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Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Helen Green Ansley 
April 19 & 24, 1985 
Cassette 2, Side 1 
 
 
Debra Ryan  00:06 
Okay. All right, let's start over with the grass cop and the hat cop. That was very cute. Okay, now 
that was a cartoon in your Smith College newspaper from that-- what year was that one? 
 
Helen Ansley  00:20 
Oh, I can tell you. Because this must have been my senior year. So this is either 1920 or '21, 
1921. [Inaudible] '21 I think. Yes, there were grass cops. Is it going now? 
 
Debra Ryan  00:44 
Yeah, it's fine. 
 
Helen Ansley  00:45 
We had grass cops, a few that were to blow a whistle if they found people walking on the grass. 
And we also had hat cops, because we weren't supposed to go below a certain place on Main 
Street without wearing a hat. So this was written with the cartoon. "When a grass cop meets a hat 
cop coming across the grass, then the grass cop only whistles and lets the hat cop pass. If a hat 
cop meets a grass cop past [?backwoods?] with no hat, then the hat cop gets a sunday. There's 
nothing fair in that." [Laughs.] This is, this was my senior year, and there's this paragraph, "The 
cat has laid his financial burden on the shoulders of one of the youngest generation. This year, it 
has taken a senior to make your pennies buy our dinners. However, since prices are going down 
and college intelligence is going up, perhaps Helen Dexter, 1924 can do as well by the future 
board as Helen Green, 1921 has done by us".  
 
Debra Ryan  01:56 
[Laughs.] Great.  
 
Helen Ansley  02:03 
I have lots of poems in here. I'm trying to-- Here. I wrote, "A little weekend party, a little football 
game, makes a lecture boresome, makes a written tame. A little mark at mid-years, a little 
knowledge sought, makes a slice of boredom into food for thought". 
 
Debra Ryan  02:31 
I like that. The inscription on the-- on the-- under the masthead, where it says The Campus Cat-- 
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Helen Ansley  02:39 
-- [Inaudible] the Spirit moves, we didn't have anyone that was coming. 
 
Debra Ryan  02:42 
[Laughs.] So about how often did it come out?  
 
Helen Ansley  02:47 
Oh, I guess maybe once a month. Once a month, or less. 
 
Debra Ryan  02:52 
How did you pay for the paper when you worked on it?  
 
Helen Ansley  02:55 
The people had to buy it. They did. They would snap it out. 
 
Debra Ryan  03:01 
And that covered the whole cost to print? 
 
Helen Ansley  03:03 
Covered the printing. The only cost we had was printing costs, because we did not pay our 
editors, and it's all poking fun of things. "The freshman class has discovered that taking a picture 
draws the crowd. Perhaps it might be wise to have a camera on hand for use at class meetings." 
[Laughs.] Sorry, I can't locate anything. There must have been at least once a month. I knew that 
some people wrote up those things. Somebody has written a day before [inaudible]. 
 
Debra Ryan  04:00 
Well, what were your professors like when you were at Smith?  
 
Helen Ansley  04:05 
Good and bad. 
 
Debra Ryan  04:06 
Did you did you really look up to them? Or? 
 
