Helen Catherine Warburton

Born in Denham, Indiana, the youngest of 5 children. After High School graduation, at 18 years old, she joined the Belletti Troop High Wire Act with the Hegenbeck-Wallace Circus when it came through town. She was a “Top Mounter”, which means she stood on the shoulders of another performer who was riding a bicycle on the high wire, sometimes up to 75 feet in the air. She married Troop Leader, Eddie Billetti. When the U.S. entered WWII, the men in the troop joined the Navy. Helen worked in an ordinance camp, making sand shields to cover tanks. After the war, she returned to the circus, and then retired in 1948. To be close to family, she moved to Chicago and worked 3 years for a private detective agency. In 1951, she started a career at Continental Casualty Insurance. In 1954, when her sister, Lillian Bell, moved to Seattle with her family to operate the Pacific Northwest Hol-N-One donut company, Helen got a job transfer and came with them. In 1959, she married Ronald Warburton. Together, they owned and operated the Hol-N-One donut shop/ restaurant in Ocean Shores. She lived in Kenmore for 55 Years and made many friends through her association with the Kenmore Community Club and the Kenmore Heritage Society.

She will be missed by so many.

Survived by 4 nieces: Catherine Day, Sally Paul, Virginia Andjelcih and Marilyn Allison; also many great, great-great and great-great-great nieces and nephews. At her request, there will be no Funeral Service or Celebration of Life. As she often said, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift…see ya down the road.”