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Creating magnificent music is another of Helen’s talents. She played clarinet in concert and marching bands and orchestras, sang alto in operettas and chorale groups, and enjoyed singing duets with a friend who had a fine soprano voice. Helen directed a Presbyterian Church choir for fifteen years before discovering The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through an introduction to the Tabernacle Choir on her initial trip to Salt Lake City. She sang in the Detroit Stake choir for 2 years, and even though she recognized the Book of Mormon as a second witness of Jesus Christ, it took four years of study--two as a member of the Detroit Stake choir--before she knew the Book of Mormon was true and accepted baptism. She delights in remembering, “Governor George Romney was my stake president, and his wife, Lenore, was one of the finest friends anyone could imagine. And I was Mitt Romney’s Sunday school teacher!”
After some 25 years of exceptional bookstore experience, opposition struck. “As a result of financial setbacks because of the downturn in real estate values in the early '80s," says Helen, “we were out of the bookstore and lost everything, including our home. Then Walter contracted cancer. I nursed him for 11 years prior to his death in 1995. In the year 2000 I discovered I had breast cancer, which required an operation, chemotherapy and radiation. I’ve been in remission for two years, and my hair has grown back enough to have my braid again, so I have a place to park my poetry pen.”
It all began thirty-five years ago, when an authentic copy of an original Book of Mormon came into Helen and Walter’s possession. Mrs. R. W. Young was the first owner, and later passed it to a gentleman named Wilfred Stoke. “When we lost the bookstore,” Helen recalls, “we decided to put the treasured book up for collateral against a loan in order to survive. A man eventually bought the book. That was fifteen years ago.” Time and its many trials passed, until the day arrived when Helen felt a strong prompting—it was time to bring about the missionary project. Realizing that her years on earth wouldn’t last indefinitely, and not wanting the dreams she and Walter had shared to die with her, she began contemplating ways to move forward. It was then she remembered the old Book of Mormon. “When I called the stake president who had bought the book, I could hardly believe it,” she says. “He immediately asked if I would like the book back. And then he did a marvelous thing. He offered it to me for exactly the same price he’d paid so long ago.”
It is the money from the sale of these precious pages that Helen Schlie will use to fund her remarkable missionary scheme. “Walter and I worked on this idea for thirty years,” she says, adding, “Knowing how hard it is for teenagers to earn money for missions, we came up with a solution that I’m at last able to carry out. I intend to fund small ice-cream businesses to be run by sixteen to eighteen-year-olds anywhere in the world. In every case, a twelve to fifteen-year-old can accompany the older young man. They will own the business and do all the work, the marketing, selling, whatever is necessary.”
Helen’s creative genius doesn’t stop there. She is an accomplished jeweler and makes optic fiber LDS jewelry containing hidden Book of Mormon messages in every language in which the book is written. The sale of these items will also go toward funding the missionary venture. Helen Spencer Schlie has one daughter, four grandchildren, and twelve great-grandchildren. But her family of friends extends far beyond immediate relations. Whether she’s taking time chatting to art enthusiasts from every corner of earth, serving as an ordinance worker and organist in the Arizona Temple, or helping the missionaries, both present and future—her light shines forth, creating a welcome that is far removed from the chill of ice-cream. For more information about Helen Spencer Schlie, please visit her website (designed by Janet Morrow) at www.schliegallery.com Article by LDS Author, Anne Bradshaw
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It
was five more years before Helen’s husband, Walter Schlie, joined
the church in June 1961, during which time they moved home and bought
a bookstore a block west of the Mesa Temple in Arizona.
Since
then, Helen Spencer Schlie has been blessed with the kind of faith
that overcomes tribulation and turns sorrow into joy both for herself
and countless others. Despite the ripening years, she has unusual
energy. By means of determination, fortitude, and a series of miracles,
she has opened another store—this time a collection of outstanding
works of art by well-known LDS artists and others.
With
the book safely in her possession once more, Helen began planning.
“It was too fragile to read,” she says. “After discussing the whole
idea with the First Presidency of the Church, I decided to have
a professional framer, one of America's most skilled craftsmen,
take the book apart and preserve every page with museum quality
mat boards and special ultraviolet-screening double-faced glass
panels. He then surrounded each one in beautiful Purple Heart hardwood
(like dense ebony), cornered with 14k gold filigree bas-relief figures
of the Angel Moroni. Each mounting is freestanding, allowing both
sides to be viewed. And each page will be identified with two signatures
of authenticity. Now, two hundred and ninety people will one day
possess a cherished heirloom they can share with their descendants.”
Helen
continues, “The profits will be theirs to be saved for missionary
service. The young men will commit to learning foreign languages
before turning nineteen. There will be incentive competitions and
plenty of guidance available. It is hoped that this endeavor will
touch many lives for good.”