Helen Duncan

Before marriage to Norvin Smith on 16 June 1919 (following his return from WWI front in France), Helen Heberling studied and worked in New York City after participating as a student journalist in the Henry Ford Peace Trip to Europe in late 1915, early 1916. Helen's father, Henry Heberling, participated in the 16 Sep 1893 Oklahoma land rush, 2 weeks after Helen's birth in Tiffin, Iowa on 02 Sep 1893. Helen and her mother, Henrietta Jeanette Dennis, joined Henry in Oklahoma shortly thereafter. Helen's sisters, Prudence Mildred and Margery May, were later born in the newly established town of Lamont, Oklahoma. The family subsequently returned to Iowa so that Helen and her sisters could follow in their mother's footsteps and obtain college degrees. Helen's grandfather, Andrew Heberling, born in Virginia in 1817, participated in the California Gold Rush, traveling by land and sea from (and back to) his home in Ohio. In 1856, Andrew moved his family from Ohio to Atalissa, Muscatine Country, Iowa, the birthplace of Helen's father Henry.