Helen Shoars of Osage, Iowa, formerly of Grafton, Iowa, died Tuesday, April 12, 2016, at Good Samaritan Center in St. Ansgar, Iowa. She was 88.

A gathering of family and friends will be from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Champion-Bucheit Funeral Home in Osage. Inurnment will be at Osage Cemetery. The Rev. Randy Baldwin will officiate.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the family of Helen Shoars.

Helen Natalee Flugge was born near Elma, Iowa, on Dec. 14, 1927, to Albert and Mary (Patten) Flugge of Elma. She married Dean Earl Shoars of Osage on June 10, 1945. They had seven children.

In addition to raising her family, Helen was one of the first Tupperware distributors in North Iowa in the 1950s and was one of the few female bus drivers for the St. Ansgar school district. In the early 1970s, Helen and her late husband, Dean, owned Dean’s Place — a bar and grill in Grafton — and later owned a craft business called The Wood Box, which they operated from the early ’80s until their retirement in 1993.

Helen is preceded in death by her husband, Dean Earl Shoars; and sons Smith Shoars and Mark Shoars. She is also preceded in death by three brothers, Charles, Harold and Albert “Bert” Flugge; and two sisters, Edith Groth and Dorothy Persing.

She is survived by her children Meri (Herman) Bauers of Glenville, Dean Alan (Suzanne) Shoars of St. Ansgar, Scott “Tim” (Corrine) Shoars of Ventura, Iowa, Ruth Shoars of Webster City, Iowa, and Eric (Julie) Shoars, of Austin; daughter-in-law, Dorothy Shoars, of Kensett; nephew, Larry (Barbara) Newhouse of Oregon, Wisconsin; sister, Caroline Flugge, of Kansas City, Missouri; as well as numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Condolences can be left at www.champion-bucheitfuneralhome.com.