In Memory of

Helen

Jean

Lockard

(Stapleton)

Obituary for Helen Jean Lockard (Stapleton)

Helen Jean Stapleton Lockard, 81, of Tanoma, while fighting cancer died at her home on Friday, June 23rd, 2023. Born July 3, 1941 in Indiana, she was a daughter of the late Charles Leroy Stapleton and Mary (Klyap) Stapleton.

She was a 1959 graduate of Indiana High School and was an office worker for many years at Musser Nursery. She is also remembered for her work at Andy’s Market in Home and McCreary Tire in Indiana.

Helen was a Pittsburgh sports enthusiast who bled black and gold. She also supported youth sports and attended many sporting events for her numerous nieces and nephews. Helen was a founding member of the Marion Center Football Boosters Club, where use spent decades supporting the program. It wasn’t uncommon for Helen to provide a ride to and from summer practices, driving a vehicle full of players. Among her other interests, she enjoyed trying her luck at the casinos, music from the 1950s and 1960’s, and was a member of the Indiana Moose Club.

She was a lifelong member of the Church of the Resurrection in Ernest, where she was born and raised.

She is remembered by her son, David Lockard with whom she lived. Her surviving siblings are: Cindy (Stapleton) Derry, Ernest; Betty (Stapleton) Murray, Homer City; and Charles Stapleton, Ernest. Other survivors included her nieces, nephews, grandnieces & grandnephews, great-nieces & great-nephews, the father of her children, Dennis Lockard, Indiana, Rose (Lockard) Lowman, Dixonville, Gladys (Lockard) Walker, Akron Ohio, and all of her remaining friends from her graduating class from Indiana High School.

She was preceded in death by her daughter, Michelle; her parents; sisters, Rozella Fleck and Barbara and Judy Stapleton; a nephew, Ronald Fleck, and children’s paternal grandmother, Elsie (Smith) Lockard.

Friends will be received Tuesday, June 27th from 2:00 to 4:00 and 6:00 to 8:00 PM at the Rairigh-Bence Funeral Home & Crematory of Indiana, 965 Philadelphia Street. Her funeral service will be held Wednesday morning at 11:00 AM at the funeral home with Rev. Father James Morley officiating. Interment will follow at St. Bernard Cemetery, Indiana.