Helen Warren DeGolyer, born to Colonel Joseph H. and Mildred Elgin Warren, spent most of her childhood travelling the world. She was born in the Philippines, studied bookbinding in Switzerland, and eventually settled down in Dallas, Texas, after graduating from Vassar College in 1947. In Dallas, she met and married Everett Lee DeGolyer, Jr. (Ev), son of Everette Lee DeGolyer, Sr., a foremost book collector and oilman. She and Ev had three children: Edith, Clare, and Everett Lee DeGolyer, III. Upon his father’s death in 1956, Ev became the director of the DeGolyer Foundation, which included his father’s immense book collection, some of which is now housed at DeGolyer Library at Southern Methodist University. But Helen DeGolyer became important in her own right, amassing her own treasured collections of historical documents and books, as well as perfecting and honing her talent as a bookbinder. Her support lent her name to such organizations as the Aspen Opera, the Aspen Music Festival, Bridwell Library at SMU, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Dallas Opera, and the Dallas Symphony. She endowed a scholarship at the Dallas Museum of Art called the Clare Hart DeGolyer Scholarship for aspiring young artists, as a memorial to her daughter, who died in 1975. She was an avid Republican and an enthusiastic supporter of Planned Parenthood.

At the age of 68, Mrs. DeGolyer died of pneumonia at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas on February 9, 1995.

Source:

Death & Funeral Announcements, Dallas Morning News, February 11, 1995.