Retirement

In 1967, Humes’s world tours came to an abrupt stop. Her mother was gravely ill, and she returned home to Louisville to care for her.  

“I was working at Red Foxx's Club in Los Angeles when Mama got sick in 1967 … I came right away. She died in September that year. I just stayed to take care of Papa.”

– Helen Humes, as reported by Dick Kaukas in The Courier Journal, June 30, 1973 

When her mother died later that same year, Humes gave up singing and sold her records and her old home piano. Though producers, scouts, and fellow musicians reached out to get her back on stage or in the recording studio, Humes declined all offers. While back home taking care of her father, she had to pick up odd jobs to stay afloat, including shifts at an ammunition plant in Charlestown, Indiana. When she got laid off there, she began shuttling women to bingo halls and taking care of an elderly woman at night. 

When asked if she’d minded giving up her career to return to Louisville, she said: 

“Not when you’re coming home. It ain’t hard to do when you have to come home.”

– Helen Humes, as reported by Dick Kaukas in The Courier-Journal, June 30, 1973