In Memoriam 1992-1997/Helen Bassett Hornby

HELEN BASSETT HORNBY

1917—1992

Helen Louise Bassett was born in 1917 in Geiger, Alabama, to Alfred Bassett, a mason, and Leila Kirkland, a professional cateress. She grew up in nearby Pritchard during an era of segregation and racial prejudice.

Helen was first introduced to the Faith by her insurance salesman, Mr. Leo Schultz. She had previously read an article about it by a Bahá’í author in the Chicago Tribune, but she had presumed it to be a diversion of the wealthy. On becoming a seeker she tried the patience of Ellsworth and Ruth Blackwell, attending meetings and harassing them with her doubts, questions, and teasings for eight years before enrolling. Helen was working as a secretary for the Social Security Administration in Chicago when she declared her faith.

About 1960 Helen discovered extensive files of copies of letters written by or on behalf of Shoghi Effendi in the Louhelen Bahá’í School library from which she made extracts for her own enrichment. Mrs. Helen Eggleston allowed Helen into her personal library as well, and this work was the beginning ofher personal compilation that developed into the reference Lights of Guidance.

Early in her Bahá’í life Helen met Mr. Ervin Thomas who invited her to pioneer to Cartagena. She told him that she was not ready to go and that she was tired of

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making new friends among the Bahá’ís only to have them leave as pioneers. Inspired by the Bahá’í winter school at Louhelen, she later announced to the staff at the National Center that she was pioneering to Cartagena, Spain. When asked why, she mentioned Erwin. When told that Erwin was in Cartagena, Colombia, she then said that that was where she would go.

Helen had been attending Roosevelt University in Chicago with a goal of obtaining a degree. She abandoned that goal, as well as a good job with lifetime security, a first class high—rise apartment, and a coterie of friends and family. She cashed in her pension and took off for an unknown future at an isolated pioneer post.

In Cartagena she quickly found a job as an English teacher at the ColombianAmerican Language Center. When the center closed, she was offered a similar position in Barranquilla, where she was taken into the home of pioneers Lou and Betty Toomes. Charles Hornby, a pioneer who had been teaching in Bogota, also secured a position in Barranquilla about this time. They met and eventually wed. Shortly afterward they attended the First World Congress in London.

A year later Charles became the director of a private bilingual school in Bucaramanga. He and his wife worked together, Helen teaching English to Colombian Children. When the terms of their two—year contracts terminated, the National Assembly coincidentally asked them to go to the island of San Andres.

They settled in the interior of the island among the descendants of slaves. The San Andres post was ideally suited to Helen’s personality; the islanders were attracted to her, and almost daily there were meetings

Helen Barrett Hamby

or firesides. Ionita Wright15 was the first San Andres native to embrace the Faith, thanks to Helen’s efforts. The Hornbys also started teaching on the island of Providencia. They stayed for three months before leaving for the National Convention in Wilmette, a pilgrimage to Haifa and Akka, and a tour of Iran in 1966.

At the time the pilgrim groups were small, and the attention they received was more personal. The day before their departure from Haifa, they were invited to tea with Rúḥíyyih Khánum. While waiting for transportation Helen decided to pray at the resting place of the Greatest Holy Leaf and to ask for guidance concerning her question of whether or not they should return to San Andres. She asked for “a sign,” then rejoined the group, and attended the tea. When they were saying their “good—byes,” Rúḥíyyih Khánum turned to her and said,

‘5 See her “In Memoriam” written by Helen in 7776’ Babi’z’ World, vol. XV, pp. 434—35.

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“When you go back to San Andés, give the friends my love.” This was Helen’s “sign.”

During their two years there, Spiritual Assemblies were elected on both San Andrés and Providencia Islands with more than a hundred enrollments on the former and over fifty on the latter. Helen and Charles had no intention of leaving, but when Charles was appointed an Auxiliary Board member, the Hand of the Cause Jalal @azeh asked them to move to Quito, Ecuador.

In Quito Helen renewed her work on the compilation, calling the project her “Reference File.” Counsellor Masu’d @amsi suggested that she share the compilation with others, and a hundred copies of a preliminary version were home mimeographed. When the compilation reached a later stage of completion, Helen went to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Mrs. Helen McClusky had rented several electric typewriters, had recruited university students as typists, and had turned her home into a workshop. A manuscript was hastily put together, photocopied, and sent to the Holy Land with a pilgrim.

Helen had a dream in which Shoghi Effendi was sitting in her kitchen, drinking cofFee, and reviewing the compilation page by page. At one point he turned to her and with a gentle smile said that it needed editing. The pilgrim returned with the same advice from reviewers at the World Centre. The young typists had not been concerned with accuracy, and the professional reviewer Mrs. McClusky had retained had taken liberties in altering the Guardian’s grammar. Helen had to begin again.

When the next draft was ready, she submitted the manuscript to George Ronald publishers. It was declined by them, and the Hand of the Cause Dr. Muhájir suggested that she send it to the Publishing

Trust of India, where it was accepted.

Before the first edition was off the press, Helen was gathering material for an expanded edition. She spent some time in Wilmette conducting research and also writing Heroes of God, a history of the Faith in Peru from 1940 to 1979. (Before her death she also completed a history of the Faith in Ecuador, which is, as yet, unpublished.) Later she was invited to the World Centre to further her work. She and Charles were overwhelmed by the volume of Shoghi Effendi’s letters, and they returned with a package of photocopies tagged “overweight” by the airline agents.

In 1992 Helen and Charles were scheduled to attend the commemoration of the centenary of the Ascension Of Bahá’u’lla’h in the Holy Land. Helen, allowing for no diversions, worked anxiously to complete a revision of Lights of Guidance before departing, having discovered an embarrassing number of errors. En route to Israel she made a stopover in Ann Arbor for a medical examination. Ten years earlier she had suffered an aneurism that had been successfully treated. Now she required and underwent open—heart surgery, and complications ensued. Helen was in intensive care for more than five weeks before her passing on October 17, 1992.

Helen had said that if her death seemed imminent, to fly her back to Ecuador to enable her to die at her pioneer post. Because she was connected to life—support equipment, her desire could not be met.

The Universal House of Justice wrote to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States on October 20, 1992:

Our hearts are grieved by the news of the passing of Helen Hornby, steadfast, stalwart upholder of

the Faith of Bahá’u’lla’h. Her well nigh three decades of teaching

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and pioneering have left indelible traces in the Americas; her success in preparing an extensive compilation on Bahá’í subjects was a crowning achievement. We pray in the Holy Shrines that her noble soul may be richly rewarded in the Abhá Kingdom. Kindly extend our sympathy to her dear family.

From articles [7] C/mrlcs D. Harnby