Obituary
Helen Dollie Boyes
Helen Dollie Ingber left this life to be with her Lord and Savior on April 20, 2022 at the age of 103. She was born in Dell Rapids, South Dakota on December 9th, 1918. She was the fifth of eight children born to Rudolph and Dollie Ingber.
In 1938, at the age of 19, she met and fell in love with Joe Boyes. The two were married in San Juan, Texas, after just a two-week courtship.
Shortly after, the two returned to South Dakota where they had their three children; Robert Joe, Arla Jean, and Karen Lea. Helen raised their children while Joe served his country in the Navy during WWII. The couple spent the next 60 years living in Texas, Florida, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. During their time in Tulsa, they celebrated their milestone 50th wedding anniversary. In 1998, they settled in Stuart, Florida where they lived the remainder of their years together.
In 2010, Helen lost her beloved Joe after 72 years of marriage.
Growing up on a farm in South Dakota, Helen was raised as a little farm girl helping her family tend to the animals and was a mother’s helper to her siblings. She loved to tell stories of growing up on the farm and her cherished mother caring for them all.
As a young woman, Helen began babysitting for the children of friends and neighbors. Over the course of many years, she looked after dozens of children, and their parents were secure in knowing she was giving them the best care and attention possible.
Helen was an avid baker and, for many years, baked nearly every single day. There is not a family member that does not have a special recipe of “Gram’s” that they would often request of her. Her cookies, pies, cakes, and famous banana bread were loved by family, friends, and neighbors. She even became a minor celebrity with strangers who had tasted her fabulous recipes, simply referring to them as, “Gram’s banana bread,” or, “Gram’s ginger cookies. She lovingly hand-wrote those recipes and had kitchen drawers full of them, even though she could recite most of them by heart. And she cheerfully baked and shared her labors of love with everyone. Her family enjoyed a fun tradition of stuffing mouthfuls of her cream puffs into their mouths every Christmas and she would giggle with delight at the spectacle.
Helen was a loving mother to her three children and a doting grandmother to her six grandchildren. She even enjoyed close relationships with several of her great-grandchildren and was a great-great-grandmother.
She is preceded in death by her parents, Rudolph and Dollie, her beloved husband Joe, her eldest child, Robert, and her eldest grandchild, Kimberly. She was the last of her dear siblings; Ruth, Edith, Marion, Roy, Pearl, Earl, and Sonny.
She is survived by many beloved family members including her eldest daughter, Arla Stoner, and her husband Daniel of Port St. Lucie, Florida; her youngest child, Karen Cole of Stuart, Florida; and daughter-in-law Lynn Boyes of Jenks, Oklahoma.
She is also survived by five of her six grandchildren; Robert Boyes Jr. and his wife Jill of Mt. Airy, North Carolina; Reed Boyes and his wife Sherry of Jenks, Oklahoma; Ronnie DeChambeau and his wife, Jamie of Stuart, Florida; Dawn Bomer and her husband Brent, of Stuart, Florida; and Lisa Naef and her husband Michael of Stuart, Florida.
She is also survived by nine adoring great-grandchildren. To them she was Gramma Gramma. They are Claire, Chloe, Olivia, Eli, Joel, Holly, Brooklyn, Brandie, William, Bethany, and Jordan.
She will be fondly remembered by her many nieces, nephews, friends, neighbors, and countless others who met her and instantly adopted her as their Grandma