Helen Florence Humphrey, 1909-1963

Helen F. Humphrey, attorney and government official, was born in Detroit, Michigan, on September 20, 1909, the daughter of D. Norman and M. Isabel (Scanlan) Humphrey. She majored in English at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), graduating magna cum laude in 1931. She then held jobs as map custodian at the William L. Clements Library and cataloguer at the law library at New York University. Believing that courses in law would be helpful, she studied at Brooklyn Law School, graduating in 1938.

In 1939 HFH went to Washington, D. C. to work for the National Labor Relations Board as an enforcement attorney responsible for preparing briefs and oral arguments before various Federal courts of appeal and the United States Supreme Court. Except for one year (1942) as a trial lawyer in the NLRB's New York office, HFH remained in Washington until 1944. From 1944 to 1946, HFH was chief law officer of the St. Louis regional office, the only woman chief law officer with the agency. She held the same post in Philadelphia (1946-1948) and New York City (1948-1951).

...