Helen Ballard Ruland Cuthbertson was born in Wagner, South Dakota, on March 10, 1906. She was the 5th of 11 children and the only one without a middle name. Helen’s mother told her, “Well, we just couldn’t find a middle name nice enough for you.” When she was 2 her parents moved to the Sand Hills of Nebraska where her father built a sod house with a dirt floor. Helen said, “It was okay. My dad had cattle and horses. He broke horses for a living. We were all good riders. That’s how we got places. I never saw a car until I was 8.”

Helen remembers love in the Ballard family, “but we didn’t have a lot of money. We lived off the land. Dad was a good hunter and we ate a lot of prairie chickens and ducks. We had fun. We were never bored. We rode horses in the Sand Hills and walked the railroad tracks 2 miles to school. I think that’s why I’m so healthy now – starting out that way. Our sod house wasn’t too far from the tracks and one of our pastimes was to run outside and wave to the passengers. I went through 8th grade. That’s all they had! It was a good education.”

Right after she graduated, Helen’s family moved to Vermont. Helen became a nanny/housekeeper for different families for the next 10 years. Then she moved back to Nebraska and “I married an ‘old’ cowboy – I was 26 and he was 35 – that I’d known from before. Henry Ruland. They don’t make cowboys like him anymore. He was a good man. He’d cowboy all day, come home, feed the chickens and do chores. We had 5 children: John, Mary Ann, Larry, Rita and Hank. I had Hank when I was in my 40s. He was a little post script.”

Henry had been the foreman of a Nebraska ranch for more than 12 years and the cook told them about the Pinedale country. They loaded their 2 children and landed in Big Piney in time for haying. Their next job was for Albert Duke on Horse Creek. That winter the snow piled high and they could only get in and out on skis or snowshoes. Duke died of miner’s consumption and it was 3 or 4 days before anyone could come in and get him. For over 20 years they worked for George Jorgensen.

Helen’s son John died when he was 10. He was accidentally shot by a playmate. Her daughter Mary Ann died of ovarian cancer when she was 40. Helen herself has had breast cancer. Her beloved Henry died of a heart attack “when Hank Junior came back from the service”. Two years later she married a neighbor, Dave Cuthbertson. “We were both 65,” Helen said. “Dave died of emphysema. I had 2 good, good husbands.”

Helen told about her children: “Larry married Lenora Bloom. They have a ranch in SD, 4 children and a roping arena. Rita married an Air Force man from the Boulder station. They had one daughter and live in Shreveport, LA. Hank married Debi King. They have Shelly and Tim.” Hank and Debi live in Pinedale and travel in an RV.

When she was 97, Helen moved into the Sublette Center. She is turning 100 this month. She said, “I don’t feel that old. I’ve had an interesting life and it looks like I’m going to go on for awhile. I had all my teeth pulled when I was 90. I’m hard of hearing and can’t see anything! But I enjoy each day. I can feel the sunshine and think ‘what a nice day’. I have so many wonderful friends.”

Published in Rendezvous Pointe (Pinedale, WY Senior Center) Newsletter, March, 2006.

By Judi Myers