Henton, Helen Spink, 1901-1986.

Helen Brenner Spink was born July 12, 1901 in Slayton, Minnesota, the eldest of two children born to John Henry Spink (1874-1947) and Lillian E. (Brenner) Spink (1877-1968). John Henry Spink was a merchant and the family moved to small towns in Minnesota and Iowa until he owned his own general store in Spring Valley, Minnesota in 1915.

Helen Spink graduated from the high school in Spring Valley in 1919 and then entered Hamline University in St. Paul. After two years at Hamline, she transferred to the University of Minnesota and graduated from the law school in 1925. She passed the state bar exam in September 1925 and began a nominal partnership with John A. Dalzell in Franklin, Minnesota. She continued this practice for almost two years before moving to St. Paul to head the Legal Aid Society. She claimed that in 1927 she was the only woman in St. Paul actively employed in law practice.

...