Helen Cudahy--The Rest of the Story, 1914-1917

After posting the column about Helen Cudahy, the daughter of a millionaire who decided to become a nurse in 1914, http://ruralnchistory.blogspot.com/2014/05/what-could-make-rich-mans-daughter-want.html, I started wondering what ever happened to her. Did she complete her training and become a nurse? I never suspected that she would be dead in three years. Here's the rest of her story:

“Bothered by Swamps of Proposal Letters” from the April 9, 1914, issue of The Day Book, Chicago

Boston, April 9—Swamped by the proposals of marriage by both mail and telephone, Helen Cudahy, daughter of the millionaire Chicago packer, who by choice has become a probationary nurse in a hospital here, today was practically a prisoner through her efforts to avoid being wed yea or nay.

“Will-you-marry-me” letters come in floods by every mail, and Boston swains are energetically using the telephone that Miss Cudahy will not answer a call until she knows that some admirer is not trying to whisper sweet nothings at the other end of the wire.

“Miss Helen Cudahy Rebels” from the Cornell Daily Sun, Sunday, April 20, 1914

Miss Helen Cudahy, daughter of Patrick Cudahy, millionaire, came from the west to learn nursing at the Massachusetts General Hospital, but decided not to stay.

Her reason is given in her own words: “I thought training in a hospital meant taking care of patients. I find it is three-fourths housework and drudgery.”

“Granddaughter of Packer Aids Poor” from The Day Book, Dec. 12, 1914

Another of the “Cudahy girls” has turned her attention from society to charity. Like her cousin, Miss Helen Cudahy, who became a trained nurse, Miss Alice Cudahy, granddaughter of the late Michael Cudahy, pioneer pork packer and multimillionaire, gives more time to charity than she does to society.

Miss Cudahy’s pet charity in Chicago is the lying-in-hospital, a refuge for poor women; with the aid of several other society young women she has planned a Christmas benefit for the hospital.

“American Girl Kills Herself” from the Reading Eagle, Oct. 27, 1917

Paris, Oct. 27—Miss Helen Cudahy, daughter of Patrick Cudahy, the Milwaukee meat packer, committed suicide in midocean on Oct. 19, according to the army edition of the Chicago Tribune.

Fear of submarines is believed to have been the motive for her act, the newspaper says. According to this account Miss Cudahy, who was coming to France on a Red Cross mission, appeared to be cheerful in the early days of the voyage, but when the submarine zone was approached and a convoy met the steamer on which she was a passenger, she remained in her cabin.

A friend who went to her cabin on the night of Oct. 19 found the room empty, the port hole open,and this hurriedly written note:

“It is all for best. Keep as much as possible from father and mother. Notify my brother Michael.”

"Helen Cudahy Left Estate to Charity" from the  March 8, 1920, issue of The Milwaukee Journal

The final decree in the estate of Helen M. Cudahy has been filed by Judge John C. Karel of the county court. Miss Cudahy was drowned Oct. 19, 1917.

The annual cash income of the estate totals $10,863.10, and is ordered equally divided among the Associated Charities, the Milwaukee Children’s Hospital and the Free Medical Dispensary of Marquette university. The income from 1,000 shares of stock in the Patrick Cudahy Family Co. is left in trust to the First Wisconsin Trust Co. to be administered for the three beneficiaries. The balance of the estate is to be distributed under direction of the Milwaukee Foundation, a charitable fund.

Miss Cudahy left personal property valued at approximately $50,000. Michael Cudahy, her brother, was named executor by the will, but declined to act by reason of service in the army. Patrick Cudahy, the father, was then named as executor, but upon his death, July 23, 1919, John Cudahy, another brother, was named administrator.