Helena Constance Hansen Klingenberg Fikstad

Biography

Helena Constance Hansen Klingenberg Fikstad, generally called "Sissie" was born on February 1, 1903 in Bergen, Hordaland, Norway. She was the oldest of five children. When she was not quite two years old, her parents took her and her younger sister Kitty and immigrated to Utah. They left from Oslo on November 16, 1904 and sailed on the SS Cedric from Liverpool to New York.
Once in Utah, Sissie's father struggled to find work and turned to drinking to drown his disappointment in this new country. Her mother had three more children, one daughter and two sons, one of whom died just a few months later. However, in 1909, Sissie's mother passed away from a fatal case of appendicitis. As their father was not fit to care for them and her mother's father in Norway never replied saying that he wanted them, Sissie and her siblings were taken in by local families. Sissie and Kitty refused to be separated, so they were both adopted by Jakob Christiansen Fikstad and Kjersten Peterson. They raised the two girls in Manti and ran a Scandinavian Store. They faced some financial hardships, but her adoptive father still bought her a piano, which she had an aptitude for playing. Helena also learned from a close neighbor how to embroider and cross stitch. She then became the only girl to work at the creamery as a butter wrapper.
In seventh grade, Helena taught herself how to use a typewriter and was even called to the county court to aid in letter writing. Her first public job at the county courthouse was assisting in the treasurer's office, once again as the only woman. Helena was very involved in the community, especially when it came to musical productions. After high school, she attended the University of Utah on a four year scholarship while also working in a private home for room and board. Midway through her degree, Helena became a teacher in Manti, so that she could tend to her mother. Simultaneously, she worked in the county offices as well as the recorder's office of the Manti Temple. She then returned to finish her college degree. She had many other prestigious jobs involving stenography and secretarial work.
A few years later while at a Church Conference, Helena met her future husband, Henry West. He was a doctor while she worked at the State Capitol. They courted for ten weeks and were married on December 31, 1930. They had two children together, a boy and a girl. They lived in Pocatello, Idaho, for many years. Helena moved back to Orem before her death and faithfully recorded many of her life's events. She passed away on November 13, 2003, at the age of one hundred. She was buried in Pocatello.