The Eastwick Press Newspaper

Eastern Rensselaer County's Community Newspaper

Helen P. Willbrant

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Petersburgh – Helen P. Knauer Willbrant, 85, of Willbrant Road, Petersburgh, NY, died on Monday, April 8, 2013, at the Center for Living and Rehabilitation in Bennington, VT, where she had been a resident for three years.
Born in Troy, NY, on January 5, 1928, she was the daughter of the late Nicholas and Anna Heinike Knauer. Helen was the loving wife of Robert F. Willbrant, whom she married on June 2, 1946, in St. Lawrence Church in Troy. She was a communicant of the Immaculate Conception Church in Hoosick Falls, NY.
Helen was raised and attended schools in Troy. In her earlier years she worked for Montgomery Ward in Menands, NY. She met her future husband, Bob, at a dance where their courtship started. After their marriage, they moved to Cherry Plain, NY, and in 1955 purchased the Maple Lane Farm in Petersburgh. She became a “farmer’s wife,” helping around the farm while raising their children. She was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister and aunt who will be dearly missed.
Survivors include her husband of 66 years, Bob, her three children, David R. and wife Diane Willbrant of Oklahoma City, OK, Nancy H. and husband Charles Stearns of Petersburgh, Anna M. Willbrant-Rice and husband Steven of East Nassau, NY, her sister, Celia, who was married to the late Arthur Allen of California, her brother, Lawrence and wife Dorothy Knauer of Troy, her grandchildren, William, Warren and Robert Willbrant, Steven Stearns, Audrey Kuhn and Dustin Rice, and her great-grandchildren, Lana Willbrant and Conner Kuhn, along with many nieces and nephews. She is pre-deceased by siblings, Theresa Cote and Nicholas, Henry and Anna Mary Knauer.
A Liturgy of Christian Death and Burial will be celebrated by Rev. Thomas Zelker at the Immaculate Conception Church, 67 Main Street, Hoosick Falls, on Saturday, April 13, at 10 am. Burial will follow in the Berlin Community Cemetery.
Relatives and friends are invited to the visitation on Friday, April 12, from 4 to 7 pm in the Thomas M. Barber Funeral Home, 66 Armsby Road, Petersburgh. Memorial contributions in Helen’s memory may be given to the Center for Living and Rehabilitation Activity Fund, 160 Hospital Drive, Bennington, VT, 05201.