Helen Steiner Rice (1900-1981)

Rice was born in Ohio into a family of immigrants. Often referred to as “poet laureate of inspirational verses” Rice dreamed of attending college and one day became a congresswoman.

Her ambition was shattered when her German father died during the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918, making her the sole breadwinner of the family. To make ends meet she worked at a lighting company, helping other women to decorate lampshades.

She climbed up the corporate ladder until she managed to get to the position of advertising manager.

Due to the nature of the business, this petite lady (she's less than 5 feet tall) went criss-crossing the nation for lectures in her industry. During this time she met a young and rich banker and married him. After their honeymoon, Rice lived in a 14 rooms house, complete with 3 expansive cars at her disposal.

On the same year, the stock market crashed and her husband lost his job, went broke and both were in enormous debt. Rice went back to work for a greeting card company to make ends meet. One day while at work, her husband committed suicide. She was a young widow at 32.

Her work writing verses at the greeting card company was where she made her mark in the literary circle with her inspirational poetry. During her lifetime she published around 10 books of poetry but after her death, her foundation published 65 more.

She suffered from arthritis during her old age. At 79, she fell, broke her hips and two years later Helen died – leaving behind a Helen Steiner Foundation to help the poor and needy; and a collection of beautiful inspirational poetry to the rest of the world.