People
Collection for person entities.
Pages
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- Helen J. (Reed) Penny
- She went to Palisade High School. She grew up packing peaches in her grandfather S.J. Reed’s orchard, and began picking peaches when orchards experienced labor shortage during World War I. She also helped her mother to dry the overripe fruit, which they sold in Meeker. Her two brothers volunteered for World War I before the draft began. She began working for the American Red Cross in Grand Junction, Colorado with a group of school girls. They knitted afghans, sweaters and other garments for servicemen. They worked on the garments in a room rented from the old YMCA building on 5th Street and Rood Avenue. She also made kits for servicemen in World War II. In 1959, following the organization of a American Legion group for soldiers who fought in World War I, an American Legion Auxiliary for women was organized. She joined and was an active member. She was elected the first treasurer and later served as president for the organization. She also attended American Legion Auxiliary national conventions, where she was able to protest efforts to close Grand Junction’s Veterans Administration Hospital.
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- Helen Klanderud
- Helen Kalin Klanderud, with four young children in tow and a degree in social work, moved to Aspen in 1971, having landed a job as director of the new Touchstone Mental Health Clinic. She held that position for five years, at the same time serving as social worker in the Aspen public schools from 1971 to 1973. After leaving Touchstone, she was in private practice for twelve years, active in the schools and in her church. But a passion for politics led to a run for Pitkin County Commissioner in 1981 and, as the first woman elected to that board, Helen served two terms from 1981 to 1987. She had an unsuccessful run for the Colorado State Senate in 1986, losing by a narrow margin. Following her terms as a Commissioner, she enrolled in law school. Upon her return to Aspen, she ran for Mayor, losing to Rachel Richards in 1999. But in 2001 a rematch put her in the Mayor’s seat for the first of three terms, leaving the office for good in 2007 due to term limits. A few days later, to properly celebrate the end of that era and the beginning of a new one, she threw herself a 70th birthday bash for several hundred friends as the first customer of the brand new Doerr-Hosier Center at Aspen Meadows. She claimed she and the Golden Gate Bridge were virtual twins, having been born in the same year. Known widely as The Lady in Black, she surprised the crowd that day by wearing an all-white outfit to usher in the new era. Helen had a lively sense of humor and continued to dedicate herself to social service and civic activities. She was a passionate member of the board of the Aspen Chamber Resort Association as the representative of the professional sector. She became chair of its Public Affairs Committee, leading the organization’s oversight of relevant political issues. She also served on a number of other boards of local nonprofits, including Aspen Homeless Shelter, Aspen Writers Foundation (serving as president of the board at the time of her death), Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, and as a community member of the Jazz Aspen-Snowmass board. She also spent many volunteer hours with the Thrift Shop of Aspen and St. Patrick Day dinners at St. Mary’s Catholic Church. She was a member of both the Elks Club Lodge #224 and the Fraternal Order of Eagles #184. Helen passed away at the age of 76 from complications following a stroke.--Aspen Hall of Fame website
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- Helen L. (McFarland) Shults
- She was born in Missouri to Frank and Alice E. McFarland. She married Selby Sawyer in Mesa County, Colorado in 1924. 1930 U.S. Census records show her working as a waitress in Grand Junction. She later remarried to Howard M. Shults, an auctioneer. According to his obituary published in the April 23, 1986 edition of the Daily Sentinel, she helped him with the operation of the Shults and Hopkins Saleyard in Grand Junction, their stock auction business.
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- Helen L. Campbell
- Born in Salida, Colorado on March 4, 1933 and died January 6, 2006. Father: Colin Pugsley Campbell born January 8, 1896 in Pugwash, Nova Scotia. Mother: Luella Verona Sage born December 19, 1902 in Adobe Park, Salida, Colo.
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- Helen Lines
- A one-time resident of the Gateway area of Mesa County, Colorado.
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- Helen Lucile (Young) Johnson
- She was born in Cleveland, Ohio to John Lawrence Young and Emily Jane (Scatliff) Young. Her father was a tool and die maker. Her mother was a stenographer and homemaker. She spent some time living with her grandparents in her youth. She had two brothers, Willard and Art. She took 1st grade in Bedford Township, Ohio then 2nd grade in Englewood, Colorado. She did well enough in school to make up a lost grade and then skip another one. By 1913, the family was living in Hotchkiss, Colorado. She accompanied her mother to Cleveland, Ohio in 1913, when her mother needed surgery. Afterwards, she stayed for nearly a year with the family of Will Zimmerman in Bedford Township, since the family did not have enough money for her and her mother to return to Hotchkiss. When the family lived in Hotchkiss, they switched between the Methodist and the Baptist churches on different Sundays but they did attend every Sunday. She graduated from South Denver High School in 1921, living with paternal grandparents on South Columbine Street in Denver during high school years. She worked as a waitress in a café in Hotchkiss after her high school graduation. She later worked at the Waunita Hot Springs for a summer. There she met Jim Johnson, whom she married 1923 in Delta, Colorado. They later divorced. Helen and Jim moved to Grand Junction in 1923, because it was easier for him to find work there as a mechanic. They lived first on First Street and then at 120 Hill Avenue (where Fuoco Motors was long located). They raised their children there, and were active in the Odd Fellows and Rebekahs. She received a two-year degree from Mesa College in 1938 and then attended college in Greeley at what is now known as the University of Northern Colorado, where she worked toward her teaching degree. She had to leave college due to lack of funds, and returned to Grand Junction, where she worked at Sloan’s cleaners for a while as a seamstress. She also played the piano and danced, and helped teach WPA dance classes taught by Mabel Donaldson and by Johnson's mother, Emily Young. In 1941, she taught school in Central Fortification, north of Craig. She was paid $90/month for an 8-month period, along with living quarters and coal. In August of 1942, she went to California to work on civilian projects to support the war effort. Her birth certificate did not have her name listed. Her aunt had to certify that the name she reported was the one her parents had given to her (her middle name being in honor of an aunt). In August, 1942, she was assigned to Douglas Aircraft after an eleven-day riveting course at Santa Monica Technical School. Less than a month later, she became the lead man of her section (the terminology of the workplace did not include ‘lead woman’). After being laid off at the end of the war, she went to UCLA for a quarter but found that her credits did not transfer satisfactorily. She returned to Grand Junction with her sons in August, 1946. She finished her Elementary Education Bachelor’s Degree with one more summer term and received a BA in Education from Colorado State Teachers College (now University of Northern Colorado) in 1948. She taught second grade for two years at Lowell Elementary, where she helped implement a new remedial education program. She then taught for a year at Tope Elementary and Columbus Elementary. She became a case worker for the Mesa County Department of Public Welfare (now the Department of Human Services), beginning her time in the Old Age Pension division. Her region was from the west edge of Grand Junction to the Utah border. She went on to work in the Aid to Dependent Children division. She also worked as the intake specialist and office supervisor for the department before returning briefly to casework before her retirement. She worked a total of twenty years in the department and had 450 clients upon leaving her casework position. Her top salary with the department was $5000 a year. Johnson sang for both the 75th and Centennial celebrations of Grand Junction’s founding. She volunteered with Grand Junction’s Unity center, was a member of the Museums of Western Colorado, the Western Colorado Center for the Arts, and a supporter of the Mesa College Drama Department. She belonged to the Rebekah Lodge No. 40, the Sunshine Chapter No. 53 of the Order of the Eastern Star, and was a Royal Matron of the Order of Amaranth. She was a member of the White Shrine of Jerusalem. *Some information for this entry taken from “Helen Johnson, ex-caseworker, dies at age 82, The Daily Sentinel, 16 April 1986.