Helen Haenke was born in Wickham, New South Wales, and spent a large portion of her life in Ipswich, Queensland with her husband Willis Haenke and their three daughters. Haenke engaged with the local community through her creative faculties by holding recitals, putting on plays, and editing a women's business magazine.
Haenke was recognised for her creativity from a young age. She studied painting in the 1940s, and went on to write poetry, short stories, plays, and a collection of autobiographical letters. Haenke died of cancer in 1978, aged 62. (Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography).
