Besides being an avid reader, Helen Siebert enjoyed the arts. She played “Anne” in Anne of Green Gables in high school, participated in the Tri Kappa Follies, and enjoyed attending sporting and cultural events in the area. Being a part of four and five generations of ancestry in Franklin County, Helen enjoyed the scenic Whitewater Valley, being involved in the Brookville community, and her family of two sons and daughter-in-laws, three grandchildren and one great-grandchild. With the establishment of the Helen Strohmier Siebert Memorial Endowment in the Franklin County Community Foundation in 2007, it was the hope of the Siebert family that income from the fund will be used as seed money to provide opportunities to further the Brookville spirit and enhance the quality of life in Brookville. Grants from the endowment will be filtered through the Beta Eta Chapter of Tri Kappa who will then select projects and events that meet this spirit to receive the funds.
Helen Siebert was born in Whitewater Township, Franklin County, Ind., on March 15, 1920, to Elmer and Lydia Stout Strohmier. She was the older of two girls, the younger being June Strohmier. When she was in elementary school, Helen’s family moved into the town of Brookville where she attended the Brookville school system. In the early 1940’s, Elmer and Lydia purchased the historic Goodwin Home on Main Street from which they operated the Strohmier Purina Feed and Hatchery. While in high school, Helen met John Siebert. They both graduated in 1938. After graduation, John enlisted in the Army Air Corp and was a Turret gunner in WWII, flying two missions to the Rhineland. Helen attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and obtained her BS in Elementary Education. In 1945, the two were united in marriage. They bought the Frank X. Siebert residence at 115 East 5th St. where John continued the stone cutting business that Frank and Arthur Glen Siebert had established, before eventually going into law enforcement. The residence was built in 1908 and Helen continued to live there after John died in 1983. Members of the Siebert family had lived in the homestead for nearly 100 years. While Helen lived there, she established a private kindergarten before it became part of the public school system. She taught in the Franklin County School System for 42 years, primarily in the first and second grades, and retired at the age of 70.
Helen was involved in many things in the community and was a 68-year active member in the Beta Eta Chapter of Tri Kappa sorority. She served as president and was part of a four generation legacy beginning with her mother and continuing through her granddaughter. She was also an active member of the Brookville United Methodist Church, United Methodist Women, Brookville Women’s Club (past president), the Franklin County Historical and Preservation Society, Franklin County Arts Council and the Indiana Teacher’s Association.