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Helen Lou Kranther

July 3, 1928 - June 20, 2020

Services Date June 26, 2020

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Helen “Honey Lou” Fox Kranther

Helen Kranther, known affectionately by her childhood nickname Honey Lou, passed away peacefully on June 20, 2020, two weeks shy of her 92nd birthday.

Born July 3, 1928, in San Francisco, California, and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, she was the daughter of George and Beverly Sherman. Honey Lou graduated from Central High School in Omaha and attended the University of Oklahoma.

She married Lester Fox in 1947, whom she met at a cousin’s wedding (Lester was the brother of the groom, so her cousin became her sister-in-law as well). They lived in Omaha, and soon after the birth of their first child, moved to California, where they settled in the Los Angeles suburb of Westchester and had two more children. After Lester passed away, Honey Lou found love again with Sol Kranther; they married in 1975.

When her father lost his eyesight, Honey Lou started volunteering as a braille transcriber at the Braille Institute in Los Angeles. She turned that volunteer opportunity into a fulfilling 20+ year career with the LA Unified School District as the braille transcriber at Frances Blend School for the Visually Impaired. When she retired in 1992, she truly was irreplaceable, as there were no transcribers to take her place!

Honey Lou loved people and made friends with everyone, anywhere, anytime. She saw the best in everyone and always put others first. She was active in B’nai B’rith and the Jewish community. Her very close group of girlfriends were known as the Golden Girls. They were inseparable and always looked out for each other.

She loved her weekly Mah Jongg and Pan games, which she played regularly well into her 80s. She was a voracious reader, an avid crossword puzzle solver (always in ink), and theater and movie lover who was always up for a night out. Her other great joy was shopping, which she lovingly passed on to her daughters. They learned from the best!

The keeper of family lore, Honey Lou knew the long, intertwined family history for both the Sherman and Fox families. She made it a point to stay in touch with everyone and had a drawer filled with greeting cards to acknowledge any occasion or just to say hello.

Honey Lou is survived by her son Michael Fox (Lynette), daughters Andrea Fox and Judi Caluya (Ron), grandson Matthew Fox, and many nieces and nephews. She is predeceased by first husband Lester Fox (1973), second husband Sol Kranther (1989), sister Harriet Morris, and brothers Mel and Arnie Sherman.

The family extends its gratitude to her two personal caregivers, Ariella and Olivia from JFS Care, and all the staff in the Sunrise Sterling Canyon Reminiscence Unit who treated her with such loving care.