Person: Helen Mae Leonard

• Oklahoma Allottee

  Kansas Allottee

  Treaty Reserve Recipient

  Myaamia Language Source

  Nationality: Myaamia
  Family Group: Leonard
• ID: 2679
  

  Gender: Female

  Date of Birth: Knw 01-12-1885
  Location of Birth: N/A

  Date of Death: Knw 04-24-1958
  Location of Death: Melrose, Kansas
• Biography/Notes:
  Helen grew up in Ottawa County as the oldest child of George and Minnie Leonard. She married Frank Sims in 1904, and surely loved being a caretaker. They had a large family of eleven children: Ray, Roy, Pearl Minnie, Oscar, Esther, Anna, Ruth, James, Hazel, Buford, and Ramona. Helen's husband Frank was a farm worker for several years, but later the family moved into Miami, where he found jobs as a laborer. A report in the Miami News-Record in August of 1928 tells of the tragic death of Frank and Helen's son Oscar, who died from injuries after he was gored by a bull in Arthur, Nebraska. He was only nineteen years old. Helen passed away in 1958 and was buried just north of her family's allotments, in Melrose, Kansas. Her youngest daughter Ramona (Sims) Brubaker passed away in 2013. Before his death in 2011, Helen's son James gave the tribal archives some photos of his family, including a photo of Helen. Also included in the tribal archive collec- tions are some photos from her daughter Hazel, who served for several years in the Women's Army Corps.