Helen Louise (Thayer) Boggs

Helen Louise Boggs, 85, of Hermann, MO, passed away December 6, 2019 at home following a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer. 

Helen was born in St. Louis, MO on September 21, 1934, a daughter of the late Dr. Sidney A. Thayer & Mary Helen Clark. During her early childhood, Dr. Thayer, moved the family to the suburbs and settled in Kirkwood where Helen attended elementary, junior high and high school. After graduation from high school she spent the following four years at the University of Missouri-Columbia earning a bachelor's degree in Elementary School Education and a lifetime teaching certificate.

After graduation from the university Helen began her teaching career at Delmar-Harvard Elementary School in University City, Mo. On Dec. 21,1956 she was united in marriage to Robert J. Boggs at Kirkwood Presbyterian Church in Kirkwood, MO. They returned to Columbia the following year where Helen took a teaching job at West Boulevard School while Bob completed his degree in Mechanical Engineering. She taught there for three years before starting a family and moving to Lancaster, PA where Bob took his first job.

During intervening years Helen was the penultimate wife, dedicated teacher and mother to three growing children – never at a loss to find time to tend to the kid’s needs or those of the household in general. The family returned to Columbia in 1971 and Helen returned to teaching and stayed at that profession for the next fifteen years. But even with the demands of the home, the family and the classroom Helen still found time to devote to others. She took on the demanding job of Alumni Advisor to the Gamma Phi Beta sorority on the university campus. In addition to her commitments to her family, to teaching the young, and her sorority she always had time to make close friends but her closest friends of all consisted of a group of fifteen girls (now mature women) with whom she spent all of her school years through high school. They typically had an annual get together to relive the past and look forward to the future.Later, Helen became a licensed Realtor in East Aurora, NY.  And after another move to Orange Park, FL again became an active Realtor before moving to Hermann, MO in 2001.

Helen is survived by her husband of 63 years Robert J. Boggs; son John C. & wife Susan Touchton of Jacksonville, FL; son William A. & wife Kathy Otto of San Diego, CA; & daughter Mary Beth and husband Michael Young of Melbourne, FL; grandson Parker of Columbia, MO, granddaughter Whitney and grandson Dalton of St. Louis, MO; granddaughter Sydney A. (Young) & husband Daniel Maixner of Defiance, MO; granddaughters Danielle & Helene and grandson Timothy of San Diego, CA;. Also surviving is a brother Sidney A. Thayer & wife Janet Klingner of Washington MO.

Helen has bequeathed her remains to the Medical School at St. Louis University in honor of her father who was a professor of Biochemistry at that institution for over 40 years.
A Memorial Service will be held at the Hermann United Methodist Church at 1:00 PM on Saturday, January 4th, 2020.

Memorials may be given to Shriner's Hospital for Children, 4400 Clayton Rd., St. Louis, MO, 63110 and/or Hermann United Methodist Church C/O Toedtmann & Grosse Funeral Home.