Helen Louise Bott

Helen was born on October 16th, 1954 under the sun sign of Libra in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Her parents, Marian and Thomas Edwards would move their family including Helen, her older brother Tom and her beloved Grandfather, “Grampy” to the then small town of Dunedin on the west coast of Florida in 1958. It was here that Helen would spend her childhood and teenage years. When she wasn’t in school, Helen was always with her friends laying on the beach, playing in the sand, soaking up the sun and dreaming of her future.

Although Dunedin would seem an ideal place for anyone to grow up, Helen always felt like a big (and very tall) fish in a somewhat small pond. She knew inside that her destiny was elsewhere and it would have to be on the stage. When Helen graduated from Dunedin High School in 1972, she was determined to pursue a career in the spotlight. She took dancing, acting and singing lessons and tirelessly pursued her goal with the encouragement of her parents, most particularly her mother, Marian.

Helen’s first big break took place at Bartke’s Dinner Theater in Tampa where she landed a bit part as the “roller skating Tall Blonde” in a production of the musical “Bye Bye Birdie”. Despite the fact that she couldn’t skate and ignoring protestations of concerned friends, Helen traded her six-inch heels for roller skates and nailed the part without breaking any bones or taking a header into the audience.

Her success in “Bye Bye Birdie” would get her an audition for a part which would take her far from Dunedin and land her in Tokyo Japan as a showgirl in the Barry Ashton production of “Viva America”. This was followed by “C’est Magnifique” at the Americana Hotel in Miami and finally to Las Vegas and the Tropicana Hotel where she would become the lead showgirl in the Follies Bergere. It was during her tenure at the Follies that Helen became the inspiration for Stevie Wonder’s “Golden Lady”, a song written specifically for that show.

In 1986, Helen married Ken Bott and in 1988 she gave birth to her son and the love of her life, Tommy. Since pregnancy was not considered a “good look” for a showgirl, Helen gave up the spotlight when she and Ken decided to become parents. It was at this time that she began her second career as a Baccarat dealer at the Tropicana where she would eventually become a Back Up Pit Manager. Helen loved her job and her friends at the Tropicana and would remain there for many years. In 2006, however, another opportunity came her way and she landed a job dealing Baccarat at the premier hotel on the strip, The Wynn.

Throughout her life, Helen won many awards, traveled many places and knew many famous people (she dated Jeff Beck). Like everyone, she experienced happiness and sadness and joy and sorrow, most recently the loss of her mother, Marian and her beloved dog, Wishy. Through it all, however, she maintained a positive outlook and the ability to laugh at herself and find joy in the little things. Helen was a typical Libra.

“Librans are sensitive to the needs of others and have the gift, sometimes to an almost psychic extent, of understanding the emotional needs of their companions and meeting them with their own innate optimism-they are the kind of people of whom it is said, “They always make you feel better for having been with them.”

We are all surely better for having known Helen.

Arrangements under the direction of Palm Eastern Mortuary, Las Vegas, NV.