Helen grew up in Southern Illinois where her father was a teacher, preacher, and public school principal. She attended Bethel College in McKenzie, Tennessee, where she met James Wade Knight, a ministerial student. They married June 5, 1946, in Bethany, Illinois, and Helen became a pastor’s wife following Jim from pastorate to pastorate, primarily in the Cumberland Presbyterian Denomination. She later earned a Master’s Degree in Library Science from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

One of nine children, Helen was the last of her generation. Three of the girls, including Helen, married ministers and two of the boys were ordained in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The grandchildren of Roy and Mary also include several more Cumberland Presbyterian ministers and denominational employees. Family reunions were sometime jokingly referred to as meetings of Shelton Presbytery.

Helen worked variously as an English teacher and a music teacher. She worked as an archivist for the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville and was University Archivist for Western Kentucky University.

Helen’s daughter, Susan Knight Gore, is Director and Archivist of the Historical Foundation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America. Her son, the Reverend John Geoffrey Knight, is pastor of First Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas (Trinity Presbytery). Son, James Terry Knight, is an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Son-in-law, Matthew H. Gore, is Publications Manager for the Communications Ministry Team of the Ministry Council of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and editor of the Cumberland Presbyterian magazine.