Helen Koures

Helen Darlene Williamson Koures was born the third of nine children, on April 8th, 1936, to Loren and Dorothy Williamson. She lived with her parents and siblings on a dairy farm in Victor, Montana and learned to love the land, like her father. She gardened throughout her life, wrestling the motorized till through the ground, well into her eighties and telling her grandchildren, "This is clean dirt! I love the dirt," As she dug.

Even though Victor High school had no coach, Helen was a two-time high school tennis doubles state champion. She loved the game so much, she often skipped school to practice with her partner, Colleen Ankeny Hinman. After graduating, she eventually left Victor and moved to Missoula, where she first saw the Greek man who would later become her husband, Demetrios (Jim) Koures, working at his uncle's candy store, Palace Candy. She always said, "I knew the first time I saw him", he was the love of her life. 

They married and raised two children -- Antonio and Sofeea, and together built a rental business, one property at a time. A hard worker, Helen built a home herself, stick by stick, on their land in the mountains they named Bourboula. "I just used a book," she said, simply, when asked how she did it. She applied this same philosophy to everything: remodeling rental properties, roofing, painting countless art projects, chopping wood, gardening, plumbing. Any job she could stand in front of was one she could do herself. She couldn't wait for hunting season every year, that was one of her and Jim's favorite thing to do every fall, to roam the mountains up at Cramer Creek, and stay at their cabin for most of the winter hunting season. Helen exemplified a woman who could make her way by her own work. 

Once married to Jim and immersed in Greek culture, she became an invaluable member of the Greek community, from serving on the Parish Council to making countless pans of melomakarona and baklava for church dinners. Helen loved the culture as if she had been born to it. She could speak and read in Greek and loved dancing with her friends at festivals.

The door to Helen's house was always open. It didn't matter when you walked through -- she would be there, to share a coffee and listen. Her Greek friends would come for a visit and together they'd read the coffee grounds. Her son would come and stand in front of the fireplace, together they'd watch the news. Her daughter would come, and they'd laugh and cook. Her grandchildren would come to talk for hours. There were never too many people there. Helen loved people, and truly listened -- she was special, in the way that everyone was her friend.

Helen also found her calling when she became a Yaya, she fell in love with each and every grandchild, and great grandchild added to her heart and soul. She watched them for days or even weeks at a time and was always sad to see them go. She could never say no to them wanting to go to the park, the turtle water park, play a game, go fishing with them, read a book, and play endless pranks on each other. She was so funny and had the best sense of humor, always had a good comeback to anything they threw at her.

Helen loved to watch sports, especially football and her Green Bay Packer team. She loved to go to all her grandchildren's sports, football, basketball, baseball, wrestling and soccer, and she even got to watch her some of her great grandchildren's baseball and soccer games. She was their biggest fan cheering them on.

She had a dog named Quill that she trained from a pup, and they were great companions for many years, one of her many talents was that she could tell her to make noise, and Quill would run and find a toy to squeeze and make noise.

Helen also loved to travel, she went to Greece to meet her husband's family and see where he grew up, once by taking a ship from New York to Athens, which took 17 days. She traveled with Tony and Cyndy to Washington D.C., Disneyland, Las Vegas, and San Francisco and couldn't stop talking about her trip to D.C. for a long time. She loved seeing Glacier Park for the first time just a few years ago. She also took trips with Sofeea and daughters driving from Missoula to Gilbert, Arizona and San Diego, California stopping whenever they felt like it, but her favorite highlights were Zion National Park, and the Grand Canyon, she said they were breathtaking, and she fell in love with San Diego, she could sit by the beach for hours and look for sand dollars and sea shells to bring home with her. 

She is preceded in death by her husband, Jim Koures and her brother, Don. She is survived by her brothers and sisters, Bill, Norma, Dean, Dale Ann, Wayne, Terry and Mary K. Survived by her son Antonio, and his family Cyndy, children Eleni and Demetrious, and by her daughter Sofeea and her family Kyle, and children's families Demetrios, Alexis, (great grandchildren Demetrios III, Arianna, Angelee (Byrdie), and Amara), Amalia and Kyle, and Alixandra (Alexi) and "Fred". 

Helen's last year and a half was spent in Bellingham, Wa with Sofeea and Helen's dog Nova on a little piece of property, usually sitting out on the deck looking at the San Juan islands, and she would never want to come inside because she loved being outdoors and she said it was peaceful and beautiful. She would always ask what we were going to do tomorrow, look at this view again? Her dog Nova kept her company and was a great companion to her.

On mountain drives she sat on the edge of her seat, peering forward like she just couldn't wait to see what was next. She was always ready to go somewhere, see something. To Helen, life was an adventure, one full of potential. And it never stopped being fun. 

As the Greeks say, her memory is eternal. Se agapo.