Helen Virginia Sims Gammie McLaughlin

1902 - 1964

Helen Virginia Sims, the second daughter of Edwin W and Charlotte Sims, was born in Chicago on April 19, 1902. Within a year, the family of four moved to Washington DC, when President Theodore Roosevelt appointed E. W. Sims Solicitor for the Bureau of Corporations. In Washington, the family expanded when her brother Frank was born in 1904. After returning to Chicago around 1907, three more siblings were added, Susan, Edwin (Ned) and Priscilla.

Helen was an avid reader from an early age

Helen returned to Washington, DC to attend high school at Holton Arms, a boarding school established by Jesse Holton in her home at 2125 S Street, NW. Letters to her mother during this period give a glimpse of Helen as she becomes a young adult.

Back in Chicago, Helen met John Leslie Gammie, a Scottish immigrant whose parents and 6 of his 7 siblings moved to Chicago in the first decade of the century. John worked with Sir Ashley Sparks at the British ministry of shipping for 3 years after WW I, When Sir Ashley was named the head of Cunard shipping I the US in 1922, he brought John as manager of the Cunard Shipping office in Chicago office. There John Gammie met Helen Sims, a beautiful daughter of a powerful man.

Newspaper announcement of Helen and John Gammie’s engagement in the British American

Helen and John were married in May 2, 1924 in what was described in the newspaper as “one of the most fashionable of early spring weddings”. John was promoted to head of Cunard shipping in New York and business delayed their 2-month honeymoon to England and Scotland for some months.

John Leslie and Helen Sims Gammie on their honeymoon 1924. News Service photo.

Helen’s life with John Gammie involved extensive international travel and, a move to Great Neck Estates on Long Island. While daughter Barbara was born in Chicago, both sons John (Jack) and James (Jimmy) were born in Manhattan.

Helen Sims Gammie with her daughter Barbara and son Jack circa 1930

During this time, Helen began to exhibit symptoms of mental illness, possibly bi-polar disorder, that led to her many visits to the Hartford Institute for Living. She never let this define her and was a fabulous hostess, loving mother and dutiful wife. The only signs of her “moods” at Sims Ranch were actual signs that Helen hung outside her favored front porch of Jim-Bar-Jack with names of such notables as Elsa Maxwell (meaning she was in the mood to be a hostess) and Greta Garbo (because she “wants to be alone”).

In the late 1930’s, Helen and John Gammie agreed to divorce and Helen returned to her beloved Sims Ranch to establish residency to allow a charge of desertion be brought against her (at that time, New York state allowed only extreme cruelty, adultery and desertion as justification for divorce). Throughout the previous years, she had ample opportunity to meet her brother-in-law Peter Krupp’s best friend, Alexander G. “Mac” McLaughlin; in fact, Mac’s first trip to Sims Ranch was for the annual hunt in 1926. Mac’s daughter Nancy had spent many summers with the Krupp family in their small cottage at Sims Ranch to escape the heat of Chicago and the constant fear of polio. With Helen as a soon-to-be-single woman and Mac as a widower, Peter and Betsy Krupp helped to foster a strong relationship between the two. Helen’s divorce from John Gammie was final on July 5, 1939 and Helen and Mac wed 10 days later, on July 15.

Helen settled in as the consummate hostess of the Vice President of Otis Elevator and the next year, adopted Nancy McLaughlin making her new daughter, a true Sims. Daughter Barbara was added to the bustling apartment on Lake Shore Drive during the War years, when Nancy moved back in with daughter Alice (Rolly) Fork while her husband Don was deployed overseas. The family now included three generations of McLaughlin/Sims, Flora Riva, the ever-present Swiss house keeper and Doogie – the Scottish Terrier.

Helen And Mac expanded their Sims Ranch house “Jim-Bar-Jack” and spent most of their summers in the rambling cottage socializing with the large Sims clan, enjoying bridge games, poker, barbeques and cocktail parties.

“Mac” McLaughlin and his new wife Helen Sims McLaughlin behind the newly expanded Jim-Bar-Jack in 1939.

They sold their co-op on Lake Shore Drive and, in 1950, moved in to a smaller apartment, in anticipation of Mac’s retirement from Otis Elevator. As luck would have it, Mac was scheduled to retire late in 1951, but was felled by a stroke while at Sims Ranch and, on June 20, 1951, Helen became a widow.

Helen Sims Gammie McLaughlin on the front porch of Jim-Bar-Jack circa 1950

Helen retired to a small home in New Port Richey, Florida (a town developed by her uncle George Reginald [Reg] Sims). She later moved to a small canal front cottage in Tarpon Springs, where she died on Aug 27, 1964.

Helen was loving, generous and kind. Her stone in the Sim’s cemetery reads “Beloved mother of four. To the end she lived with simplicity and order, humor and understanding.” A most fitting epitaph.