Helen Elvira RIDDLEBAUGH

This is a difficult post to write because there is so much we don't know or understand about my grandmother as she never really was a part of our lives, but I thought I should do a blog post about her anyway. I met her once when I was about 7 years old. All that I remember is that she brought my sister and me matching umbrellas (clear plastic with light blue trim on the out edge of the umbrella and little white silk flowers attached in the center) and she wanted us to call her Aunt Helen.

Helen Elvira RIDDLEBAUGH is the last of the 14 children born to John Henry RIDDLEBAUGH and Almeda Elvira WISELEY

    b. 2 August 1909 Findlay, Hancock, Ohio

    d. 19 May 1989 Meridian, Ingham, Michigan

Helen's nickname as a child was "Toots." 

She would have had a difficult childhood as her mother divorced her father in a very public trial in 1914. Helen was 4 years old and sat on her mother's lap while her mother gave testimony on the cruelty of her father. After the divorce, her father disappeared for many years and no one knew where he was, so I'm doubting there was child support.

I attribute much of what happened in her early adulthood to her father and the turmoil of her early life.

From a newspaper article on her parents' divorce trial, there was this description of Helen as a child:

"Mrs. Riddlebaugh held the youngest, four years old, on her lap while she testified. The child is a flaxen-haired little girl with rosy cheeks and she looks the picture of perfect health." 

This article says she was flaxen-haired, but when my daughter was born with red hair, mom said that Helen had auburn hair. I had not known that because the pictures I had seen of Helen were in black and white. My two brothers were red heads, but I had never thought much about where the red-headed genes came from.

We had been told by my mom's cousin that Helen had had a son out of wedlock when she went away to college in Michigan. Due to DNA testing, it appears that this story is true. I am in contact with someone who appears to be Helen's great-grandchild from this first child. We aren't sure, but are guessing that the son was born about 1928-1930. 

Helen married 1st Theodore Gilbert MOMINEE on 18 April 1931 Toledo, Lucas, Ohio, they later divorced.

While married to Ted, Helen became pregnant with my mother, but due to DNA testing we learned that Ted is not the biological father of my mother.

   

My Mom lived with Helen for a little bit after her parents separated, but then took turns living with some of Helen's siblings, winding up staying with Helen's brother Howard RIDLEBAUGH and his wife Mattie Jane WESTCOTT (thus making Helen our great-aunt so calling her Aunt Helen instead of grandma made sense).

Helen married 2nd Albert R. GOODELL on 27 April 1940 Henry, Ohio; divorced June 1944 San Bernadino, California (but it looks like she might have still been married to Ted during this time frame as it looks like her divorce from Ted didn't happen until the 5th of September 1947 as that is the date given for his divorce when he married in September of 1947... but perhaps he had another marriage in between Helen and Laura?)

She married 3rd Mr. JENKINS, unknown details (her name was Helen Elvira JENKINS when she married Ed and that's the only proof of his existence at this point though there was a family story that Helen had married a JENKINS and that he worked in some capacity for the Camel Caravan) 

Helen married 4th  Edwin Hare PENTECOST around January 1952 in Memphis, Shelby, Tennessee. She seemed to finally find stability in her life after her marriage to Ed.

 

Helen and Ed liked to travel and it seems like they often went to Mexico. 

Ed PENTECOST had been married before and he and his first wife, Viola ELLERMAN, had three children before they divorced. When Helen died in 1989, Ed's children were surprised to find out that she had a daughter. 

There had been no contact between mom and Helen while mom was growing up. Mom saw Helen for the first time since she was little when she was in college. 

I recently made contact with one of Ed's great-grandsons and he told me that his father thought that his step-grandmother Helen was nice.

Ed was 14 years older than Helen and passed away 6 1/2 years before she did. They had been married almost 31 years when he died. Helen had dementia and spent the last few years of her life in an assisted living home in Michigan.

Trying to piece together a timeline has been hard as there are many holes and I can't find her in all the censuses.

1909-Helen is born in Findlay, Hancock, Ohio on August 2nd.

1910 census-she is listed in her parents household Marion, Hancock, Ohio.

1920 census-she is in Findlay, Hancock, Ohio with her mother and 2 siblings.

1929ish? gave birth to a son (family story goes that he was adopted by the grandparents)

1930 census-she is a lodger in the household of Alba F. POWELL and is listed as a telephone operator for a hospital.

1930- her mother, Almeda Elvira, passes away

1931-Helen E. RIDDLEBAUGH marries Theodore MOMINEE on April 18th in Toledo, Lucas, Ohio.

1935 gave birth to a daughter

about 1936-37 she and Ted split up

1940-Helen R. MOMINEE marries Albert R. GOODELL on April 27th in Napoleon, Henry, Ohio. They divorced in June 1944 in San Bernadino, California.

Helen marries and then divorces Mr. JENKINS.

1952-Helen Elvira JENKINS and Edwin Hare PENTECOST's marriage license application notice appears in January in a Memphis, Tennessee newspaper.

1989-on May 19th, Helen passes away in Meridian, Ingham, Michigan and is buried next to Ed in Bright Cemetery in Marion Township, Hancock, Ohio.

Erma, Helen, and Elvira Riddlebaugh

Helen and Ed Pentecost