Helen Cathcart 1916—1999 AGE 83

Helen Cathcart tells of her first "incident," as she calls it: "I guess I was probably 15 or 16, and we had this slumber party. And this girl, she was about three years older than I was, she said, ‘Well, I just think I’m gonna kiss you,’ and I says, ‘I just don’t think you are.’ Of course, we ended up kissing, but I resisted, at least once."

That was certainly not the last woman Helen Cathcart kissed. She grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, one of 10 children, including a twin brother. She stood nearly 6 feet tall and was a gifted athlete. As a young woman, she heard about a semi-pro basketball team in Galveston, and determined to go join it. She left Arkansas around 1937 and arrived in Galveston with 50 cents. The team, sponsored by American National Insurance Company, won two national championships and was termed "one of the greatest girls’ basketball teams in history" when Helen finally retired from it in 1941. They played other teams all over the country, sometimes traveling in a private Pullman rail car. The company also fielded a softball team, so she played on that too. One of the women’s teams of the time actually played the minor league Houston men’s baseball team in an exhibition at the old Buff Stadium in the East End, where Finger’s Furniture is now. She recalls this as one of the best periods of her life: "I didn’t know from shinola, so I just didn’t have any worries, no problems. Just had a good time, and enjoyed the playing."

Helen did resent that if you went to a gay bar in those days, you’d never know if you were going to be raided. She even remembered a police raid on a private home in Houston, with people jumping out of the second story window to avoid arrest.

"The tea dances, men and women both went," Helen said. "Somebody at the door would ring a buzzer when the police came, and [the women] would quit dancing with the women, start dancing with the men. That was the Desert Room."

D., Helen’s partner of 18-years-plus, picks up the story of those times.

"Around Houston, 40 years ago, a woman did not go in a nice restaurant by herself. You almost had to have a [male] date to go to any function of society–operas, plays," she said. They would often call up their gay men friends when they needed an escort, the women dressing the part of a straight woman out on the town, "even though so many people would know.

"You behaved yourself and never gave them an opportunity to challenge you," D. said. "The big fear in those days was somebody calling your job."

Helen was in charge of security clearances for a company during World War II. A young girl was working there part-time; she borrowed Helen’s typewriter, and at one point, Helen needed it back.

"She says, ‘Okay, I’ll bring it to you,’" Helen recounts. "Here she is, about five foot two and was gonna bring my typewriter to me. But at that time, I was wearing earrings and false boobs, and all that good stuff. I said, ‘Man, I’ve had it. A little butch horse to carry my typewriter.’"

The "little butch horse" had no idea that Helen was also a lesbian. Helen decided to get rid of some of the excess femme gear. Even with helpful advice from Helen on how to avoid arousing suspicion, the young woman, who was living with her lover, was subsequently questioned for six months.

"She ended up going to a psychiatrist," Helen said, "having to take treatments because of the trauma that she went through, them trying to find out from her who was and who wasn’t. . . . I imagine a lot of those women went through a bunch of crap like that. I never did join the Army, because I wouldn’t have been in but one day, and they’d have booted me right out the door!"

Later in life, Helen and D. traveled all over, to Canada, Mexico, Hawaii, Luxembourg, Spain, England. Their frequent traveling companions were a gay male couple who had been together for 42 years. That couple also got them invited to a "gorgeous party" where Rock Hudson was in attendance.

After age 50, Helen learned to do painting, remodeling, and even roofing. She never advertised, but did a lot of work for gay people. Later, she happened to be helping out the woman who ran the corner store when a female customer whom Helen vaguely recognized came in with a little boy in tow.

"The woman said, ‘Do you mind if I ask you a question?’" Helen remembers.

"I thought, ‘Holy shit, here we come again.’ ’Cause that’s always the way they start out that business, with this, ‘Oh, you remind me of somebody in The Well of Loneliness,’ some bunch of stuff, and I know exactly what they’re getting to. So I said, ‘Oh, no, go right ahead.’

"She says, ‘Well, are you a man-she?’

"I said, ‘A what?’ ’Cause I knew what she was talking about.

"She said, ‘A man-she?’

"And I says, ‘Is that some kind of an Indian?’

"And she said, ‘Oh, no, that’s women that like women.’

"I said, ‘Oh, really?’

"And she said, ‘Yes.’

"I said, ‘Nope, that’s not my cup of tea.’" (Bear in mind that Helen had been a lesbian for about 50 years at this point.)

"And so she said, ‘Well, I hope I didn’t embarrass or hurt your feelings.’

"I said, ‘No, it makes no difference to me. I just didn’t know what you were talking about.’

"And she said then that she had had a dream about me and that we had gone to a drive-in theater and had a wonderful time.

"And I said, ‘Well, I tell you what, I’m glad you were there, but I’m glad I wasn’t.’

"So then she went on, ‘Oh, you know that they get married?’

"I said, ‘Really?’

"She said, ‘Yes, they really do get married like a man and woman.’

"I said, ‘I can’t believe that.’

"She says, ‘I’ve always told my husband that if I ever had the opportunity of participating in something like that, that I intended to try it.’

"I said, ‘Well, I hope you have a lot of luck.’ I thought, ‘Honey, you may be going to, but it ain’t gonna be with me!’

"So that was about the end of that conversation," Helen concluded. "Where are they coming from? Isn’t that something, though? A ‘man-she’! Maybe she made that up."

Helen had three major relationships in her life: first with a woman who eventually got married to a man, then with Doris for 22 or 23 years, and finally, her 18 years with D.

"Fortunately, or unfortunately," Helen said, "I don’t know which way you want to put it, I haven’t had too many lovers."

"It changes," D. said, "whether or not she’s in her bragging stage or her secret stage."

Helen started having symptoms of emphysema in her late 60s, and that slowed her down significantly in later life. But she and D. got caught up in the excitement of watching the Comets on TV, she kept playing poker with her gang twice a week, and, according to D., "Her attitude is the same–obstinate."

Although their relationship had been over for years, D. moved Helen into her house, seeing that she had her meals and that she wasn't left alone for more than a few hours. As with some of the other lesbians interviewed, Helen and D. had been caretakers for other family members, especially D.’s mother and father. Helen and D. were both in amazement that D.’s brother and sister had become scarce when their parents needed care, although they had been plenty in evidence when it came to the inheritance.

At 82, Helen said if she were able to, she’d buy an RV and "just get in that thing and go wherever, whenever it stops, and do whatever." A year later, she passed away. In her obituary, her friends speculated that she was now playing one-on-one with Kim Perrot.