Roddam

Helen Kainer Roddam passed away on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2017 at age 92. What a fruitful and joyous life she led! Born on March 25, 1925 to Robert and Ida Belcik, Helen Ludmilla was the seventh of nine children. Like her siblings before and after, she was born, raised, and learned a great deal on the family farm located between Ammansville and Holman, Texas. Her first language was German, but she received her early schooling in Czech at the Pecan School in Holman. In May 1942, she was awarded her diploma from Ammansville High School. Helen married Victor Joseph Kainer at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Ammansville on May 8, 1944. She and Victor lived briefly in his parent’s home (the homestead of Frank (Franz) Kainer and Pauline Klesel Kainer near Schulenburg), picked their last cotton, and moved to Houston. Eventually settling in Pasadena, Helen took advantage of her well-honed skills as a seamstress to craft custom-made garments for others. Incrementally, she began working outside the home, tailoring suits for Leonard’s Menswear in Pasadena, working in the cafeteria of St. Pius V Catholic School, and ultimately becoming cafeteria manager. In 1980, she took the bold step of opening her own bakery in the small mountain town of Lake City, Colo. With the generous help of her daughter and son-in-law, Helen established the Lake City Bakery. She was the sole proprietor and chief baker for the successful seasonal bakery for six years, eventually selling the business that still continues today. All the while, she maintained a loving home and was a dedicated wife and marvelous mom to her children. Some of her volunteer activities in Pasadena included coordinate food for church bazaars, coach softball, and serve with the Alter and Rosary Society. In Pasadena and throughout her life, Helen also loved harvesting nature’s bounty. Hunting, fishing, crabbing, crawfishing, gathering pecans, picking wild plums, dewberries and muscadine grapes were valued activities. Equally esteemed were the pies and jams, wild game and seafood dinners that she prepared from her harvests. With tremendous help from her oldest daughter, Helen moved from Pasadena and settled into the Kainer homestead in 1984 following Victor’s sudden death. In her retirement, she beautifully restored the home, enjoyed a garden, raised Guinea fowl and chickens, and became reacquainted with old friends and made new ones in Fayette County. After years of a gratifying life on the farm and some adventures in overseas travel, she married Lawrence Roddam on Aug. 1, 1992. The happy couple built a new life together in La Grange, where Helen took up and excelled at golf and volunteered at the Second Chance Emporium, a resale shop run by a coalition of La Grange churches to benefit underprivileged members of the community. She also continued to create cherished quilts and crafts, can tasty jams and pickled goods, and open her warm, welcoming home to all who visited. The couple enjoyed 17 wonderful years together until Lawrence passed away in March 2009. Helen eventually moved to the Schulenburg Regency Retirement Community in 2014, where she lived her final years under the loving care of the Regency staff and her adoring granddaughter Laura Fogle and husband Troy. Helen is preceded in death by her parents Robert John Belcik and Ida Bittner Belcik; her siblings, Adela M. Ulrich Freudenberg, Erna M. Luce, Ida A. Kubos, Robert J. Belcik, Ferdinand Belcik, Benjamin B. Belcik, and Thomas T. Belcik; infant daughter Brenda K. Kainer; grandson Chad J. Hollingsworth, and husbands, Victor J. Kainer and Lawrence E. Roddam. She is survived by the following (and their spouses): sister Hilda E. (and Alton) Demel of High Hill; children Doris (and Donald) Drachenberg of Rosenberg, Marian (and Judson) Hollingsworth of Lake City, Colo., John (and Kristine) Kainer of Georgetown, and Karen Kainer (and Jonathan Dain) of Gainesville, Florida; and six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Visitation was held at 2 p.m. and Mass and burial at 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 27 – both at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Ammansville followed by a luncheon at the KJT (Katolická Jednotá Texaská) Hall in Ammansville to celebrate Helen’s life. Donations to honor Helen can be made to the Helen Kainer Roddam Memorial Education Fund at the Regency Nursing Center, 111 College St, Schulenburg, Texas 78956. All donations will serve to provide professional development opportunities for and thank the dedicated individuals who care for Regency residents.