Helen Marie Dowell

Helen Marie Dowell, beloved Wife and Mother, passed away Saturday, May 9, 2020 at Kirksville Manor Care Center in Kirksville, Missouri.
Eighty-one years ago on June 23, 1938, Helen was born in a small town, Winigan, Missouri. Her parents were John Peter Romine and Bernice Amyol Pipes. Helen was one of four children - Jean, Randall and Sherry.

In 1956, Helen graduated from Green City High School where she played basketball for the Gophers, became an avid reader and crafted a Shakespearean Sonnet that earned her a Literary Scholarship. After graduating and moving to Kansas City to attend a business school, she met, fell in love with and married her husband, Virgil Lee Dowell.

Helen and Virgil moved to suburban Independence, Missouri where they reared six children, all who were members for many years at St. Mathews United Methodist Church. She made many wonderful friends, Carol Bates, Joy Ruxlowe and Wilburta Coulter. Helen was employed with Mobil Oil Credit Corporation for 23 years, eventually enrolling at UMKC to earn her business degree all the while maintaining a 4.0 GPA, running a household and working full-time.

After retiring from her work in Kansas City, she moved with her husband to Battle Creek, MI until Virgil retired and they moved back to build their dream home in the country near Green Castle, Missouri to be close to her siblings, Jean Hannah and Randall Romine, and her Mother, Bernice (Romine) Butler. All of her children and grandchildren loved their new place and spent many weekends fishing, walking the creeks and enjoying making memories on the deck overlooking the Spring Creek Branch Conservation. Helen loved traveling and would plan vacations with her sisters, daughters & sons and their spouses all over the United States. Her trips with her sisters, Jean and Sherry, and her Mother, Bernice, took them to nearly every state in the Union. She and Virgil even traveled to Italy for a son’s wedding where they explored the culture and adjoining cities all over Rome, including the Colosseum.

Helen is survived by her husband, of 60 years, Virgil, her siblings, Jean and Walter Hannah of Green Castle, MO and Sherry and George Walker of Independence, MO, her six children, Peter Dowell (Anita Atchison, fiancé) Smithville, MO, Shelia Hill (Mike) Blue Springs, MO, Brian Dowell (Carol) Kansas City, MO, Sonya Salter (Mike) Independence, MO, Stella Heldstab (John) Lee’s Summit, MO and Stacy Bruce of Independence, MO, twenty-one grandchildren, thirteen great-grandchildren and many wonderful nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents John Romine of Winigan and Bernice Butler of Green Castle, and her brother Randall Romine also of Winigan.

A private family visitation was held Monday, May 11th at Davis-Playle-Hudson-Rimer Funeral Home in Kirksville, Missouri.