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Helen Joan Land was born October 9, 1930 in Perry, Oklahoma, daughter of Solon Renzelman, an itinerant oil field worker, and his wife Bess. For many years her family traveled throughout the Oklahoma-Texas oil patch before settling for several years in Madill, Oklahoma, and eventually in Sapulpa. She graduated from Sapulpa High School and married Norman Land, a combat veteran of the Korean War, in 1951. Helen lived a long and full life, traveling the world with Norman, who made the army his career, and raised a son and a daughter, Lewis and Dinah. They lived at many different military assignments in Germany, Kansas, Oklahoma, Maryland, and the Panama Canal Zone, eventually settling in Fort Worth, Texas when Norman retired from the military. After their children moved out they took advantage of their independence and enjoyed many vacations in the Caribbean, where Helen accompanied her husband on scuba diving holidays.

Helen was widowed in 1988 when her husband suffered an untimely death from pancreatic cancer. She subsequently moved to Sapulpa, where she lived until 2005 with her beloved cat, Pearl. She suffered a severe stroke, and eventually moved to Tahlequah to be closer to her sister, Lou Ann. She passed away on the morning of February 8, 2014. Helen is survived by her daughter, Dinah Land, of Denver, Colorado; her son Lewis Land and his wife, Amie, of Carlsbad, New Mexico; her sister, Lou Ann Thompson, and Lou Ann’s husband Gary, of Tahlequah; grandson Adam Land; and nephews Chris and Mike Renzelman, and Erik and Jeremy Sumner.