Helga Katharina Ebel

Mrs. Helga Ebel, 93, of Frederick, passed away peacefully at home on Wednesday, December 3, 2025. She was the loving wife of the late Rev. Richard T. Ebel. She was also preceded in death by her son Karl Walter Ebel, her brother Hans Schmidt, and her sister Margarethe (Gretel) Schmidt.

Helga was born on March 12, 1932, in Zweibrücken, Germany, to Karl and Mathilda Schmidt. She grew up during the years of World War II, surviving its hardships and the loss of her
beloved sister.

Her early years involved going to business school and helping her brother Hans start his shoe store business in Zweibrücken and Karlsruhe. She was a very good businesswoman. She went to a finishing school in Harinalb, where she finally had some fun and made lifelong friends. She was at her parents’ home when there was a knock on the door. She answered, and there stood a handsome young man who was also a Lutheran pastor. They married six months later in 1959 in Utica, New York, and had a successful 62-year- long marriage.

Helga and Richard raised five children: Karl Walter Ebel, Margarete Christina Donnelly and husband Neil, Martin Theodore Ebel and wife Monika, Richard Alexander Ebel and wife Kelley, and Paul Ulrich Ebel. Her grandchildren, whom she dearly loved, are Paul, Marlaina, and Claire Donnelly; Aleksandr and Benjamin Incze-Ebel; and Katherine and Elizabeth Ebel.

She had many talents, including knitting, caning chairs, organic gardening, spinning wool from her angora rabbits, leather work and making homemade cards with pressed flowers and calligraphy. She was fearless, whether facing bears while berry picking, wrangling black snakes, or climbing onto the roof to fix it. If someone had a hurt foot, she would pull out her kit and relieve them of their pain. She started the Second Time Around shop in Liberty, PA, and donated the proceeds to families in crisis. She led youth groups, taught Sunday school and catechism, and began a Passover Dinner tradition at one of the churches. She was an avid reader. Above all, she was a wonderful mother and grandmother, always making sure her children were happy and healthy.

A funeral service will be held at 11:00 AM on Monday, December 29, 2025, at the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 31 E. Church Street, Frederick, Maryland. Inurnment will follow at Mount Olivet Cemetery, with a meal afterward in Trunk Hall.

Online condolences may be shared at www.keeneybasford.com. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Daybreak, Frederick Health Hospice, or the American Indian College Fund.