Helen Ansley  04:10 
Oh, yes, I had a wonderful-- two that I remember, in particular, Miss Jordan was English, and 
she was like, well, she was a little strong minded old maid and very, very nice. She encouraged 
us in our writing, so we simply had to-- for that course, it was called Third. You had to do 30 
hours of work in the semester, and one page of poetry counted as two hours, and otherwise a 
page of written things was an hour. And she would-- we would meet once a week, and she would 
read things that had been handed in and comment on it. So we get-- it was very, very enjoyable 
course. I had another course with Mr. Patch. Yes, that's what I wrote around. He was teaching 
Old English, but we called it patchwork [laughs]. I wrote, "Woman's place is in the home, but in 
our thirst for knowledge, we've hit upon a compromise. Take patchwork here at college". He 
encouraged us. And there was Professor Kimball, who taught political science. Got me interested 
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in government. Then, I remember in 1918, November, 1918, we had Armistice Day. And first-- 
well, that's why you have Armistice Day now, but the college bells tolled, and at that time, we 
were not having classes. We were staying there, but not having classes because there was a flu 
epidemic. And some of the upper classmen were allowed to go and work in the fields. And a few 
were very physically strong. They were working in the tobacco fields, where, because the men 
were all at war, they needed-- but for two or three weeks, we didn't have any classes taught 
because of the flu. And it was during that time that the bells, the college bells, tolled and we all 
gathered. I think it was that time. Maybe, maybe the flu was afterwards, but-- and we gathered 
because we thought the war was supposed to be over, but it was a false one. But few-- I don't-- 
you wouldn't know that. They had this false armistice. And the rumor was that there was an 
armistice. Actually, it didn't come until four, four days later. I can remember gathering, and 
singing, and a great burst of joy that the war was over. And then gradually, we found that 
Woodrow Wilson's ideas of the United-- of the League of Nations, the League of Nations was 
Woodrow Wilson's idea. The United States Congress did not go along. So, you know, here it was 
a marvelous idea to get peace, but no United States. Without [inaudible]. Finally, came the 
United Nations. We did get into the United Nations, and it was established the headquarters 
United States, New York. But now, I don't know. Temperamental times now, here in the United 
States, are so opposed to really multilateral approaches to things. They want to do it all 
themselves, unilateral or bilateral. So we're trying to run the world our way, it's got to be our 
way. It bothers me, because when we first-- oh, the thing I didn't show you in here was that my 
senior year, we formed the League of Women Voters. The first League of Women Voters was 
formed. "First Student Chapter of The League was formed at Smith College". And that tells 
about it. And it says, "Smith, the first woman's college to equip and maintain a unit in France 
during the war, was also the first to establish a collegiate branch of the League of Women 
Voters. The idea has been so well received by the national and state organizations and by other 
colleges, that the Smith branch is now working out some suggestions for programs for other 
college leagues that are being planned". Because it was really the movement for suffrage among 
the young women that, as I told you-- oh, my mother had had a college girl talking as a speaker. 
It was the young women that wanted a chance. And at that time, it wasn't that-- the women's 
movement wasn't that we were being put down. It was that we wanted a chance to help make 
peace. We wanted a chance to contribute, but we had to contribute, and, yeah. And I guess it 
was-- the men were-- it was 1918. Prohibition was passed, I think. When the women had gotten 
the vote and the men hadn't come home yet from the war. Now the-- it's gone a little bit the other 
way, and I'm disturbed that there aren't more-- maybe it's just that I don't know the younger 
women and I'm out of the touch. I see the League of Women Voters now not as much of a force 
for liberalism as it was. And that may be that it's simply here in [inaudible] [?discipline?]. So, 
not like Ohio and California, where I was active. I don't know if there's anything to say about. 
 
Debra Ryan  11:38 
Maybe you can think about it this next weekend-- 
 
Helen Ansley  11:40 
--I think they-- 
 
Debra Ryan  11:41 
--we can start there next week. 
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Helen Ansley  11:42 
About all college, because then the next year I got married. 
 
Debra Ryan  11:47 
Okay, well, maybe we should stop there today. 
 
Helen Ansley  11:50 
Wait a minute, one thing. In a way, the camp and college fed into-- at camp, I was majoring in 
English, I'd camp, I became editor of the camp newspaper, and here I was as business manager of 
the Campus Cat. So I-- then my first job out of college was as an editor of a news magazine of 
the General Electric in Cleveland, so it led naturally. Okay, that sort of finishes it off.  
 
Debra Ryan  12:31 
Okay, yeah, thanks. That was the end of the first interview done with Helen Ansley in her home 
in Issaquah on April 19, 1985, and my name is Debra Ryan, and we're starting now with the 
second interview done in her home in Issaquah on April 24, 1985.  
 
Helen Ansley  13:00 
Well, the year after I graduated from college, I married Frank Ansley, who was 10 years older 
than I, and who had been married before and had lost a wife and child already. I met him through 
my mother, who was a very good friend of his previous mother-in-law. We had-- we 
immediately moved to Springfield, Ohio, where he had a job. And in 1923, our son Clinton was 
born in September, a year after we were married. In 1924, we moved back to Cleveland, and my 
husband had a position at the Guardian Trust Company Bank. He was in the public relations 
department. In 1927, our son George was born, and at that time, my mother and father had sold 
their house and were living in a little apartment, and they came to live in an apartment upstairs 
over us. Between 1922 and 1936, we moved nine times. My father-in-law died in 1931, and my 
mother-in-law came to live with us. At that time, she was living right with us, and our parents 
were in a connecting apartment, starting next door. Then in 1933, the banks closed. My husband 
worked for The Guardian Trust, and so it meant he lost his job, and we lost our all of our 
savings, which were in bank stock. Because we owned bank stock, we were doubly liable, and so 
we had to pay in the equivalent of that, which meant we lost the lot that we had hoped to build a 
home on, and some other stock which had been given to me. So we were completely wiped out 
financially. And at that time we had these two small boys, aged six and 10, and his mother living 
with us. Then we went into the insurance business right away, because we found that life 
insurance was the one thing of value that we had left, and we could borrow money on his life 
insurance to feed our family. His mother--no. No, not then. Anyway, I went into the insurance 
business too, for a short time there. Then my father died in 1935 and after his death, I could 
move with family to Canton, where my husband had opened up an insurance office down there. 
But in 1936 we moved back to Cleveland to a good, better insurance job in Cleveland. And from 
1936, then for the next few years, really, I was enjoying life as a mother and housekeeper.  
 
