Helen Beardsley was born Helen Eileen Brandmeir, the ninth in a family
of ten children in Seattle, Washington on April 5, 1930. She grew up in
Seattle where Helen trained to be a nurse at Providence Hospital. At
age 19 Helen married Navy man Richard (Dick) Dale North on June 30,
1949.
Helen and Dick lived at Oak Harbor, Washington where they had their
first child, Colleen North, on June 1, 1950. They moved to Kodiak,
Alaska where their children Janette and Nicholas were born on June 15,
1951 and July 16, 1952. Dick and Helen moved back to Oak Harbor where
their son Tom was born on October 17, 1953. The Navy next took them
to Okinawa, Japan, where their daughter Jean was born at Uchitomari on
December 12, 1955. Their next move brought them to Great Lakes,
Michigan where their son Phillip was born on February 7, 1957. Three
more moves soon followed to Key West, San Diego and back again to Oak
Harbor, Washington where their son Gerald was born on October 14, 1958.
At age 30 Helen became a widow when she was 6-1/2 months pregnant
with her eighth child. Dick died in an aircraft accident on June 7, 1960;
Helen gave birth to Teresa on August 30, 1960.
In early 1961 Helen moved to San Leandro, California where the principal
of the parochial school where her children were registered, Sister Mary
Eleanor, mentioned her recently-widowed brother Francis (Frank) Beardsley,
a Navy Warrant Officer who had 10 children of his own. Frank and Helen
began corresponding, and they had their first date on the eve of Mother's
Day, May 13, 1961. The whirlwind courtship led to marriage fewer than four
months later.
At age 31 Helen North married Frank Beardsley on September 9, 1961 in
Carmel, California and became the mother of 18 children. She and her 8
children moved in with Frank and his 10 children. Frank's house was
enlarged to 5,800 square feet in size, which included 8 bedrooms, 5
bathrooms, and 3 living rooms. The family immediately gained national
press attention. The couple soon sold the movie rights to their story
to Desilu Studios.
On July 14, 1962 Frank and Helen's first child together, Joseph, was born.
In the spring of 1963 Helen legally adopted Frank's 10 children and Frank
adopted Helen's 8 children, in the largest mass adoption in California
history. The couple's 20th child, Helen, was born on April 19, 1964.
Frank and Helen appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson soon
after their wedding. The family then appeared in West Coast bread
commercials. Helen received the National Campfire Girls Mother of the
Year award in 1963. In 1965 Helen wrote the book "Who Gets the
Drumstick?" recounting her story as a Navy wife and mother. In April
1968, the movie "Yours, Mine and Ours" staring Lucille Ball and Henry
Fonda which was loosely based on Frank and Helen's story, was released.
Helen was also appointed by then-California Governor Ronald Reagan to
the State's Advisory Commission on the Status of Women.
Helen was known as a very giving and loving person, a classy women with
very traditional values; she was also a devout Catholic, described by her
daughter as a peacemaker to whom family was the most important thing.
She was very much loved and admired by all who knew her throughout her
life, especially by her 20 children.
In 1968 Frank retired from the Navy and with Helen they opened a nut and
gift shop and Ye Ol' Beardsley Donut Shoppe, which later expanded to three
locations. In 1973 the couple sold the stores and Helen returned to the
medical field working at Carmel Community Hospital. The family then moved
to Fresno in 1977 where Helen worked at St Agnes Medical Center as a
cardiovascular technician.
Frank and Helen Beardsley retired to the Santa Rosa area in the mid-1980s.
Soon after obtaining her certificate in medical transcribing, Helen began a
long battle with a rare form of Parkinson's disease which eventually took
her life on April 26, 2000. At the time of her death, Helen was the mother
of 20 children, grandmother of 44, and great-grandmother of 2. She was
buried next to her first husband Dick North at Willamette National Cemetery
in Portland, Oregon.
