Helen Rose Kuhn McWilliams

Helen Rose Kuhn McWilliams was born in Salida Colorado on April 22, 1925, the sixth of seven daughters born to European immigrant parents Stanislaus (Stanley) Kuhn and Francesca (Agres) Kuhn. Natives respectively of Germany and Austria-Hungary, Mr. and Mrs. Kuhn had come to America during the early 1900s. In 1910, they moved west to Monarch a small mining camp high in the Colorado Rockies. Mr. Kuhn gained employment in the mines at Monarch where he also worked as a tinsmith, having apprenticed in the tinsmith trade in his native Germany. Five daughters were born into the Kuhn family in Monarch between 1910 and 1918: Elizabeth Stephania (born in 1910), Frances Matilda (born in 1913), Wilhelmina Eleanora (born in 1914), Emelia Olga (born in 1916), and Bernadina Johanna (born in 1918).

On May 7, 1924, the Kuhn family moved down valley to Salida, the Chaffee County seat, a burgeoning railroad town on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway. Helena Rosa Kuhn (Helen Rose), the family’s sixth daughter was born in Salida the following year on April 22, 1925. A seventh daughter, Victoria Anne, would be born in 1930. Mr. Kuhn continued to work as a tinsmith, associated in some years with the Bateman Hardware Store. Metal roofs, stovepipes, and other building elements that he fabricated still exist in Salida, Monarch, Como, Fairplay, Summitville, and other Colorado mining towns. In Salida, the Kuhn family sold milk from a small herd of dairy cows, raised poultry, maintained a large vegetable garden, and in time grew alfalfa on their small acreage at the edge of town near the Arkansas River. A cozy Late-Victorian era brick house, the Kuhn residence had no indoor plumbing, although chamber pots, stored beneath the beds, were provided for family and guests alike on cold winter nights. Cooking was done on a wood burning stove, which provided heat, along with another stove in the parlor. Water was brought into the house from a nearby pump and windmill, located near the wood pile and chopping block. With no refrigeration, food stuffs were kept cool in a root cellar beneath the side of the house.

Helen began attending school at the age of seven, in 1932; however, rather than beginning first grade in parochial or public schools in Salida, she instead accompanied her eldest sister Elizabeth, to Maysville where Elizabeth, then age 21, had her first teaching job in a one room schoolhouse. Helen was also taught by her sister in one room schoolhouses, in Turret, during her second grade year, and in Nathrop, during her fourth grade year. In other years, Helen attended public school in Salida, except for eighth grade in 1939-1940, when she moved with her father to Summitville, a gold mining camp, over eleven thousand feet above sea level, in the San Juan Mountains of Rio Grande County.

The year with her father in Summitville was in many respects the highlight of Helen’s childhood years. At the cusp of becoming a young woman, she developed a strong mutual bond with her father who throughout the Depression years had often been compelled to work away from home. It was also in Summitville, that Helen honed her cooking skills, attempted to ski on a pair of homemade wooden slats, and went for long nature walks in the nearby woods. She also learned to steer clear of the dangerous stamp mill and the lively boardinghouse where rough and tumble miners ate, slept, gambled, and took part in other bawdy activities.

After returning to Salida for her early high school years, Helen moved to Pueblo during the summer of 1942 where she gained employment with a family as a live-in nanny and housekeeper. She completed a final semester of high school during the fall of 1942, but then returned to Pueblo where she took up residency at the YWCA and enrolled in cosmetology school. There, Helen became fast friends with Helen Parsley, also a cosmetology student, and a young wife and mother whose husband was overseas during the war. After obtaining their cosmetology licenses, the two Helens were the only two graduates to be offered positions with the cosmetology school owners’ private salon. Following the war, Helen established her own beauty salon in Buena Vista, near her native Salida.

On January 18, 1953, Helen was united in marriage to Vincil George McWilliams at Saint George’s Episcopal Church in Englewood. The son of Ray and Minnie (Crum) McWilliams, Vincil had been born and raised in a dugout on the family homestead in southeastern Colorado. Raymond Wayne McWilliams, Vincil’s older brother, was married to Frances Kuhn, Helen’s older sister, and it was through this relationship that Helen and Vincil met. Their courtship proceeded apace, and in later years Vincil remembered it fondly by often saying “I let her chase me until I caught her.”

Prior to her marriage, Helen had lived with her sister Frances and brother-in-law Wayne in Englewood, while working as a beautician at the Aurora Joslins store. After she was married, Helen was employed at Chalmers Beauty Shop on Girard Avenue in Englewood, and in later years she continued to work as a beautician at home throughout the remainder of her life. Helen renewed her cosmetology license annually, and it was believed to be the state’s oldest active license at the time of her death. True to her nurturing spirit, Helen also provided in-home daycare for numerous children during the 1970s and 1980s.

Helen and Vincil purchased their first home at 3759 S. Grant Street in Englewood in May of 1953. In 1961, they moved nearby to 3795 S. Grant Street at the corner of Lehigh Avenue which has remained the McWilliams family home to the present day. On April 20, 1956, Helen and Vincil’s first child was born, a daughter named Jeanne Louise. A son, Carl Warren was born just over a year later, on May 20, 1957, followed by another daughter, Elsie Marie, on April 14, 1960. A loving wife, Helen was also the perfect mother. She was warm and nurturing, and quick to volunteer for duty as a room mother, a cub scout den leader, and as a 4-H leader. Helen was also a superb cook, as she especially excelled at preparing many traditional European dishes she had learned from her mother.

The McWilliams family purchased their first camper in 1967, and in the ensuing years summer vacations and weekends were spent in Helen’s beloved Colorado Mountains. An avid trout fisherlady, Helen had honed her angling skills on the Arkansas and its tributaries while growing up in Salida. Numerous camping and fishing trips were enjoyed by the entire family, and they were often joined by other relatives, particularly brother Wayne and sister Frances, and the Devor family from Montrose, Vincil’s sister Marguerite and her husband George.

Vincil passed away on August 19, 1981, at the age of sixty-four, eventually succumbing to a long battle with cancer. Helen, his widow, was then just fifty-six years of age. She never remarried, and she never forgot her beloved husband Vincil. Every year after that when she turned the calendar over to August, she circled the anniversary of his death in black magic marker. She also visited his grave regularly, particularly on Memorial Day.

In later years, Helen’s nurturing spirit was bestowed on her six grandchildren, Ross, Megan, Walker, Kenyon, Rohan, and Tiernan. Ever the mothering type, she held, rocked, bathed, and fed all of them as she had her own children and those she had cared for in earlier years. She also continued to wow her grandchildren and others with her wonderful baking including such traditional delicacies as potitza, pecan rolls, and homemade doughnuts served with chili beans each Halloween.

Helen passed away peacefully, following a brief illness, on November 3, 2010. She will be forever missed, but lovingly remembered by her family and friends.

Sense of Security

Sense of Security seeks to provide relief from financial hardship and enhance the quality of life for Colorado breast cancer patients in treatment. Sense of Security has served more than 675 Colorado breast cancer patients while in treatment by providing over 1.2 Million Dollars towards housing, utilities, groceries, transportation, COBRA or insurance premiums and other basic living expenses to over the last 10 years.

Other organizations are about research, Sense of Security is about helping people hold their lives together while going through breast cancer treatments that are always challenging and sometimes debilitating. We are proud that our funding ensures that breast cancer patients can stay secure in their homes and have enough good food to nourish themselves and their families.

Contributions can be mailed to:

Sense of Security

3450 W. 32nd Ave.

Denver, CO 80211

Also, on-line contributions can be made by going to the website: www.senseofsecurity.org