Debra Ryan  17:08 
Can I interrupt for a second? Do you want to talk about those years and how you felt about 
mothering and maybe, kind of impressions of your life at that time? Little more personal? 
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Helen Ansley  17:16 
We, we-- yes, my small boys. We had good neighbors. I was in the PTA. We lived on 
Woodmere Drive, and I remember we had a whole wonderful Fourth of July celebration where 
we closed it off and all the neighbors got together at a parade. I have pictures of some of that. I 
was teaching Sunday school, and I was-- what was it, den mother or something, to some Cub 
Scouts. We spent vacations in Georgian Bay, in Canada, fishing. We also spent a vacation on the 
Star Island off of the coast of New Hampshire. We went to a church conference there. We had 
some vacations in-- two of them, in Michigan, and then my boys, I think it was through a group 
at the church, got into the Boy Rangers. And the Boy Rangers had a camp not far from-- sort in 
the outskirts of Cleveland, and so the oldest boy went out there for a while. So, we were very 
much involved with young boys, with children. My younger boy developed appendicitis, and we 
had to-- that's one reason that I got into these Cub Scouts, because when we were due to go, he 
was due to have a Cub Scout meeting with parents, and I was due to go to it, and here he was in 
the hospital, but he made me promise I would go anyway and tell him all the [?gossip?]. So, 
involved with school, and boys, and vacations, enjoying. And they were enjoying their 
grandparents.That was my mother and father in law came to visit when the boys were quite small 
in Cleveland. Then we went in-- it was in 19-- where was I. 1932, '31, it was that my father in 
law died, and my mother-in-law came to live with us. But then in 1933, was when the banks all 
closed, and that was when I got into taking a job. And my first job was in the department store. 
Then I did get into selling life insurance for a while, and-- 
 
Helen Ansley  17:39 
--Who took care of your boys while you were working? Your mother? 
 
Helen Ansley  20:37 
My mother-- mother-in-law were living there, and until my mother-in-law went back-- went out 
to be with a relative. When things were pretty bad for us, she went there, but my mother was still 
able to look after my children during the day. She was living right near us, or with us. But then, 
in 1935, my father died, and my husband at that time, had already moved to Canton, Ohio, but 
after my father died, I was able to move. I'd been unable to move with the boys because my 
father was dying and I didn't want to move out. And then my mother went out to visit a relative 
in the West, and my mother-in-law broke off, and then, along about-- we only lived in Canton for 
a year, then came back. When we came back, I got involved in church work, working in the 
women's group at the church, and teaching Sunday school.  
 
Debra Ryan  22:08 
Was this a Unitarian church? 
 
Debra Ryan  22:09 
And what exactly did an ordinance inspector do? What is their job?  
 
