Helga Muriel Mahoney passed away peacefully at home on Friday, July 7, 2023.
Born in Spangle, Washington, Helga grew up on her family's farm and graduated from Washington State College where she met the love of her life, Mervyn Cecil Mahoney. After graduating, they started their family and careers in agriculture and veterinary medicine in Petaluma, California. In 1965, Helga and Merv brought their family to Centralia and founded Leprechaun Holsteins, Inc., where they bred and raised world record producing cows and bulls, helped pioneer embryo transplant practices and technology, and provided Lewis and Thurston county residents and students with their iconic Pixie Packs of chocolate milk and other dairy products produced on site at Leprechaun's Creamery.
Earlier this year, friends and family from all over the country gathered at the Ford's Prairie Grange to celebrate Helga's 100th birthday and her amazing life over three days of food, music and laughter. Helga regaled us with her memories of that weekend throughout her last days, so happy that she had been surrounded by people she adored and who adored her.
All of Helga's surviving children and many grandchildren gathered together for a private memorial service where her and Mervyn's ashes were mixed together and spread over the land they loved here in Lincoln Creek; family in Petaluma will also return them to their family roots in a ceremony there.
