Celebrating a Centenarian

TCDRS retiree Helen Huckaby is turning 101 this year!

Story and cover photo by John Martin

 

Since 1922, there have been 18 presidents, the Great Depression, a world war, 56 Super Bowls and only one Helen Huckaby.

Helen, one of TCDRS’ oldest retirees, is turning 101 years old in December. You wouldn’t think of her as a centenarian given her youthful energy, but behind her smiling eyes are countless stories making up a life well lived.

The Farmer’s Daughter

Helen was born in Mamou, Louisiana, and spent most of her early life on her family’s rice farm. “My daddy was a farmer and a blacksmith,” she says. “I had two older brothers, and I was the baby sister. Everyone knew it, too. They knew that nobody did anything to Helen because I had two older brothers.”

Baby sister or not, you don’t grow up on a farm without getting some dirt in your hair. “When I was a child, we lived in a neighborhood where there were no girls. Talk about a tomboy,” Helen says. “My Grandpa Winters called me ‘Tomboy,’ and everybody else called me Tom. We climbed trees, rode horses, everything boys were supposed to do. My mother made sure I had a doll and all the things a girl was supposed to have at Christmas, but I never played with them much.”

Though Helen was raised during The Great Depression, small farming communities were far less affected by the economy’s downturn, and the Godwin farm remained profitable. When her granddaughter asked how she lived through it, Helen replied, “We didn’t know we were in it.”

Moving to Texas

In the 8th grade, Helen’s family planted their roots in the Lonestar state, and life started to change rapidly. “I was transitioned from a small-town living style to a city,” she says. “Orange was a big town as far as I was concerned.”

Though bigger than her old town, farming was still the name of the game. Her father learned many new techniques from the Japanese rice farmers on neighboring farms.

She graduated from high school as Salutatorian at the early age of 16, skipping a few years after a life of learning alongside her older brothers.

Building a Family

When Helen was 18, she met the love of her life, Deward Huckaby, at her church. Deward was a rice farmer, just like her father. They married a year later in February. “Our life was very solid,” Helen says. “No frills, just good living. He was farming with his dad and then pulled out on his own to farm about 600 acres. That was our livelihood until he retired.”

Helen brought three children into the world: Bobbie, her eldest daughter, and two boys, Don and Ron. She raised her children through the Second World War, but like many farmers, Deward was exempt from the draft to continue supplying food to a nation at war.

Bobbie recounts the years spent growing up with her mother, noting that under Helen’s roof, she always felt safe and loved. “In our house, we had hardwood floors which needed to be waxed occasionally,” Bobbie says. “One way the floors got shined after we waxed them is we would sit on a blanket, and mother would drag us back and forth.”

Getting to Work

Helen’s kindness transferred beautifully to her professional life. After graduating from high school, Helen worked in the Baptist Association office in her community.

When the Jefferson County chief of probation services came by her office and asked if she wanted to visit his department for a job opportunity, she was surprised. But after attending Sam Houston State University and Lamar University for criminal justice studies, she fit right in and began working with staff starting in 1964. “I had an eye for people,” Helen says. “I could kind of scope them out. I was the deputy director to the chief probation officer, and I was mostly in administration.”

“Whenever people were chastised by the chief, they knew they could come to me for a bit of help,” Helen says. “That gave me a place in that section where I felt I was doing a lot of good by nurturing and guiding.”

Time to Retire

Helen and Deward took an Amtrak vacation together. Photo courtesy of Helen Huckaby

When Deward began developing heart problems, she decided to retire in 1972 to support him and travel during their retired life. It was the right choice, but it wasn’t easy.

“On my first day at the Baptist’s office, I was scared to death, but on my last day at the probation office, many tears were shed,” she says. “I should have been glad [to retire], and I knew I had done a good job, but I was terminating a job that I really did like.”

From European cruises to hot air balloon rides, Helen and Deward kept themselves busy with the help of Helen’s TCDRS benefit payments. Helen remained active in her church and served as the president of the Lion’s Club in her community, where she raised money and advocated for the blind.

You may not find her riding horses and dragging her kids around on the floor these days, but Helen remains as sharp as a tack. She even has her own baseball card from when she threw the first pitch at a Texas Ranger’s game on Aug. 6, 2023!

Helen threw the first pitch at a Texas Rangers game this year. Photo courtesy of Bobbie

Though she has since lost Deward and her two sons, she remains close to her daughter, Bobbie, and Bobbie’s husband, George. In fact, she recently moved in with them in Dallas, Texas. “I am so fortunate,” Helen says. “I could not have asked for a better place to live in my lifetime.”

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