Helen Ansley  22:09 
In the Unitarian Church, doing a lot of that. Then in 19-- about 1940-- well, in 1941, came the 
war, but Clint was already in Goddard. Our oldest son had gone to Goddard College in Vermont 
on a scholarship, and after we went the war was declared in 1941 he enlisted in the Air Corps 
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and went to the Air Corps from Goddard. Goddard was a junior college. And then he was sent to 
Europe. And George, the younger boy, went went off to Goddard in 1943, he was just 16. And 
then, the older boy came home in 1945, went back to finish college, and so that for a few weeks, 
the two boys were together. And then George went into-- I don't know whether he was drafted. 
Anyway, I guess he was drafted into the infantry, went into the Army of Occupation. He was 
sent to-- you see, during all this time, the housing was very scarce. We had to to move because 
the landlord wanted a house one time, and, well, for three weeks, we lived in a room because we 
had to get out of where we were. We couldn't find another house. As I was going over this today, 
I just don't see how I-- how we coped with everything. Was continually moving and going, back 
and worrying, and my mother-in-law, came back from the west while we were still in Canton, 
and we found her a place to board in Canton. We live with a very lovely place, boarded room 
there. We left her in Canton while we came back. And, let's see, but in '44, this was while the 
boys were still away, we moved into a house where there was room, and we brought Mother 
Ansley up to Cleveland in 1944, and she died in our home during the one year that we were in 
that home. Then, in 19-- let's see. I know it doesn't-- just saying it will show you what a terrible 
time it was. Frank Ansley was-- when it went with the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, 
right after the banks closed, and they sent him, they were the ones that sent him down to open an 
office in Canton. But it came back into Cleveland so we could be with the rest of our friends and 
family in 1945 with the Aetna Life Insurance Company. And it was with the Massachusetts 
Mutual for a while in-- then I haven't yet told you that in 1942, they were appealing for people 
with a college education and any physics or chemistry to go into war work. So in 1942, I went to 
Case College of Western Reserve University for nine weeks training as an ordinance inspector, 
and then worked in a war plant.  
 
Helen Ansley  26:40 
Ordinance means to inspect the munition that they buy. They were-- the army was buying parts 
and things of munitions in Cleveland, and it all had to have very close inspection. So I learned to 
use a micrometer, and I took metallurgy, and I took blueprint reading, so that I could go to a war 
plant and do these measurements and testing on the little tiny bits of things that were being made. 
It was a deadly dull job.  
 
Debra Ryan  27:17 
How long did you work at that?  
 
Helen Ansley  27:20 
Well, I was trying to figure today. At least for a year-- I was with the Ordinance Department for 
more than a year, and then they had enough, so that I got a job with one of the manufacturers 
that-- Glenn L. Martin, who was making parts for airplanes. And there I did-- I was still 
measuring these little parts as they were manufactured by them, but still working for the 
company. And then we, we had, there was tensile testing. The aluminum bars that were brought 
in had to be a certain strength, and we would attach them on a machine that would pull, pull 
them apart, and I would record at what strength they would withstand to pull that apart. I guess 
while I was there in 19-- I worked there in 1943, and that's when George went off to college. But 
he went to Goddard College. And from Goddard College, they had work periods, so when he 
came home on a work period from Goddard he came and was doing some kind-- he got a job at 
Glenn L. Martin. They were so short of help that they were glad to get anybody. So for the six-- 
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six weeks or two months of his work period, he was working at Glenn L. Martin, and while I was 
doing inspecting for Glenn L. Martin. And I think it was because of that, that he got into Boeing 
after he was all through college, because of his experience working at Glenn L. Martin, which 
makes an interesting connection. Because after he came back from the war, from occupation in 
France, and went back to college at Goddard, then they decided they wanted to move west, and 
so he got a job with Boeing. When he came-- one of his roommates had lived out here in Oregon, 
and he came out to visit there, and then applied for a job with Boeing. And that's how he 
happened to settle out here in Issaquah, and I'm trying to think what year that was. I think that 
was 1953. Yes, because the other boy was married in 1951. But I hope I've given you a little of 
the feeling of how the changes that were going on in my life continued.  
 
Debra Ryan  30:50 
There must have been a lot of stress on you to be moving. 
 
Helen Ansley  30:53 
As-- as somebody said, Well, wasn't it awful? And I said, I don't remember, I was too busy 
coping, and I really did try to get this down in order, was a little difficult, because, yes, the-- see, 
the older boy was over then with-- he was flying, navigating a bomber over Europe back in 1943 
when I was working the war front here. And then he finished his-- oh, they would put them on 
rest and recreation. And he was sent to England between things. After so-- after so many flights, 
bombing flights, and he would have some rest and recreation. Finally, he finished his tour of 
duty and was sent back home, and he got home. He must have gotten home in '45 after the 
armistice. It's so hard to remember. I know, I don't know. I [?wasn't over?] when he came home. 
I don't know. Yes, he came home and was sent out to the Pacific Coast, getting ready to go over 
to Japan. And then, then the war was over for a while, because he didn't fly bombing missions 
over Japan, he wasn't sent over there. But to remember these different dates, I can't do at all. But-
- oh, he was married in 1951 because, by that time, he had his master's in education. After he 
came back from out of the service, he went back and finished up at Goddard, and then he went to 
get his master's in education at Ohio State University. Just before he finished up there, he was 
called back into the reserves in 1951 because of the Korean War, and so he and Jean were 
married in Washington, D.C. 
 