Helen J. Flores

She grew up in Dallas, attended The University of Texas at Austin, married a law school student, then moved to Eagle Pass to raise a family. And before her life was over, Helen Flores reared six children, helped raise 12 grandchildren and welcomed into the world five great grandchildren.

Born Helen Jimenez to parents Jose Jimenez and Elvira Davila on Aug. 22, 1929, Flores was the eldest of three siblings who grew up in the shadow of downtown Dallas during the Great Depression. Raised by working-class parents - her father was a baker and her mother worked in hotel kitchens - she graduated high school at 16 and began working immediately. She worked at Southwestern Bell, retailer Neiman Marcus and as a hostess for the then-trendy Cipango Club, an upscale venue in Turtle Creek that catered to the Dallas elite. Later, she attended UT Austin and studied religion. It was there she met the man she eventually would marry and with whom she would raise her family, G.A. "Willie" Flores, Sr. "Our grandmother said that mom saw him on campus one day, and he caught her eye," recalled Mari Tamez, the youngest of Flores' three daughters. They were married on July 11, 1951, while Willie was still in law school. Almost a year later, the couple's first child, Sandra, was born. The young couple lived in the Campus Courts - a community of modest dwellings set aside for married students -- near the UT Austin campus. While Willie was finishing law school, Helen took an office job in downtown Austin. Soon thereafter, the young family moved to Eagle Pass, the town from where her husband was raised. The couple had five more children within the next nine years. All were reared in the border town. It was a hectic life of cooking, cleaning and chauffeuring children to school, recitals, ballet lessons, band practices, sporting events, and doctor visits, but a lifestyle to which she quickly became accustomed and even embraced. After her husband died unexpectedly in 1980, Helen lived for periods in Austin, Dallas and San Antonio to be closer to relatives.