Helen Luella Smalling
Feb. 6, 1915 - Nov. 29, 2010

Services for Helen L. Smalling, who died Monday, Nov. 29, 2010, at Story County Long Term Care in Nevada, will be at 10:30 a.m. Monday, Dec. 6, at First United Methodist Church in Ames. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 5, also at the church.
She was born Feb. 6, 1915, in Burlington, Iowa, to John Edmund and Luella (Moyer) Ebert. Her father died when she was 2 years old. She was raised by her mother and stepfather, Carl F. Courts, with help from her three aunts, sisters of her father. Educated in Burlington she graduated from Burlington High School in January 1933, then Burlington Junior College and the University of Iowa in 1936. Her field of study at Iowa was elementary education and art. She designed the 1936 Homecoming badge. Her aunts made investments for her after her father's death that helped her finance her college education.
She taught fourth grade at Guttenberg, Iowa schools in 1936 and 1937. There she met and married Raymond H. Smalling on April 10, 1937. Her husband was the high school principal and coach at Guttenberg from 1935 to 1938. They came to Ames in 1938 and lived here ever since, with time away for her husband's naval service from 1943 to 1946.
She was a member of First United Methodist Church in Ames since 1946, where she and her husband both taught Sunday school for about 25 years. She attended hundreds of Ames High baseball, football, basketball and track events, always supporting her husband, children and grandchildren. She also attended countless dance recitals for her daughter, Nancy. Although she loved watching her beloved Hawkeyes on television, she attended decades of Iowa State home football games, often with her best friend, daughter-in-law Margaret Smalling.
She enjoyed sewing, crocheting and in her younger days, painting. Probably foremost on her list of favorite things was her two week vacation on Woman Lake in Minnesota with her husband, children and grandchildren. The last four-plus years of her life were spent at Story County Long Term Care in Nevada.
She is survived by her brother, Carl E. Courts, of Yucca Valley, Calif., three children, Jack Smalling, of Ames, Nancy (Robb) Pasley, of Grand Forks, N. D., and Bob (Mary Lavelle) Smalling, of Medina, Ohio. Also surviving are 11 grandchildren, Ray (Kristina) Smalling, of Redmond, Wash., Matt (Lori) Smalling, of Redondo Beach, Calif., David (Kristin) Smalling, of Olathe, Kan., Robbie (Amanda) Smalling, of St. Louis Park, Minn., Tim (Sara) Pasley, of Grand Forks, N.D., Jane (Corey) Wilde, of Grand Forks, N.D., Sarah Pasley, of Grand Forks, N.D., Nancy (Terry) Valentine, of Medina, Ohio, Susie Smalling, of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Kendra (Patrick) Murphy, of Cleveland, Ohio, and Meg Roko, of Springfield, Va, She is also survived by 15 great-grandchildren.
Preceding her in death were her parents, her husband and one daughter-in-law, Margaret Smalling.
Memorials made be directed to the Smalling Family Memorial Scholarship Fund at First United Methodist Church in Ames.
Online condolences may be sent to www.grandonfuneralandcremationcare.com.
Grandon Funeral and Cremation Care is assisting the family with arrangements.