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Note: The following was taken from "Whence Ye Came", by Helen Wilson-Hunt.
Helen Margaret Hinden was born the 16th August 1906 in Strong City, Chase County, Kansas. She is the daughter of Jacob Hinden M.D. and Myra Elizabeth Lomas Hinden, a graduate nurse. Helen had an older brother Earl Lomas Hinden. Helen always seemed to be able to better him physically. She could run faster than he and could even out-shoot him. Their first lesson in civic awareness occurred on a day when she and her brother were entertaining themselves by standing on the curb in front of their home. They were throwing stones at the passing horse drawn street cars. Their fun was abruptly interrupted by their father, a passenger on the street care. He got off and gave them a sound spanking and a lecture concerning the consequences of their actions should they have spooked the horses.
Their mother died the 20 November 1911 when Helen was five years old. Their father re-married to Myra Ann Marvin, their mother's niece. The new Mrs. Hinden was also a graduate nurse.
Helen took piano lessons through her growing-up years. Her favorite pet was a coyote. She remembers the first automobile in their home town. It was purchased by her father. He was tempted to give up his medical practice an open a Ford agency. Of course he didn't.
Helen graduated from Chase County High School, Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, in June of 1924. She attended the College of Emporia for two years. Her major was foreign languages. She translated the bible from Greek and Hebrew. I remember many entertaining hours as a child when she would tell bible stories and sing bible songs that she had learned during that period.
On her twentieth birthday, Helen married Everett Gareth Wilson, at Grace Cathedral in Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas. After a honeymoon in Colorado they settled on the Wilson ranch located on Peyton Creek in Chase County, Kansas. The write-up in the local newspaper about the wedding described the new Mrs. Wilson as, "has a very charming personality and is an active leader in community affairs."
In the 1930's the family moved to Hamilton County, Kansas where they experienced the "Dust Bowl". Helen found cleaning house with a scoop shovel more efficient than with a broom. Finally, in 1939, Gareth and Helen gave up the battle of the elements.
Helen returned to college and graduated from the University of Kansas in Lawrence in 1941. Her first teaching position was in Veteran, Wyoming. In 1942, the family moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming where she taught in the Jackson-Wilson High School. Although her degree was in Home Economics she taught history, Spanish, Latin and basketball as well as anything else that happened to be short of a teacher. She coached a winning girls basketball team. She earned her High School Life Certificate in the State of Wyoming.
Helen and Gareth moved their family to Payette, Idaho in 1947. She taught Vocational Home Economics and Gareth worked as a project engineer for Morrison-Knudsen. Helen is a gifted teacher, as well as mother, and by 1959 she was working as State Supervisor of Vocational Education. Her home office from that day until retirement was Boise. She spent many hours on the road visiting high schools and universities in Idaho.
In 1961 she was honored as Idaho State Mother of the Year. She was chosen outstanding Idaho Advisor for the Future Homemakers of America in 1968. In April of 1970 she was honored as an Outstanding Idaho State Employee. You can read about her in WHO'S WHO OF AMERICAN WOMEN, 1968-1969, fifth edition, pg. 1327; WHO'S WHO IN THE WEST, Vol. 2, 1969-1970, pg. 993; WHO'S WHO IN THE WEST, 12th edition, pg. 676; and the NATIONAL REGISTER OF PROMINENT AMERICANS and INTERNATIONAL NOTABLES, 1972-1973, vo., pg. 145.
After retirement, she taught English for two years in Kwassui Gakuim, a girls college in Nagasaki, Japan. Currently you can find her at home in Boise, Idaho (editor's note - this was in 1985). She is a dynamic lady and I am proud to call her Mother.
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