December 23 - Helen Hennesy

On this day, in 1900, Helen Josephine DeForce was born in Spokane, Washington. Her father was Eastern District Superintendent for the Northern Pacific Railroad and considered her education of the utmost importance. As a result, Helen attended several colleges including Wells College and Stanford, eventually earning a BA from the University of Southern California, Pasadena. She got married shortly after graduation to an Ernest Ludwig on November 16, 1925. The union lasted less than two years with Ernest and Helen getting divorced after the birth of their daughter, also named Helen. Mother and child moved in with her parents in Pasadena. Helen began attending Library School with the Los Angeles Public Library. She graduated a second time in 1929 and began working as an assistant Children's librarian.

Image courtesy of disneybooks.blogspot.com

On July 1, 1935, she began a new job as the first librarian for the Walt Disney Studio. Later that year her father would pass away, leaving her as the main bread winner for herself, her mother and her daughter. Although her company id listed her as being part of the Story Department she was actually given free reign to organize and establish the Walt Disney Library. When the studio moved from the building on Hyperion Ave to its current location in Burbank, she even got to choose the new decor. During her early time at the studio, she would meet one of the layout artists, Hugh Hennesy. The two of them would really hit it off and get married, the second for both of them, on January 2, 1937.

image courtesy of disneybooks.blogspot.com

Helen took her role as Librarian very seriously. She was constantly sending notes off to various employees reminding them to return the materials they'd borrowed. She retained several of them that animators had returned with little caricatures of her (most of them just on the other side of flattering). Soon after her marriage to Hugh, because Walt had a policy that married employee's couldn't work together and her husband frequented the library in the course of his work, Helen left the studio and returned to work at the LA City Library. Hugh would pass away in 1954. Helen never remarried but continued working as librarian until the mandatory retirement age of 75. She would pass away in 1995 and is buried next to Hugh in San Gabriel Cemetery in Pasadena.