She was born in
Rochester, New York, on March 11, 1866, to the co-founder and first president of
Eastman Kodak,
Henry A. Strong (1838–1919) and his first wife Helen Phoebe Griffin (1839–1904). The family had one daughter besides Helen, Gertrude Strong Achilles, and two sons
Henry Griffin Strong and Herbert Strong who died in infancy. On April 19, 1892, she married
George R. Carter in Rochester, the son of Hawaii diplomat
Henry A. P. Carter. The couple returned to live in Hawaii in 1893, and had three daughters and one son:
Elizabeth, Phoebe, another daughter who died in 1903, and George Robert Jr. Her husband was appointed the second
Territorial Governor of Hawaii for the term November 23, 1903 – August 15, 1907. Governor Carter died in 1933, and Helen remarried to
Jean de Saint Cyr in April 1939. They divorced in 1940, and she resumed using the Carter name. ==Philanthropies==