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Biography

Helen Baker was born on 4 Oct 1897 in Luverne, Rock, Minnesota. She was the fourth child and third daughter of William H Baker and Lauretta Fisher Baker.  Five of Helen's six siblings were also born in Minnesota: Iza in 1890, Bernice in 1892, Lettie in 1893, Bernard in 1895 and Jay in 1902. One of her sisters, Lettie, died as an infant while the family was in Minnesota.  Helen's sister Thelma was born in 1906 after the family moved to Washington in 1904 or 1905.

Helen's parents divorced after they moved to Washington and in 1911 her mother married William J Lawton. Lauretta and William left Olympia in 1915 and moved to Montana to homestead on Horse Creek in Treasure County, Montana. Lauretta's two sons, Bernard and Jay, went with them.  By that time Helen's older sister, Iza,  had married Jacob Frisch and was settled with two children in Olympia. Nine year old Thelma stayed behind with Iza rather than be uprooted from her school and friends to face the hardship of homesteading in Montana. Bernice had left for California to marry Arthur Barnes in 1915 and Helen joined her there a year later after her brief marriage and divorce from Carl Nommensen. Both Bernice and Helen had contracted TB as children and they needed to live in a warm, dry climate for their health.

Helen was married and divorced three times. She had no children. Her first marriage was on 27 March 1915 to Carl Nommensen. The marriage was very brief for reasons unknown and Helen filed for divorce early in 1916. Her next marriage was to William Sherry White on the 16 Sept 1919 in Los Angeles, California. She probably met William Sherry White when he was working at the Barnes Music Company which was owned by Bernice's husband at the time, Arthur Barnes. William is listed as a salesman there in the 1920 census. Helen is listed as the wife of William Sherry White in the 1920 census and the wife of Jack Lawrence Sherry in the 1928 California Voter registrations and 1930 census so she and William must have been divorced between 1920 and 1928 and she then married Jack Lawrence Sherry, a director in the growing Los Angeles movie industry.

It is interesting to note that Sherry is the maiden name of William Sherry White's mother, Susie. She and his father William Butler White were originally from Louisiana and Jack Lawrence's father was also from Louisiana. It is probable that Jack Lawrence Sherry was a relative of William and that is how Helen met him. On his World War II draft registration Jack gives Mrs. C. L. Belt as a contact. Her maiden name was Susanne Sherry so that is probably his sister and another Sherry connection.

While in Los Angeles, Helen became a hairdresser and opened her own shop. In the 1928 California Voter registration record, the 1930 census and on her death certificate Helen was listed as a hairdresser owning her own shop.

In the late 1930's Helen became increasingly ill from complications of the TB she contacted as a child and in the fall of 1938 she returned to Olympia to live with Iza. Helen died on 30 May 1939 in Olympia, Thurston, Washington at age 41 and was buried at Mountain View Memorial Park.