Obituary of Helga J. Hulse

Helga Hulse completed her life on August 27, 2022, after one hundred years. My mother was a genuine musical prodigy who was sent from her home in Honolulu Hawaii to the Chicago Musical College at the age of five. Her training by some of the pre-eminent piano teachers of her time continued when, at the age of thirteen, she went to the Curtis Conservatory in Philadelphia to study with the internationally known pianist Joseph Hoffman. Mother also studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Her career of more than eighty years as a teacher of music began in her late teens when she taught the children of poor immigrants in the Boyle Heights slum of Los Angeles. Over the course of her career, she focused on young people with exceptional ability and was often instrumental in their developing into professional musicians. Mother also focused on teaching children and adults with exceptional challenges such as blindness, a psychiatric diagnosis, or incarceration. Like most prodigies, my mother had many great challenges in her life. Her exceptional Spirit of Life and transcendent love of music empowered her resilience and ability to rise above and move beyond the challenges. In 2001 at an event in her honor that was attended by several hundred people the mayor presented my mother with the Key to The City of Jamestown and identified September 21st as Helga Hulse Day. A musical celebration of the life of Helga Hulse will be held at the First Lutheran Church on Sunday October 23rd at 4:00 PM. A reception will follow in the church parlor. All are welcome. A video tribute to my mother's life can be viewed online at: Helga.Bladewright.com. My mother was truly blessed by a loving community of friends in Jamestown. She was genuinely accepted, abundantly respected, and loved for who she was as a person, a musician, and as a teacher of music. There is no greater treasure in life than authentic acceptance, respect, and love. My mother was happier here in the heart of this Jamestown community than she had ever been in her one hundred years of life. As her son and only living relative, I will always be deeply grateful to my mother's dear friends in the Jamestown community. David Ansgar Nielsen