My mother was also born in the home of her maternal Seifert
grandparents in St. Joseph, Missouri June 22, 1929.
Looking at this picture, I realize that she had a head full of black hair as did
her daughter, Linda and my daughter Christine at birth
Helen, Herman, Louise, Herman Kerber
She was named for her Aunt Jesse Helen, Albert Kerber's wife. Louise came
from her Mother, Amelia Louise and her maternal grandmother, Louise Huber Knoth.
I have never found any evidence that any of the children were christened as babies or that they belonged to any church. I asked once and was told that Grandma couldn't drive and Grandpa had farm chores. Spiritual matters were just not a priority. To my knowledge she was baptized with with my sister and myself in May 1966.
Helen Louise was always a very feminine girl happy to stay in
the house being a shadow of her mother helping with the household chores.
She told me that she always thought herself an ugly duckling.
Helen & Betty Jean
By all accounts, her family was very happy and close and stayed pretty much on the farm. Although Grandma and Grandpa spoke German to each other, by this time, it was not the family's first language. When World War II broke out, German families were cautioned NOT to speak German so that mother or her siblings never learned German.
She
attended the one-room Buchanan County school not far from their Faucett, MO
farm. The only thing that I remember her saying about her school years was
that she could add sums quickly in her head without the aid of a pencil and
paper. She told me how she remembered Grandma getting up early to make
them (Uncle Herman, she and Aunt Betty) fried pork sandwiches which she traded
for peanut and jelly sandwiches once they got to school.
Mother was always very close to her siblings: Herman, Betty,
and Clara
shown her with their animals. She did ride horses with her sisters
but was pulled off by a clothes line, hurting her back and so didn't ride much
after that.
Grandma and Grandpa held barn dances and loved music and dancing as did their children. They had a radio so grew up listening to soap operas and the dramas of those years and also the Grand Old Opera. All of the Kerber family members were sociable. loving a good joke (usually bawdy) and the latest gossip. People were always drawn to their good humor and warmth.
Mother
received her diploma from Sparta on May 27, 1944.
Mother said that she wanted to go to Benton High School in St.
Joseph. Grandpa would drive her to the place where the school bus would come and
pick her up. In those days, girls were expected to learn household skills
and marry for the security of a husband and raise a family. I don't think
Mother was ever interested in academics. Her interests were more sociable.
freshman Benton class 1944
Pep Club
My mother loved to dance and was a very good dancer. She
loved music and people. She and her brother Herman went to the sock hops
held weekly downtown not far from 13th street house. At one of these sock
hops, there was a good-looking man sitting who, to her, looked like
Sterling Hayden
from the movies. So she asked her brother, Herman to go over to find out
who he was. It turned out to be Glen Dale Roberts who never went to
dances, but was there with his sister, Marie and her boyfriend Doyle Blanton.
Soon, they were seeing one another
and after a few months they were married and along came us
Helen Louise, Linda Dian and Sharon Louise
Helen and Glen's marriage lasted 5 years. She moved for
awhile with baby Linda to her parents farm in Horton but then to Topeka, Kansas
were there was more work. She lived there working in a variety of jobs,
raising my sister in one of the rented apartments upstairs in the house on
Mulvane.
In 1965, I moved to Topeka 
into the duplex near Topeka High School where I graduated. Mother worked as the
store manager of a day-old bread store. Those were happy years.
me teaching Mother The Twist
I was married in 1967 and my sister Lynn in 1968 
In the early 1970s she moved back to St. Joseph to care for her parents who were elderly by then. She joined St Paul's Lutheran Church on St. Joseph Avenue. Their lives revolved around home with family members and friends coming for visits. Mother always loved jewelry and made rings. In those years both she and Grandma read boxes of books; usually romantic novels.
She was so proud of the fact that she was so young when her
first grandchild was born but wore a wig for at least a year to let her hair
completely grow out because I wanted Christine to have a grey-haired grandma
like mine.
She was in her 50s when Grandma died and was completely on her
own for the first time. She went to get re-training and was placed in a
special program at Lafayette High School where she attended along with teenagers
completing courses to receive her high school diploma. I was so proud of
her.
However, even with the skills she now had to work in an office, her age kept her from getting something and she had to get work quickly so she went back to the work she had been doing for over 10 years; taking care of the elderly. The families who hired her appreciated the good and loving care she gave to their loved ones and many became like extended family.
She and Uncle Herman were always very close and during those
years were very involved in the VFW post named for their Uncle Fred Seifert.
She was proud of being a "Cootie" 
the female auxiliary group.
In 1990 she moved back to Topeka so she could be close to my
sister's family. She moved into one of the Lutheran Place buildings and
stayed there until her death. 
She was happy there where she had friends and family who came to visit.
This is the last picture that I took of her before she grew
ill enough to have to go to the nursing home. 
She wanted a nice obituary for the newspaper but I'm sure she would have been
much happier with this webpage devoted to her life. She wanted to be
remembered as a wonderful, devoted mother and grandmother. I have done the
best I can now to do just that. Most of all, I miss her laughter.