Helen Ruth Gale was born to Edson A. Gale and Jessie M. (Eskew) Gale on July 12, 1930 on the Gale Ranch south of Cody, Nebraska. She passed away in Valentine on February 27, 2025 at the age of 94.

Helen attended a one-room rural elementary school at Cutcomb Lake. She graduated high school from the University of Nebraska School of Agriculture in Curtis at the age of sixteen. She then attended Chadron Teachers College and obtained a certificate of teaching that summer. Helen taught nine years at rural schools in Cherry County and at Cody Elementary until her marriage to Finis Cooper Ford from St James, Arkansas on June 5, 1955.

Helen and Cooper lived and worked on the Gale Ranch until they purchased the neighboring ranch in 1965, just three miles east of where Helen was born. There they remained and raised their children Gregory, Karen, Gale, Mark, Tony, and Steven.

Helen was an excellent cook, teaching her children and grandchildren. She raised a huge garden, enjoyed her flowerbeds, and ran the swather in the hayfield well into her 70's. During the Farm Crisis in the 1980's, Helen began working part time at the McKelvie National Forest until retirement.

Helen and Cooper took the family on annual summer vacations. They enjoyed museums and historical sites, camping in the Big Horn Mountains and exploring their heritage in Missouri and Arkansas. Other activities the family enjoyed were camping and canoeing on the Snake and Niobrara Rivers. She attended and enjoyed watching programs and sports events of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Helen was an avid reader and enjoyed reading to her children and grandchildren.  In her later years she also enjoyed putting together jigsaw puzzles, and the antics of her 23 great grandchildren who referred to her as Grandma Great. Her household was always a noisy, bustling place--just the way she liked and wanted it.

Helen was preceded in death by her husband Cooper on January 17, 2018; her parents; brother Edson Gale, and sisters Manota Tate, Ruby Lord, and Jessie Wobig.

She is survived by her children Greg (Tracee) Ford, Karen Ford, Gale (Rex) Simmons, Mark Ford, Tony Ford, and Steven (Carrie) Ford, 16 grandchildren, 23 great grandchildren; sisters Mabel Adamson, Wilma (Joe) Andrews, and Beverly Dodson; sisters-in-law, Betty Ford-Cowden and Helen Massey Ford, both of Arkansas.

Memorials may be made to Prairie Lawn Cemetery or Cowboy Grit for playground equipment.

A private family interment will be held at the Prairie Lawn Cemetery in Cody.  A visitation will be held on Monday,  March 3, 2025, from noon-5 PM at Sandoz Chapel of the Pines in Valentine.  Mrs. Ford passed away on Feb. 27, 2025, at the Cherry County Hospital in Valentine.

Sandoz Chapel of the Pines in Valentine is entrusted with service arrangements.