Obit: Helvestine, Mildred (1904 – 2003)
Contact: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Helvestine, Wilson, Johnson, Boyer, Dahl, Benson, Handlos, Seemuth

----Source: Ashland Daily Press (Ashland, Ashland County, Wis.) Thursday, 7 Aug. 2003

----Helvestine, Mildred (14 Apr. 1904 – 10 June 2003)

Mildred (Mildy) Wilson Helvestine, 99, died June 10, 2003, at Harbor House Assisted Living Center in Eau Claire, where she had lived the last one and a half years.

She was born in Chippewa Falls on April 14, 1904, to Charles and Amelia Wilson. The family moved to Drummond, where Mildred attended school. She graduated from Northland College in Ashland with a bachelor's degree in library science, and earned her Master's from George Washington University.

In 1934 she was named Assistant Librarian at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Public Roads in Washington, D.C. She was later named Director of the Federal Highway Administration Library, serving until her retirement in 1973. Under her direction at the Department of Transportation's Office of Research and Development, the library developed a vast collection of more than 360,000 volumes that were used by the Coast Guard, DOT legal department and the FAA. She was also one of ten recipients of the first annual Federal Highway Administrator's Award, presented to her in 1968. She was preceded in death by her parents; husband Albert, who died in 2001; sisters Alice Johnson, Alma Boyer, Emma Dahl, Lillian Benson, Eleanor Handlos and Evelyn Seemuth; and brother, Wendell (Boy). She is survived by many nieces, nephews, and other relatives.

Services were held June 13 at Fuller Spechien Funeral Home in Eau Claire, with burial at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland.