Seymour Tribune - December 20, 2007 
Barbara E. Helmkamp
June 30, 1947 - Dec. 9, 2007 
Barbara E. Brand Helmkamp, 60, went to be with the Lord at 7:53 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 9, 2007, at her home in Bethalto, Ill., with her husband and friends by her side. She had courageously fought cancer for 16 months.
She was a graduate of St. John’s College in Winfield, Kan., and Concordia Teachers College, Seward, Neb. She received her first call to teach at Zion Lutheran School in Bethalto, Ill., in 1969 and remained there her entire teaching career. Her last position was at the sixth-grade level.
She was director of the SonShine Celebration at Zion Lutheran Church in Bethalto for 35 years. This high school-age choir sang for church services on a regular basis. SonShine Celebration also wrote an evangelism “Celebration” each year and presented it every evening at a different church while on an 11-day summer bus tour throughout the United States and Canada.
Born June 30, 1947, in Seymour, she was the daughter of Eleanor A. Schneider and Alfred W. “Abie” Brand. She received the rebirth of Holy Baptism on July 12, 1947, at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Seymour, where also, on March 26, 1961, she was confirmed in the Christian faith. On June 19, 1971, Barb married Lyndel Helmkamp at Zion Lutheran Church in Bethalto. The officiates were the Rev. Duane Brunette, the Rev. William Hemenway and the Rev. Victor Mack.
Besides her husband and mother, she is survived by a brother, the Rev. Donald (Anita) Brand, Union, N.J.; a sister-in-law, Edith (Chuck) Garner, East Alton, Ill.; a brother-in-law, Eugene (Janet) Helmkamp, Bethalto, Ill.; and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.
She was preceded in death by her father and a cousin, Jim Schneider.
Pastors Willard Meyer, Dan Decker and Mark Hofferber conducted funeral services Dec. 13 at Zion Lutheran Church, Bethalto, Ill. Burial was at Rose Lawn Memory Gardens, Bethalto.