Helen Marie Fields

Helen Marie (Garner) Fields, 96, was born November 12, 1924, in Gazelle, California to Silver Frantz Garner and Marjory Gula (Edson) Garner. She died on January 31, 2021 in Medford, Oregon.

When Helen was just a toddler the family had moved from Gazelle, California to Grants Pass, Oregon. She was joined by two younger sisters, Betty and Margaret. Her father became a county employee and worked as a mechanic in the county shop. She grew up attending grade school and was also a Grants Pass High School graduate. When she was six years old, her parents purchased an upright piano for her to have lessons. This was a wonderful opportunity for Helen; she continued to enjoy playing the piano for the rest of her life. When she turned seventeen, she joined the Methodist Church on 6th street and played piano during church services.

When she was a junior in high school, she met and fell in love with John Fields, a senior student, who graduated and joined the Navy in 1942, soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1943, John returned home for a short time and they were married before he reported back to the service. Her husband, John, ultimately made the Navy his career and eventually had his wife and new baby boy accompany him when he was stationed in San Diego in 1944. Over a twenty-year span, Helen followed her husband to a variety of duty stations, including two tours in Japan. In addition to shore duty, he was out to sea aboard the USS Enterprise and later, the USS Los Angeles. During this time, Helen became both father and mother to her three growing children. Helen followed her man to Bremerton, Washington, where her second child, a baby girl, was born in 1946. Other duty stations included Astoria, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Portland, Oregon; Tokyo and Yokosuka, Japan; Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; Washington D.C. (Pentagon); and another overseas tour in Yokohama, Japan. It was during this second tour in Japan that her third child, a second son, was born in 1954. In July of 1960, John was transferred to Kansas City, Missouri at a Navy Reserve Training Center for his final duty station.

Once the family returned home to Grants Pass, John worked for the Post Office for thirteen years. Helen and John enjoyed many years of retirement together, vacationing in warmer climates, before John died of cancer. Helen’s life as a Navy wife made her independent and strong for most of her final years.

Helen is preceded in death by her husband, John Henry Fields.

She leaves behind her two sons John Douglas Fields and Robert Edgar Fields; one daughter Donna Lynn Childers; Nine Grandchildren; Seventeen Great-Grandchildren; and two Great-Great Grandchildren. All of whom were recipients of Helen’s unconditional love.

A private funeral service for the family will take place.