Alison "Cookie" L. Helland

Alison L. Helland, 82, known as “Cookie” to those whose life she had touched, passed away Thursday, March 2, 2023 at the Kittitas Valley Hospital after a brief illness. Cookie was a lifelong resident of Ellensburg and a member of the Ellensburg High School graduating class of 1959. Cookie was very friendly, had an infectious sense of humor and true to form joked with those caring for her at KVH in her final days.

Cookie was never a person to sit idle. Through the years she had bowled on the local women’s league, enjoyed outings to the hills and forests surrounding Ellensburg with her husband hunting mushrooms and wild berries, was an active knitter and crocheter, and was a maker of fine handmade candies. Many friends and coworkers were recipients of her finely knitted items and of her homemade candies.

One Ellensburg city shop worker recalls the homemade caramels that she would bring in for the workers there. In her later employment years Cookie worked as a transport driver for the Ellensburg Senior Center and for a firm that transported BNSF railroad crews around the state. Cookie also had a love for animals and always had a cat or two and occasionally a small dog keeping her company.

Cookie was preceded in death by her husband Bud in 1998. Cookie and Bud had no children but had many extended family and friends in the local area. Longtime friend Gil Justiss was fortunate enough to have first met Cookie and Bud in 1975, and as a “hungry” college student shared many of Cookies fine meals and other activities with them both during the years that he resided in Ellensburg.

Per Cookie’s wishes no service is to be held. If anyone who knew Cookie wishes to make a charitable contribution in her memory, any local charity that reflects the wonderful person that Cookie truly was would be appropriate.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Johnston & Williams Funeral Home and Crematory of Ellensburg.  Online condolences may be left at www.johnston-williams.com