Helen Horback (1922 - 1988)

Helen Horback started working for the Canadian Army around 1945. She did “messing” and billeting and secretarial work for Brigadier General Walsh. She lived in a Whitehorse shack and wrote about her love for her first home in the “Off The Track” column she wrote for The Whitehorse Star in the 1950s. She wrote about many of the Whitehorse old-timers.¹⁾ She was also involved in a national radio morning show in the 1960s.²⁾ Helen became more settled after she married William (Bill) Horback (1923 – 2010), a City of Whitehorse fireman.³⁾ They lived on Wickstrom Road.⁴⁾

Helen was a development consultant for the National Historic Sites.⁵⁾ She contributed to the development of the MacBride Museum and was one of the presidents during the early years in the 1950s. She was a founding member of the Yukon Historical & Museums Association in 1976.⁶⁾ She and Margaret (Peg) Crook researched burials at the Whitehorse Pioneer Cemetery and Lost Graves was published in 1989. In 1988, five members of the Whitehorse Board of Health contributed their stipends for the year, $2,700, to the MacBride Museum building fund to honour Helen Horback, MacBride Museum past president and fellow Board of Health member.⁷⁾