2.

Mary Frances Helm

1923–2006

BIRTH 14 OCT 1923 • Panama City, Bay,

Florida, USA

DEATH 30 DEC 2006 • Manhattan, New

York City, New York, USA

Married 1st:  3 Jan 1948 • Richmond,

Virginia, USA

Robert Alba  Keith

(Stage Name: Brian Keith)

1921–1997

BIRTH 14 NOV 1921 • Bayonne, Hudson,

New Jersey, USA

DEATH 24 JUN 1997 • Malibu, Los

Angeles, California, USA

​

Married 2nd:

Walter Christopher Wallace

1924–2007

BIRTH 25 MAR 1924 • New York, New

York, USA

DEATH 27 NOV 2007 • Great Barrington,

Berkshire, Massachusetts, USA

Son of Herbert Wallace and Marion Coffee

​

                       CHILDREN: 

                       1.

                      Dr. Lauren Helm 

 

 

 

Mary Frances Helm

Source:

Find A Grave

Frances Helm (October 14, 1923 - December 30, 2006)[1] was an American stage, film, and television actress whose performing career spanned nearly fifty years.

​

She was born Mary Frances Helm in Panama City, Florida. Her parents were Thomas William Helm II and Grace Spencer. Her father started as a bookkeeper for the railroad industry and then became an accountant for the state of Virginia,  moving the family to Richmond when Helm was very young. She had one older brother. Helm graduated from J. A. C. Chandler Junior High School in June 1937. She graduated from John Marshall High School in June 1940.  From the age of ten Helm took piano and voice lessons. Later she studied with Mary Barbour Dixon, who would remain her drama teacher and coach all through secondary school and college. Helm attended the Richmond Professional Institute (RPI) from Fall 1940 through Spring 1942, majoring in Speech and Dramatics. Helm was a member of RPI's Theater Associates, which mounted productions at the school using students and the occasional visiting professional actor. Helm and other RPI drama students also did broadcasts of play readings on the school's radio station. While at the school, Helm dropped her first name for stage billing.

​

During her last term at RPI, her brother returned to Richmond after being wounded at Pearl Harbor. A Radioman 2/C in the USN, Thomas W. Helm had kept firing an antiaircraft gun during the attack despite being severely wounded; the Navy credited him with bringing down a Japanese aircraft. Invalided out of the service in April 1942, he was used for recruiting and bond drives, with his sister accompanying him. She was pictured at Red Cross events and dances with her brother and other servicemen. Frances Helm also joined other volunteer actors to perform a parody of an old-fashioned melodrama, Ten Nights in a Bar-Room, at military bases in Virginia and Maryland.

​

Helm married Robert Alba Keith on January 3, 1948, in Richmond. They were in Mister Roberts for eighteen months, did at least one television episode together, but separated on July 28, 1953. On December 8, 1954, Helm charged Keith with "introducing another woman as his wife", without naming her. Newspapers reported in January 1955 that Keith had already obtained a Mexican divorce six months earlier and remarried to dancer Judy Landon. At a settlement hearing, Helm agreed to accept the divorce and receive $250 monthly alimony from Keith. However, a few weeks later the alimony was set aside on a "quirk" of California law wherein only the party filing for divorce could claim alimony.

​

In April 1963 Helm married Walter C. Wallace, a former assistant Secretary of Labor in the Eisenhower administration. He was the personnel director for a New York paper company. The couple had one child, a daughter Laura Wallace, born in late spring 1964.

 

They remained married until Helm's death in 2006.  According to her obituary in Variety, Helm was a long-time member of The Player's Club and had served on its board of directors.

​

Source:

Wikipedia

Actress.
Was one of the first women admitted to the previously all-male Players Club, later she was the first woman to serve on the club's board of directors?

Appeared in films like Kraft Theatre (TV series), The Ford Television Theatre (TV series), Matinee Theatre (TV series), Mike Hammer (TV series), The Millionaire (TV series), Perry Mason (TV series), Gunsmoke (TV series), Everglades (TV series), The Ugly American (1963) with Marlon Brando, Dark Shadows (TV series), Kojak (TV series), and Love and Betrayal: The Mia Farrow Story (1995) as Maureen O'Sullivan.

First married to Brian Keith and later to Walter C. Wallace, had served as the Assistant Secretary of Labor during the Eisenhower administration.  Frances Wallace nee Helm passed away in 2006.

​

Brian Keith

Actor. Born in Bayonne, New Jersey, he was the son of actor Robert Keith and actress Helena Shipman. He grew up on the road with his parents, who toured in plays. His first film was in 1924 at age 3 in "Pied Piper Malone". His parents divorced and his father went to Hollywood and started his television and movie career. His mother continued to do stage and radio and her mother and grandmother helped to raise him on Long Island. He read at a very early age and he was reading books way beyond his age level. He acted in radio programs and on stage. He worked as an extra in several films before speaking roles and subsequent stardom. He joined the Marines and was a machine gunner. He served from 1941-45. He was awarded the Air Navy Medal. He then returned to New York and started his acting career on Broadway with plays, like "Mr. Roberts" and "The Moon Is Blue".

 

His biggest break came in 1966 when he landed the role of "Uncle Bill" on the popular television situation comedy "Family Affair", a role which garnered him three Emmy nominations for Best Actor. The show made him a household name. He went on to star in such television series as "The Brian Keith Show", "Heartland", and "Hardcastle and McCormick". He also made over 60 movies in his career. He married three times, first to Frances Helm, then in 1955 to Judith Landon, and finally in 1970 to Hawaiian actress Victoria Young. He fathered a total of four children, but also adopted three others with Judith Landon. His first son died in childhood. One of his children with Victoria Young was Daisy Keith, who also became an actress, appearing with her father in the short-lived series "Heartland" in 1989. During the later part of his life, he suffered from emphysema and lung cancer. He was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 75. He is buried next to his daughter Daisy, who also committed suicide just 2 months earlier.

​

Walter C. Wallace

RONALD REAGAN

40th President of the United States: 1981 ‐ 1989

Nomination of Walter C. Wallace To Be a Member of the National Mediation Board

September 16, 1982

The President today announced his intention to nominate Walter C. Wallace to be a member of the National Mediation Board for a term expiring July 1, 1984. He would succeed George S. Ives.

Mr. Wallace is presently serving as corporate counsel and director of industrial relations for Multiplant, a national manufacturer of metal products. He was a partner in the law firm of Ables & Wallace, Washington, D.C., from 1975-to 1980. He was president of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association in Washington, D.C., from 1973-to 1975. He was vice president for administration of Hudson Pulp & Paper Corp., New York City, from 1962-to 1973. He was General Counsel for the Presidential Railroad Commission in 1961. He was Assistant Secretary of Labor (Manpower), Chief Staff Assistant to the Secretary of Labor, and 'United States Representative, International Labor Conference, Geneva, Switzerland, from 1955-to 1961.

He graduated from St. John's University (B.A., 1948) and Cornell Law School (LL.B., 1951). He is married, has one child, and resides in New York, N.Y. He was born on March 25, 1924.

​