| After the Helper City firefighters escorted Katie Ori to her birthday party, she thanked Mike Zammantakis for the gesture. |
On March 9, her 90th birthday, Katie Ori received an unexpected visit from the Helper City Fire Department. By escorting Ori from her home to her birthday party at the Carbon Country Club, the firefighters gave her a special thanks for the support and contributions she has given to the department over the years living in the community.
Fire Chief Mike Zamantakis said that the department appreciates her so much that they just had to do something to honor her. So they thanked her, loaded her into a fire engine and gave her an escort to her party.
Ori actively supports her hometown by attending activities in the community. Crowned as one of the first queens of Helper City’s Electric Light Parade, she hasn’t missed one yet. As the years have worn on, Ori has missed a few community activities, but gets to those she can.
| Chief Mike Zamantakis of the Helper City Fire Department helps Katie Ori from a fire engine. The department escorted Ori to her 90th birthday party at the Carbon Country Club. |
Until recently, residents in Helper saw Ori taking her daily walks in the community. On her way, she picked up trash and weeds littering the ground. As a proud member of her community, she always wanted Helper to be clean and did her best to help keep it that way.
She always puts others before herself and helps anyone she knows.
Ori was born in 1915 to Bernardo and Antionette Bianco. Her father was killed in an accident with a horse in 1917. After her mother remarried in 1920, the family moved to Helper in 1922.
As a 13-year-old, she began working to help support her two brothers and three sisters, while her stepfather worked in the mines and her mother ran a boardinghouse.
In 1936, she married Geno Ori, and she continued working in Helper through the ’50s.
Over the years they lived in the nearby communities of Peerless, Sweets and Latuda. However, Helper always remained home. The couple had two sons, Geno Jr, and Jack; 6 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren, but all who know her love her dearly and consider her family.