Early Life

Helen Elizabeth Humes was born on June 23, 1909, in Louisville, Kentucky, to Emma Johnson Humes (1881-1967) and John Henry Humes (1878-1975). Her father was a real estate agent and lawyer. She grew up on West Iowa Avenue, a few blocks from Churchill Downs, and graduated from Central Colored High School (now Central High School) in 1927. 

Humes’s birth year is often reported as 1913, but it is more likely 1909. It is listed as 1909 on many documents, including a vaccination certificate and her tombstone at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Even more evidence of the year is the U.S. census, which lists her as an infant in the Humes household in 1910.  

Another wrinkle in published records about Humes is whether she had siblings. Most biographical information claims she was an only child. However, her mother’s will lists beneficiaries as “my two children Helen Humes Smith and Robert Humes.” No other child is listed as living in the Humes household in early U.S. census records, but in the 1910 census under “Number of Children Living” for Emma Humes, the number recorded is “2.” No further information so far has been found about Robert Humes. 

There is also little known about Humes’s marriage to Harland Smith. Smith is never mentioned in published writing about Humes, but he does pop up in documents in the Filson’s manuscript collection. The first record we have of Humes using the name “Helen Humes Smith” occurs on an April 1963 receipt. In August 1963, she and Harland together took out a loan for property at 603 West Iowa Avenue in Louisville. On a furniture receipt from October 1963, her name is written as “Mrs. Helen Humes Smith.” However, by February 1968, she signed a financial document without adding “Smith,” and Smith is not mentioned in the collection again.