Helen Hope Groteluschen Frenette
After bravely battling cancer for several years, Helen Frenette passed away on October 18, 2025, at her Atlanta home with her family at her side. A loving wife, mother, grandmother and friend, Helen brought tenacity, spark and kindness everywhere she went. She often reminded friends and family that “Joy hides in plain sight, if you stop long enough to notice it.”
Helen was born on March 26, 1951, in Lincoln, Nebraska, the daughter of Roland and Joyce Groteluschen. A few years later, the family moved to Kansas City, where she grew up with an unmistakable sense of sturdy Midwestern dependability and grit.
After graduating from Gladstone High School, Helen enrolled at Northwest Missouri State University to pursue her lifetime love of fabric and design, studying clothing and textiles. At NWMSU, she also met her lifetime love and future husband, Charlie Frenette of Tupper Lake. They began their courtship while they were co-workers at the university cafeteria.
After they graduated in 1974, Helen moved back to Kansas City and worked at Halls Department Store, while Charlie moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where he began a career with the Coca-Cola Company that would take them around the world.
They married in 1976, and soon moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where Helen worked in creative services for McCann Erickson and then Simmons Bedding Company.
Helen was highly resourceful and creative. She was a talented and voracious sewer, making clothes for herself, her family and friends. True to form, she sewed her own wedding dress. But her skills transcended sewing, as she was equally adept at building shelves, hanging sheetrock and changing the oil of her pickup truck. She could do it all, and often did.
Helen gave birth to their son Zach in 1986 and energetically threw herself into being a full-time mother and cherished friend to many.
Starting in 1996, the Frenettes lived in Johannesburg, London and Boston, before returning to Atlanta in 2012. Everywhere she lived, Helen established a true sense of belonging and community, making the house feel like a true home within a week of her arrival, while quickly making new lifetime friends.
Helen regarded each new home as a launching pad for adventure and exploration. She loved the fellowship of traveling with others who shared her deep curiosity about other cultures, returning from every trip with a deeper understanding of people and the world. If she came across something she found interesting, she was not afraid to climb over a short fence to check it out.
In 2019, Helen was diagnosed with cancer, a challenge she took on with the same vitality and optimism that she had demonstrated her entire life. She not only extended her life years beyond her original diagnosis but also lived those years with vigor and gratitude.
The births of her grandsons, Oliver and George, brought great joy and energy to Helen. The boys called her “Gogo,” the Zulu word for grandmother. She loved the fact that “Gogo” is more than just a name, but also the spirit of a woman who guides and holds a family together.
Helen is survived by her husband, Charlie Frenette; her son Zachary Charles Frenette and his wife, Jamie Glater Frenette, and their sons Oliver and George; and her three brothers Matthew, Frank, and John. She is also survived by her seven “Frenette Sisters” who considered her one of their own: Cindy, Mimi, Ellen, Pam, Aimee, Andree and Nicole.
Helen will be laid to rest privately in Tupper Lake, New York. A celebration of her life will take place at 11 a.m. on December 5 at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Atlanta.