Helen Louise Felton was born in 1920 in Huntington, Indiana, the youngest of three children born to Alvin Christian Felton and Icy Pearl Jones. She called herself an “Indiana Cornfed Baby.” The Feltons moved around for reasons not explained to me, but likely in response to Grandpa Felton’s work. I recall discussions around the Felton dinner table about living in Indiana, Toronto, Canada, and Deep Creek, Washington, before moving to Warm Beach, Washington. Helen moved west with her parents sometime in the late 1930s or early 1940s.
I’m guessing this undated photo of Mom was taken during her high school years. Because she was the youngest and had a sweet disposition, she was the family’s favorite. Any tensions in the Felton family (which only came to my attention decades later) did not involve Mom. They all loved her. In fact, when she married into the Moser family, she became a favorite among her sisters-in-law, nieces, and nephews. I may be overstating the sentiment here, but even as a boy, I could see that the Moser clan loved my mother.
1940s
The 1941 Spokane City Directory lists Mom as a resident. A few years later, she lived in Seattle and worked as a telephone operator with her friend, Margaret Hageman. By this time, her older siblings had already established their lives and careers in various parts of the country. Her brother, Alvin “Bus” Jones Felton, attended Bowling Green University in Ohio and went on to have a distinguished career in the automotive industry for General Motors Acceptance Corporation. Her sister, Virginia, had a career as an RN in the U.S. Army and in education, which you can read about here.
Helen Felton and Carl Moser’s wedding in 1946. They met through a mutual friend, Margaret Hageman, while living in Seattle. Dad was a student on the GI Bill at the University of Washington, and Mom was a telephone operator. After I was born in Seattle in 1947, Dad transferred to Washington State University, and the family moved to Pullman, WA.
1950s
This is one of those photos parents think “will be cute someday.” I’m wearing Dad’s graduation cap and gown and holding a diploma circa 1950 in Pullman. Dad was hired as an industrial arts teacher at A.C. Davis High School in Yakima, and we moved to a rental house on South 10th Avenue, next door to “The Bully of South 10th Avenue.” Mom tamed Jerry Iriarte with a simple recipe for chocolate chip cookies, and he became a lifelong friend. See Yakima Valley Years for more information. I attended kindergarten at McKinley Grade School, which was about six blocks from our home. My brother Todd was born at Yakima Memorial Hospital in 1952.
In 1957, our family moved to an unfinished cement block structure just south of Union Gap on Thorp Road. Dad remodeled it into a garage, workshop, food storage facility, and elevator on the first floor and a three-bedroom home on the second floor. It was located in the Wapato School District, which meant I attended fourth grade at Parker Elementary School in the fall of that year. I never understood why we made the move, but in the 1950s, children adapted and didn’t ask questions. Our house was in a rural area, which was a change from the life we knew in Yakima. Mom became the center of family life while Dad continued teaching and working on the house to make it more livable. She made sure our social and church connections continued in Yakima. It helped that we had a Yakima phone number on a party line (see Four Shorts), which meant we didn’t pay for long-distance calls to folks in Yakima. It is hard to believe now, but in those days, the phone company charged long-distance rates to call Wapato and the lower valley from Yakima.
My interest in church and spiritual matters was stagnant to the point that I was unaware of Mom’s increasing growth and commitment to her faith. I made a note in my seldom-used diary on April 14, 1957, “Mommy baptized by Rev. Parrott.” at the First Baptist Church in Yakima. Reverand John E. Parrott was the senior pastor and performed the baptism. Mom was faithful in taking her sons to church and Sunday school every week, until I started finding reasons to stay home Sunday mornings with Dad. Todd was always ahead of me in matters of faith and continued his Christian walk from an early age. The entire family attended Mom’s full-immersion baptism, and it made a lasting, albeit not immediate, impression on my spirit.
1960s
Mom worked nights and weekends running the cafe at Wapato Bowling Lanes in the early 1960s, when bowling centers experienced a resurgence in popularity due to the introduction of automatic pinsetters. As a result, they became hubs of social activity in communities all over America. The Wapato Bowling Lanes advertisement below can be dated based on the vintage of vehicles, the “Bubble Up” sign, and the phone number, which lacks an area code.
Mom had an interest in adult literacy programs, both in Yakima and the Lower Valley. I recall her work on the literacy program at the Episcopal Church in Yakima. My brother recalls Mom working with Dell Cable in the Lower Valley on an adult literacy program, where he helped by distributing literacy lessons to people.
1970s
This undated article describes Mom’s interest in working with special-needs children. She was selected “Mother of the Year,” by the Order of Foresters for her work at the Episcopal Parochial School for Retarded Chilren in Yakima, using an antiquated term. Looking back, I can see that this was a faith mission for Mom, who had a gift for sharing the love of Christ with people. I believe her career started with her work at the adult literacy program in the Episcopal Church in the late 1960s.
Mom became more involved in the church and worked with special needs students after her sons entered college. This 1972 article about the Ruth Childs School states: “Helen Moser takes it all in with obvious satisfaction. Several students give her a hug and kiss as she walks into a room. . . . ‘I’ve been working with some of these people for 10 years,’ said the training center supervisor. ‘They’re really my babies.'” The article goes on to describe how Mom started as a volunteer and became a supervisor of the program.
Mom was asked to be Chapter Mom to the Yakima chapter of the International Order of Rainbow for Girls at the time Todd was Master Counselor of the Yakima chapter of DeMolay. Her selection was evidence of the respect people had for her compassion and faithfulness.
Words of Wisdom and Legacy
Mom shared wisdom, even when I did not grasp or appreciate what she wanted me to understand. I have shared two of her adages about interpersonal relationships with my children. Mom was a great conversationalist, and her advice was: 1) The favorite sound for most people is the sound of their own name. 2) The favorite discussion topic for most people is about themselves. Another adage that I appreciated at the time was that if there are no people in the photograph, you are wasting film and money. She was not a fan of landscape photography.
Another expression Mom used was, “Work Like Hell and Be Happy,” as an encouragement to her family. When Debbie and I bought a 12′ San Francisco Pelican class sailboat, we christened her the Helen B. Happy in honor of Mom. The boat is gone, but we still have the nameplate.