Helene Billing Wurlitzer

Helene Valeska Billing Wurlitzer (1874–1963) was notable for her philanthropy in the arts in both Ohio and New Mexico. Helene was born in Salt Lake City to German immigrant Gustav Billing (1840-1890) and Henriette Schneider Billing (1849-1939), a Cincinnati physician’s daughter. Helene’s parents were in Utah establishing a mining smelter funded by Ohio investors. She was the first of two children; her sister being born in 1888. Early life In 1878, the Billing family moved to Colorado to oversee the operation of a silver and lead smelter in Leadville. In 1880, Billing purchased another mining operation, the Kelly Mine, in Magdalena, New Mexico just west of Socorro and moved his family to that city. Helene thrived in the New Mexico desert. The Billing family moved to Cincinnati in 1887, Henriette’s childhood home but then soon moved to Freiburg, Germany so the children could have a better education. Gustav died unexpectedly and within a few years Henriette moved the family back to Cincinnati and ran the family mining business herself. Marriage During her years in Cincinnati, Helene met Howard Wurlitzer (1871-1928), whose family manufactured musical instruments. Helene and Howard married in a large German wedding on November 5, 1895 in Cincinnati. While Howard ran the Wurlitzer music business, Helene studied and pursued artistic endeavors, with much of her energy spent on the University of Cincinnati – College Conservatory of Music. The couple had three children: Raimund, Louise and Valeska. Howard died at age 57, in 1928, and his brothers took over the business, by that time famous for its pianos, organs and jukeboxes. Philanthropy Helene began her philanthropic work in Cincinnati, Ohio in the first decade of the twentieth century. Following her mother’s example, she was a member of the Germanistic Society, a supporter of the German Theater, and was a sponsor of the contemporary music series at the Cincinnati Woman’s club. After WWI, she was a prominent participant in the Carnegie Institute of International Education, a student exchange program designed to further the cause of international understanding between American and German students.  She often hosted European students who were attending the Music Conservatory at Cincinnati College, and was actively involved with the Cincinnati College and instrumental in seeing the institution operate and maintain high academic standards.