Helena Louise Herning

Helena Louise Herning, 83, resident of Bernalillo, NM, passed away peacefully in her home on December 23, 2023.  Helena was born July 5, 1940, in San Francisco, CA to parents Rudolph and Helen Schmitt. When Helena was young, she showed the early signs of her affinity for dance by studying ballet and became an amazing ballerina herself. She graduated in the fall of 1957 from Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco. After her graduation, Helena and her family moved to Long Beach, California where she furthered her studies at California State University, Long Beach.  During this time Helena married and started a family of her own, raising her two daughters in Orange County, CA.  Upon graduating with her master’s degree in teaching, Helena taught kindergarten as well as night school for adults learning English.  She also created an after-school dance program at Stevenson Elementary school in Long Beach, CA for underprivileged students.  Helena’s passion for travel stayed with her throughout her life.  She toured the world and shared her interest with her grandchildren, taking road trips around the western United States with them.  Like dance, Helena was a gifted and accomplished fiber artist, winning awards for her quilts and weaving at many county fairs in California and Oregon.  She shared her art by donating hundreds of her handmade baby quilts to area hospitals.  Preceded in death by her parents, Rudolph and Helen Schmitt. She is survived by her daughters Elise Callahan (Patrick Irwin) and Helen Herning (Marcelino Montoya), her sister Charlotte Martinez (Joe Martinez) and her grandchildren Jacob Wagner Gonzalez (Milo Freund) and Elena Gonzalez.

Helena is greatly missed.

Services will be held at Daniels Family Funeral at the Sara Chapel Wednesday January 24, 2024 at 1:00 pm.  To leave a condolence or to send flowers please visit www.danielsfuneral.com