Helen Sloup 1937 - 2019
August 15, 1937 - April 11, 2019
Helen Marie Sloup, 81, of Wahoo, entered into eternal rest peacefully at her home on Thursday, April 11, 2019, in Wahoo. She was born August 15, 1937, in Wahoo to Edward and Helen (Busek) Stuchlik. Helen attended District 28 country school and graduated from Weston High School in 1955. On June 11, 1955, Helen was united in marriage to Rudy R. Sloup at St. John Nepomucene Catholic Church in Weston. She worked for Fairview Café for 17 years, J.C. Penny's for 10 years and over 30 years at Wahoo Warehouse Surplus and Nebraska Bridal Outlet.
She is survived by her sons, Rudy (Betty) Sloup of Fort Gratiot, Mich., Bob (Nancy) Sloup of Wahoo, Joe (Teri) Sloup of Lincoln, Tom (fiancée, Laurie Loseke) Sloup of Columbus, Dan (Ginger) Sloup of Wahoo, and Bil Sloup of Wahoo; 21 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren; brother, Larry (Betty) Stuchlik of Lincoln; sisters-in-law, Lorene Stuchlik of Weston, Agnes (Don) Kasper of Omaha, and Karen (Neil) Barry of Weston; brother-in-law, Harvey (Loretta) Sloup of Omaha; many other family members and friends.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Edward and Helen Stuchlik; sister and brother-in-law, Charlotte and Jim Sousek; brother, Edward Stuchlik, Jr.; great-grandson, Gavin Murphy.
Mass of Christian Burial, 10 a.m. Tuesday, April 16, at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church, 214 E. 2nd St., Wahoo. Celebrant, Rev. Joseph Faulkner. Visitation, 5-7 p.m. with 7 p.m. rosary all Monday, April 15, at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church. Private interment. Memorials to St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church. Visit www.marcysvoboda.com to leave condolences.
Sloup recalls years of serving Kennedy students (article from Wahoo Newspaper July 15, 2010)
By Lisa Brichacek
Jul 16, 2010
CHARMED: This charm bracelet holds lots of memories for Helen Sloup. All of the charms represent an experience or customer from her days as a waitress at Fairview Café in Wahoo. Some of the charms were given to her by students of John F. Kennedy College. (Staff Photo by Lisa Brichacek)
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WAHOO – The charms gently jingle against each other as Helen Sloup searches for another memory on her bracelet.
“Oh, there are so many memories,” the Wahoo woman said about her days working as a waitress at the Fairview Cafe.
Fairview has long since closed its doors, but Helen will always remember her 17 years there and the friends that she made.
Fairview was located in the building now home to Lifesong Church, on the curve of Highways 77/92 in Wahoo.
Sloup started working at the restaurant when Luther College was still in existence.
She said the Luther students were a great bunch of kids, although she was not much older than them at the time.
Sloup was still waitressing when Luther closed and the campus again came to life with students from John F. Kennedy College.
Like their predecessors, she got to know the Kennedy students pretty well.
“At that time, Fairview was open 24 hours and because I was able to I was one of the four that had the late shift,” she said.
But whether day or night, Fairview became one of the hangouts for Kennedy students.
“They were always hungry and came in often,” Sloup recalled.
She said the students were always respectful and usually well behaved.
“I had just as much fun as the kids did,” she said. “I enjoyed being around them.”
Of course, kids will be kids, she said. “They did loosen the salt shaker lids once in a while and things like that. But, that is what every kid still does today.”
Sloup recalled that the favorite menu item was French fries and gravy. They also had their favorite tables and favorite waitresses. Sloup said she and some of the other Fairview staff made sure the college students didn’t ever go away hungry.
“They were growing kids, and they loved the gravy,” she said.
When an order of French fires and gravy went into the kitchen, there was usually an eye cast out into the dining room.
“The cooks would look out to see who it was and maybe throw on a little extra gravy,” Sloup said with a smile.
But extra gravy wasn’t the only memory to stay with the former waitress.
She recalled a very long day that was made a little bit better when she sang along with a Statler Brothers song that was playing on the radio.
When she told a group of college students about the song, they befriended it as well.
“They always played it on the jukebox whenever they came in,” she said.
Sloup said she built great relationships with many of her customers, including the Kennedy students.
The girls that she told about the song gave her an item for her charm bracelet, a radio.
There is also a cup of coffee charm.
A student she always served coffee too came to her before his graduation and handed her the charm.
“He said ‘here’s a cup of coffee for you’,” Sloup said.
Another charm bears the names of the softball players she befriended. But really, she said, some of the students were almost like family.
The students would often come over to her house.
“We lived just up the hill from Crawford field so they would come over and hang out,” she said.
Already married to her husband, Rudy, and trying to raise their young family, Sloup recalled the students would often ask for advice, such as how to hang a curtain in a dorm room or house.
“I guess they kind of looked at me as a mom,” she added.
Sloup has kept in contact with some of her former customers from the college over the years. She said that is fairly easy to do with the alumni who stayed in the area.
“We got a lot of successful citizens out of the college,” she stated.
But even those she doesn’t see anymore, she still remembers. A look at her charm bracelet brings back all the good times at Fairview. Her charms, collected over the entire 17 years she worked at the restaurant, holds lots of good stories.
“So many memories,” she said again.