Helen Marion Van Billiard, GW #117

Helen was born on 1 February 1894 in Bethlehem, Pa. to Amandus and Margaret (Bleicher, Blacker) Van Billiard, sometimes listed as Billiard.  Sadly, both of Helen’s parents died when she was still a child:  her mother in 1901 and her father in 1902.  Helen and her brothers were split up.  In Helen’s application to the Gospel Worker Society, she says she was 14 years old when she believed in Jesus and was baptized in Allentown Pa. in the Jordan Creek in 1907 by Brother Barrall (who was the pastor of the Coopersburg and Springtown Mennonite Brethren in Christ Churches at the time). Helen worked in a silk mill before entering the Gospel Worker Society.  Her whereabouts for the 1910 census remain unknown to me.  Helen entered the Society on 22 July 1914 and remained in the Society for the rest of her life.  In the 1940 census she reports having only 7 years of school.  In the 1950 census her occupation is listed as stock clerk in a printing plant.  Helen died on 15 February 1970 and is buried with other Gospel Workers in the Brooklyn Heights Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.