relatives and friends, that reunion was certain to have been glorious and joyful.

Born on January 25, 1925, in Salt Lake City, Utah, Helen was a true “west-sider.” She spent her childhood, youth and early adulthood walking the fields and dirt roads of what would eventually become Rose Park. As a youth, she and her dogs would herd the family cow on pastures that have long since grown homes. She was a proud graduate of Onequa Elementary, Jackson Junior High and West High School. And although she didn’t walk the proverbial “uphill both ways in two feet of snow” to attend school, she did walk or ride her bicycle several miles every morning and evening to get to school.

Helen met her eternal companion, Edward David Harrison, while he was stationed at the army base in Kearns, Utah awaiting discharge from the Army. On April 30, 1947, after a happy courtship and after Ed had chosen to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they were married in the Salt Lake City Utah temple.

Like most newly married couples of that era, they rented a small apartment, walked or rode the bus because they couldn’t afford a car, and joined the workforce; he as a film projectionist and she as a bank teller. Within two years they had scrimped and saved enough money to build their own home on Salt Lake’s west side, only a mile from the home where she was raised.

Ed and Helen were blessed with four children: Shirlee, Joanne, Jim and Michelle. After the children were raised, they focused on Church service. Ed and Helen spent untold hours doing family history and temple work, filling a multitude of Church callings and serving a mission to Connecticut. After Ed’s passing, Helen would again go on a mission, this time to Germany where she served in the mission office.

With Ed’s passing, Helen cut her ties to the west side of Salt Lake and moved to St. George, Utah, where she was again called on a mission. She served in the records department for two years, and upon release was called on another mission, this time in the membership records department.

Helen’s life has been one of service. Service to the Church she loved, people in her various wards, and especially her family. She was most happy when doing something for someone else, whether those in this life or those beyond the veil in the temple. Virtually everyone she knew who suffered a setback received one of her cakes, pot of soup or personal visit. But few things in life brought her greater joy than being in the temple. For years it was an all-day-every-day activity for her.

When she was 95 years old, she cut ties with those she loved in St. George and moved to Texas where she lived the rest of her life with her daughter, Joanne. On January 25, 2025, her 100th birthday, she was honored with a birthday celebration. She was delighted when scores of relatives and friends made the time to see her.

Mentally sharp, she was slowed by the effects of 100 years, but not so much that she couldn’t use her walker every day to walk down the drive to get the mail. Hers was a well-lived life. A life that touched the lives of countless people in meaningful ways, a life that knew what it was to be in the service of God by serving her fellow men and women.

Helen is survived by her children, Joanne (Homer “Buzz”) Sansom, Jim (Deborah) Harrison and Michelle (Kevin) Timm. Also surviving her are her twenty-one grandchildren, numerous great and great-great grandchildren, nieces and nephews, cousins and friends. She is preceded in death by her loving companion, Edward David Harrison; daughter, Shirlee Ann Lukenbach; parents, Edmund Julius and Martha Lina Otto Kruger; siblings, Martha, Alice, Ruth, Alma, Wilford, and Erhart.