Birth Name: Anna Elizabeth

Salina Journal – March 9, 1987
Ex-Superior General dies
CONCORDIA - Sister Mary Helena Robben, former Superior General of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia, died Friday, March 6, at St. Mary's Convent, Concordia.
Sister Helena became the fifth Superior General of the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1953 and served until 1965.
Several schools were opened in Kansas and other states during her Sister Helena term as Superior General. New hospitals also were opened in Manhattan, Atwood and Belvidere, Ill.
A mission in Teresina, Brazil, also was opened by four St. Joseph sisters under Sister Helena's guidance in 1963 in response to Pope John XXIII's call for missionaries to serve in Latin America.
After her term ended in 1965, Sister Helena served as superior and administrator of St. Mary's Convent in Concordia, then moved to Grand Island, Neb., to work with mentally handicapped adults. She returned to live at St. Mary's Convent in 1978.
Sister Helena, 92, was born Anna Robben in 1894 in Pfeifer and moved to Leoville as a child. She entered the Sisters of St. Joseph in March 1911 and pronounced her final vows in August 1913. Her sister, Mary, also was in the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph. She was Sister Mary Corona Robben.
Sister Helena received a bachelor's degree from Creighton University, Omaha, Neb., and a master's degree from the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind. She taught school in Tipton, Pfeifer, Junction City and Grand Island.
Survivors include four sisters, Helen Campbell of Hoxie, Agnes Bruggeman of Selden, Josephine Karls of Leoville and Theresa Hickert of Norton; and two brothers, Matt of Wichita and Paul of Federal Way, Wash.
The funeral will be 10:30 a.m. today at the Motherhouse, Concordia. Burial will be in the Convent Cemetery. A wake was Sunday.