Helaine played her first tournament game January 17, 1987, under the auspices of NSA, and her last one September 9, 2015 at the WGPO Word Cup. She played a total of 1,353 tournament games with a peak rating of 1868 in 1996. Helaine had planned to participate in this year’s Portland Labor Day Weekend tournament, but succumbed to acute myeloid leukemia after a 9-day illness. She’d have a clever and funny remark to make at this point, but I can’t think of any. We miss her.
![Back in the day (Photo from Elizabeth Wood)](http://wordgameplayers.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Back-in-the-day-300x284.jpg)
Photo from Elizabeth Wood
![Between games (she rolled her own) Photo from Elizabeth Wood](http://wordgameplayers.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Between-Games.jpg)
Photo from Elizabeth Wood