Helen Tyler was born in Enosburg Falls on this day in 1871. Orphaned at an early age and living with an aunt, Tyler as a young girl worked and saved money for college.

She learned publishing at Dodd, Mead & Company in New York City. Plays were being optioned from popular books, which put Tyler in the thick of writers, actors, contract negotiations and productions, and she became GM of the American Play Company.

Tyler became known as the “wonder girl of the theater.” When her health began to fail, she returned to Enosburg Falls, and, as part of the Ladies’ Village Improvement Society, helped beautify and maintain Lincoln Park.

Historic image courtesy Vermont Historical Society from “Those Indomitable Vermont Wormen” by The American Association of University Women of Vermont.