- Helen was an accomplished artist and painted scenes during her travels around the world with her military husband.
- She met her first husband, Clark Twelvetrees, while both were enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Art. They eloped to Greenwich, Connecticut in 1927. They both worked in New York's theatre town -- she as an actress and he as a stage manager -- but he couldn't get his acting career going and turned to alcohol. They divorced in 1931 and he died seven years later of acute alcoholism following a street brawl.
- First husband, Clark Twelvetrees was a despairing alcoholic who tried to commit suicide by throwing himself out a seventh floor window. He was saved by landing on a second floor awning. The tabloids accused Helen of deliberately pushing him out the window and was only released from custody after her husband regained consciousness and was able to tell the truth.
- During the time of her popularity, a popular joke was that she was Lassie's favorite actress.
- Her first screen role required her to lisp and, following the movie's release, word spread that she had a serious speech impediment.
- Her cremated remains are buried in the Middletown Cemetery near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where she died. Her husband, Conrad Payne was stationed at the former Olmsted AFB at the time of her death. There is a simple stone marble plaque bearing her name and birth and death dates. It is located in section "D" of the "new" section of the cemetery.
- Her career was born after noted artist George Bradshaw Crandall painted a portrait of her which made the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. She was a student at New York's Art Student League at the time studying music, painting and drama.
- Played Blanche Du Bois in "A Streetcar Named Desire at Sea Cliff, Long Island in August of 1951. It was one of her last professional appearances.
- Second husband Frank Woody, by whom she had a child, Frank Woody Jr., also made the headlines in 1936 at Helen's expense. The couple were already estranged at the time. It seems Helen was dining with a male friend when her husband passed by and forced a fight with her male companion. The altercation left the other man with two black eyes and a front page news item.
- Her father, Williams Jurgens, was advertising manager for the Brooklyn edition of the New York Evening Journal.
- WAMPAS Baby Star of 1929.
- At the age of eighteen she eloped with Clark Twelvetrees, a fellow student.
- The blonde haired beauty became known for playing suffering women and was called "the perfect ingenue".
- Johnny Carson used her name numerous times, when doing one of his comedy sketches with Carol Wayne.
- In 1919 her younger brother died in a house fire.
- After high school she enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
- Her marriage to Clark Twelvetrees ended in 1930. During their divorce trial she claimed he was an alcoholic who had beaten her several times.
- Helen was cremated and buried at Middletown Cemetery in Middletown, Pennsylvania.
- Helen returned to the stage in a 1951 production of A Streetcar named Desire.
- In 1941 she appeared in the Broadway show Boudoir. Unfortunately it closed after only eleven performances. Depressed over her failing career she began to drink a lot.
- Helen began modeling for illustrator George Bradshaw Crandall when she was a teenager.
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