Helen Marie Madamba Mossman

Helen Marie Madamba Mossman, of Petaluma, CA and also Woodward, OK and Oroville, CA, passed away Sunday, August 13 after a brief hospital stay. Helen was born August 2, 1933 on the island of Negros in the southern Philippines. With her mother and brother Jorge, Helen spent most of her childhood evading capture and imprisonment by the Japanese Army in the island jungle. The Madamba family immigrated to the United States via troop ship at the end of the war in 1945. Helen was an outstanding student and her academic excellence carried all the way through Oklahoma A&M, where she was editor of the Daily OCollegian campus newspaper. After graduating, Helen married Roy Dean Seeman of Woodward, who was a medical student at the time. They had four children, Jayne, Kevin, Sara, and Daniel and lived in Oroville, CA. Helens greatest pride was her children and she faced the challenge of single motherhood with great determination. After many years as a homemaker, she became a career woman. From the 1970s to the end, she was a proud feminist and pacifist. She earned a Teaching Credential from Chico State University and fought for the Equal Rights Amendment. In 1979, Helen married Romain Mossman in Woodward and the two shared a devoted and caring love until his death in 2012. While in Woodward, she returned to her original career Journalism. She worked for over a decade for the Woodward Daily News as a reporter, a columnist, and the editor. Her well argued and impassioned liberal views in their morning paper sometimes threw salt on the corn flakes of her conservative readership. This made her happy. She was a recipient of numerous awards for her journalism such as the Marshall Gregory Award from Oklahoma Education Association, the William Randolph Heart Visiting Professional, the Associated Press Carl Rogan Award, and the Oklahoma Press Association award. Helen retired so that she and Romain could spend their sunset years together. In her retirement, she completed a book about her life in the jungles of the Philippine Islands, a book that she often said took her more than 50 years to write. It was published in 2008, and she was invited by a wide variety of community groups and associations to give talks and read from her book. After Romain passed, Helen moved to Petaluma with her little dog Chenille. She was now closer to her children and her grandchildren Patrick, Greg, Anna, Karen, Will, Nick, and Olivia. Besides being an accomplished writer and published author, Helen was a fabulous cook. She always carried herself with dignity and was well read and thoughtful. She was a strong believer in education and every one of her progeny that is old enough has at least one university degree. Helen had many beautiful friendships in Petaluma, Woodward, Oroville and beyond. She was a beloved member of the Episcopal Churches in each of those cities. She had her loving family. Helen is survived by her four children; her seven grandchildren; and her brother, Jorge J. Madamba, DDS, of Tulsa, his wife Drucilla, and children Ryan and Karla. It was a good life. A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, November 18, 2017 at 10:00 A.M. at the St. John's Episcopal Church, 5th Street, Petaluma, California, 94952