118

 

 

 

 

Helen Agatha Doyle

 

 1886-

The ninth child and sixth daughter born to Michael and Honora was named Helen Agatha Doyle. She was born on 28 Nov 1896 and shortly after was baptized at St. Thomas Church. The official county birth records show her as "Nellie", daughter of Michael and Nora. This time the record claims Michael and Nora were both born in Minn. Incorrect again! Helen's godmother was a Bridget Murphy, who Helen remembers as the widow of Tom Murphy and not a relative. Her godfather's name cannot be recalled.

We have only scattered details on the early years in the life of Helen but we do know that, at least for a couple of years before the family moved to Minneapolis, Helen lived, during the school year, with her sister Mary (Mayme) and husband, Fred Mosher, and attended Adams school. Fred and Mayme then lived at Chicago and Franklin Avenues and Adams school was at Cedar and Franklin

To get a first hand feel for those days we take the liberty of using a direct quote from a letter Helen wrote in Aug 1976. "The years 1907 and 08 where the records show I lived with Fred and Mayme and attended Adams Public School are very clear to me. One of my fondest memories of those years is of catching rides on horse-drawn flat top sleighs (used to carry ice and coal,etc.) We would hop on and ride for blocks and then off and catch one going the other direction. Mayme was an excellent cook and housekeeper. I can recall after playing outside for hours I always knew there would be hot cocoa and cookies waiting for me when I got home".

 

 

During the summers, Helen returned to St. Thomas. She then moved with the family to Minneapolis and completed her schooling. It was Helen, who, in 1974, provided the writer with the bill of lading, which established the time of the family's move to Minneapolis, namely, 8 Oct 1909. See pg. 179 of the appendix for a reproduction of that bill.

Helen's description of those early days in Minneapolis can best be described using her expression, "We were poor and didn't know it." Also, "I can remember times when we didn't have anything for breakfast. John would laugh and say 'Don't worry, 1 111 go down to Lake Street and borrow $.50', and he did just that. It was fun!"

A listing in the 1912 Minneapolis City Directory shows: Helen, elk., F.W. Woolworth, h 3226 Nicollet. The next listing for her is in 1918 but that leaves out an important period of her life.

One lazy Sunday afternoon, Helen and two of her girl friends saw an ad in the paper offering free pictures to any young ladies interested in fashion modeling. The young model with the phone on page 156 is the result. Unfortunately, the Bell System failed to exercise the vision to hire this model and make her famous.

Early in World War I, the young men were enlisting to "make the world safe for democracy" and the young girls were also burning with patriotism. Helen and one of her "modeling" friends went to the U.S. Navy recruiting office and before Helen realized it she was a full fledged member of the U.S. Navy. She was sent to Washington, DC, promoted to Seaman 1st Class and was made secretary to Lt. Commander Mayo of the Pay Corps.

At the end of the war, she requested and got her discharge and returned to the job she had left at Heppes-Nelson Roofing Co. The city directory then showed; Helen, Steno, Heppes-Nelson Roofing Co., h 2738 Colfax.

Along about this time, two young brothers who were salesmen for the Flaxlinum Co. began making sales calls at the Heppes-Nelson office. Their names were Jim and Ed Dyke and both were good looking, dynamic young men. All the secretaries were smitten with these handsome young gentleman, but apparently Helen made the best impression as soon she and Jimmy were dating and then engaged.

Six months after becoming engaged they pronounced their wedding vows at the Cathedral of St. Mary, Minneapolis, Minnesota. The date was 14 Jun 1921. See pg. 156 of the appendix for a copy of the invitation to this wedding.

James c. Dyke was the son of Andrew and Margaret Dyke. He was born 22 Nov 1892 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and at the age of 6 came with his family to Minneapolis when they immigrated to the United States. Jim's ancestors were basically Scottish and his family was armorial, going back to Castle Dyke in the Edinburgh area of Scotland.

Jim's work required him to be in the Minneapolis area in the summer but elsewhere in the winter. The first winter was spent in Kansas City. The following summer, daughter June was born at Abbott Hospital in Minneapolis. Her birthdate was 9 Jun 1922.

The winter of l922-23 found the family residing in Indianapolis, Ind. It was while they were here that Helen's sister, Catherine, came for a visit and ended up taking a job as a nurse at the General Motors Chevrolet plant there where Catherine stayed until she retired.

The winter of 1923-24 was spent in Rochester, New York and was the last one they had to spend away from Minneapolis.

Daughter, Bette was born 17 May 1925 in Minneapolis. She was a delicate child, so that summer was spent in St. Louis Park in a summer home Jim and Helen had built at 3700 Vernon Avenue. Originally, John and Helen had purchased the lot together on a speculative basis.

The next child to join the family was Nancy who was born 10 Sep 1928 at Abbott Hospital in Minneapolis. Nancy was so named in honor of her grandmother, Honora Carney Doyle who carried the nickname "Nan" throughout her life.

Early in their married life they purchased a duplex at 3740 Pleasant Avenue and occupied the main floor. They lived at this address when the depression made a "direct hit" on this family. Jim's company, like so many others in that period, failed and left Jim unemployed. After a period of worry and concern, a friend produced a job lead at Barrett Roofing. It was a good lead and Jim was shortly off on a new career

In 1940, the family purchased, and on May 1st moved into a home at 5319 South Dupont. Helen still maintains this as her permanent residence.

Son, James C., Jr. was born on 7 Jun 1940 at Abbott Hospital in Minneapolis. Please see the family sheet for current information on the children and grandchildren of the marriage.

