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.

She married Robert Beach Henton, a fellow law student, in a private ceremony on September 30, 1929. A public ceremony was held on June 25, 1930 in Morton, Minnesota. At the time of her public marriage Helen Spink Henton gave up her law career and moved to Olivia, Renville's county seat, where Robert Beach Henton was officiating as probate judge. During her marriage Henton was active in the League of Women Voters and in the women's guild of the Episcopal Church.

Following the death of Robert Beach Henton in 1961, Helen Spink Henton took an active role in managing her estate and finances with particular regard for the farm and apartment properties in which her husband had invested. At this time she also expanded her interest in the creative arts. In 1963 she became a charter member of the Renville County Art Center and began to study oil painting. She was a member of the Minnesota Rural Artists Association and placed in many local and statewide shows.

In the 1970s as she began planning bequests from her estate, Henton involved herself with fund raising for the University of Minnesota and the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota. She was also a member of the Minnesota Historical Society's State Council. Helen Spink Henton died April 13, 1986 in Olivia at the age of 85.

Biographical information was taken from the collection.

Robert Beach Henton was born August 14, 1899 in Morton, Minnesota, the only child of Robert Bennit Henton (1869-1947) and Maude Beach Henton (1870-1938). The Henton family was an early and influential Minnesota pioneer family. Robert Beach Henton's grandfather, Robert Bennit Henton (1834-1989), originally resided in Brown County but moved to Morton in Renville County sometime after the Civil War to serve as a Dakota Indian Agent.

Robert Beach Henton graduated from the Morton high school in 1917. Following two years at the University of Minnesota and World War I military service, Henton managed the bank in Franklin, which his father had helped found, then returned to the University of Minnesota and graduated with the law school's class of 1925 where he met Helen Spink. After graduation, he returned to Morton to practice law with John A. Dalzell. Henton campaigned for the office of Renville County probate judge in 1928, a seat he subsequently held until he retired in 1948.

Robert Beach Henton died August 16, 1961, two days after his 62nd birthday from lung complications following heart surgery at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota.

Biographical information was taken from the collection.

From the guide to the Helen Spink and Robert Beach Henton papers., [ca. 1880]-1986., (Minnesota Historical Society)