Helen Menken was born in New York to deaf parents. Her original name was Meinken, her New York-born father Frederick being of French/German extraction. Her mother, Mary Madden, was Irish-born.
She married Humphrey Bogart at the Gramercy Park Hotel on May 20, 1926, four years after taking out a marriage license in New York City. It was the first marriage for both. She was granted a divorce in Chicago in November 1928, after separating in April of that year.
She collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack at a party at The Lambs, 128 West 44th Street, New York City, on March 27, 1966. She was survived by her third husband, George N. Richard, a special partner of the Wall Street brokerage firm C. B. Richard.
