Helen Cartledge Jones (née Helen Cartledge) was born in Austin, Texas on 18 January 1892 to Eugene and Nancy Isabel Harris Cartledge. Cartledge attended the University of Texas, Austin for two years and married Arthur John Jones in 1917 in her parents’ home in Austin. Jones was a mining engineer and, at the time of their wedding, was superintendent of the Duquesne Mining and Reduction Company of Duquesne, Arizona. Their honeymoon consisted of a road trip through Yellowstone on the way to California to meet his parents. The couple moved to Los Angeles where their daughter, Madalyn, was born in 1925. Madalyn developed into a prominent collector of California art along with her husband Philip Johnson. Helen Cartledge Jones died in Los Angeles on November 23, 1973. From her work it's clear that she had talent as a painter and draughtsman, and likely fostered a love of art in her daughter.