In the late 1940's, daughters June and Bette married, grandchildren began to join the family and Jim, Sr. progressed through more responsible positions connected with his profession.

Jim was a man who enjoyed his work and gave it the proverbial 110% effort. Jim finally decided to take U.S. Citizenship and Helen had to be processed too. Their naturalization in the early 1960's was irritating to Helen. She greatly resented having to go through the process after having been born in Le Sueur County and serving her country in the war. Helen's description of her irritation during the swearing in process is very humorous.

On 1 May 1960, at age 67 plus, Jim retired from Barrett Roofing, a division of Allied Chemical. However, he did not retire from his profession. As proof we quote the following from the May 1960 Mid West Lumber Dealer's Association publication:

 

 

 

Needless to say, Jim got enthusiastically involved, had fun and made money. However, he and Helen began to travel a lot. They had many pleasant trips together. While Jim enjoyed all of his travels, Helen had favorites. Helen says the highlight of all her travels and, possibly of her whole life, was the trip to Rome for the opening of Vatican II.

In 1963 she and Jim took a two month trip to Europe. The first month was spent touring the British Isles, including Scotland, the ancestral land of the Dykes. From there they went to Germany where Jim, Jr. joined them and traveled with them for a month. Jim was, at that time, stationed at Wiesbaden, Germany with the Air Force and was able to get a months furlough to accompany his parents.

They toured Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France, but the highlight was the Vatican visits in Rome. When they first arrived in Rome they were able to get rooms at an excellent hotel just across from the Vatican. However, with the actual opening of Vatican II they were asked to move out to make way for some V.I.P.'s who had prior reservations. Some humor was added when Helen and Jim learned they'd been vacated to make room for their own Bishop and staff from the St. Paul, Minnesota Diocese.

Helen and the two Jim's were forced to move away from the Vatican area to a "less than deluxe" hotel which proved satisfactory but was missing a few of the amenities, such as elevators that ran, room phones, etc.

On the day of the opening of Vatican II they were required to be on the sidewalk in front of the hotel at 7 a.m. to catch the bus to the Vatican. With no hotel wake-up service Helen used a travel alarm clock for she and Jim, Sr. but began to worry that Jim, Jr. would oversleep. Plus that, he was on another floor. Helen got up, dressed and proceeded to Jim's floor. At that point she realized there were three rooms on the floor and she didn't know which was Jim's. With no other alternative she rapped on all three doors and ran back to her own floor. Fortunately, Jim heard her and got up, but Helen's recollection of some of the threatening voices coming through those other doors is still a frightening memory in 1977.

Before leaving Minneapolis, Helen had gone to her assistant pastor and obtained a letter to the North American College in Rome requesting tickets for her to the Vatican II sessions. Presentation of that letter resulted in many curtsies, including a tour of the College, but best of all, tickets to the Vatican II opening ceremonies.

On their arrival they were ushered to front row seats at the side of the main altar. The Pope's Swiss Guards in their brilliant uniforms were just in front of them and so close their hat plumes were tickling the faces of Helen and family.

One fond memory is of the then Bishop (Cardinal) and now Pope Paul VI being only 50 feet from them during part of the ceremony. The ceremony and the many dignitaries are a cherished memory of a once in a lifetime experience for anyone.

Even the memory of that morning awaiting the bus was unusual for Helen. Her description was that it was a recollection of people streaming into the streets from every door. Helen compares it to being like ants coming streaming out of hundreds of ant hills and all aimed at some object. The object in this case was the Vatican. People arrived by the thousands.

On leaving Rome they went to Paris where Jim, Jr. said goodbye and headed back to his base in Germany. The final week was scheduled for a trip to Lourdes but Helen came down with a severe cold. She stayed in the Paris hotel room while Jim, Sr. went off to Lourdes alone. From there they returned to Minneapolis.

They had such fun on that trip that Jim suggested a trip to the Far East. Helen had had enough travel for a while so she suggested that Jim go alone to see the attractions of the other side of the world. Off he went--he had a wonderful time!

In the late 60’ s Jim's health began to fail. He suffered through major surgery and a debilitating illness. On 5 Aug 1972, about three months short of his 80th birthday, Jim died. Quite likely he approached St. Peter with questions about opportunities in the "sales field" in heaven.

His obituary reads: "Dyke, James c. age 79, 5319 Dupont Ave So., survived by wife Helen, son James c. Jr., St. Cloud, Minn., daughters ; Mrs. John (June) Runyon, Spokane, Wash., Mrs. C.E. {Bette) West, Los Angeles, Mrs. G. Stuart Douglas, Bellevue, Wash., sisters; Mrs. G. Stuart Douglas, Bellevue, Wash. sisters; Mrs. James (Winifred) Murphy, Mpls., rs. Otavia Dumas, La Jolla, Calif., and 7 grandchildren.

Funeral, Mon. 10:30 a.m. from White Funeral Home, 2730 Hennepin and Mass of the Resurrection 11 o'clock Church of the Annunciation. Internment Resurrection.” 11

Helen, while maintaining a permanent residence in Minneapolis, travels quite regularly, especially during the winter months, which she spends in the Western U.S. visiting her three daughters and their families.

For several years Helen and daughters have closed out their winter re-unions with a cruise in the Caribbean. At the close of the cruise all head for their respective homes, including Helen, who returns to her Minneapolis home at 5319 Dupont Ave So. Minneapolis is, of course, where her brother, Bill, and sister, Catherine, also reside.