February 17, 1921 - December 23, 2024 Helga Marion Hansen Young Petkovich died peacefully in the company of family in Corvallis, Oregon on December 23, 2024, two months shy of her 104th birthday. Helga was born on February 17, 1921, the youngest of four children, to Carl and Else Hansen in Petaluma, California. Her parents were turn-of-the-century immigrants from Denmark who met in the Petaluma Danish Lodge.
They owned a small egg farm on Roblar Road near many relatives and other recently immigrated Danes. After graduating from Petaluma High School, she moved to San Francisco to work at the telephone company. While in "the city", she met Bill Young, who was residing in the same boarding house.
They courted, and were married in 1943, as Bill's army unit was preparing to ship out to Europe during World War II. After Bill returned from the war, they moved to his tiny hometown of Taylorsville (pop. 200) in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Her early attempts to fit in with the mountain lifestyle included joining Bill to hunt deer while pregnant with her first child. Waiting on a stand in the morning, she saw a bear slowly approaching from the brush. She responded by standing up and shouting "Go away, bear!" That ended her deer hunting.
She raised three children in Taylorsville: Carl (1947), Gary (1949) and Julie (1954). Capable, optimistic and friendly, she became an integral member of the group of (mostly) women who sustained the families and the culture of the town. She joined her n.
