Helen Decatur

**Helen Decatur** is one of the main characters in Sweet Magnolias. She is portrayed by Heather Headley.

## Personality

**Helen Decatur** is a wise, kind, and intelligent woman with a sage-like maternal personality.

## Physical Appearance

**Helen** **Decatur** is a woman with black hair an dark brown eyes. In Season 3, she changes her hair from a bob to box braids.

## Biography

### **Early life**

**Helen** attended Serenity High School and graduated from there.

### Current Life

**Helen** is an accomplished attorney. She is  Dana Sue and  Maddie’s best friend, the three ladies are collectively known as The Sweet Magnolias. She bought Frances Wingate's mansion to convert it into a spa for the ladies of Serenity. It is now known as The Corner Spa, which she co-owns with Maddie and Dana Sue.

## Throughout the Series

### Season 1

In Pour It Out: together with her best friend Dana Sue, Helen manages to convince Maddie, their other best friend to go into business with them and buy the Wingate Household after Maddie's divorce from her husband Bill, which is property of Frances Wingate, a neighbor of Serenity and an important part in the lives of the three women. Helen later meets with fellow citizens Collins Littlefield, who owns a mechanics business, Peggy Martin deputy writer of local newspaper The Sentinel and married couple Grace Wharton and Neville Wharton, owners of Wharton's. When doing this, Helen realizes how much help and fixing her hometown is in need of, and sets on a quest to dedicate her life to Serenity together with her two best friends.

In A United Front: after agreeing to go into business together and buying Miss Frances' house, the Sweet Magnolias put up a united front to oversee the repairs of the new Corner Spa. However, their new business isn't the only thing that keeps Helen busy: she is also working on a case in which she has to evaluate who is more suitable for the guardianship of two girls whose parents died in a car accident. At the start, both candidates seem viable, until they attempt to start throwing each other off the tracks. Helen resolves the conflict by asking Annie about the two girls' interests and realizing that one of the candidates is much more suitable than the other.

In Give Drink to the Thirsty: Helen is having troubles with the pipes in the Corner Spa. She gets told by the construction manager that, no matter how much overtime is paid, the repairs won't be done in time in a month, which is the deadline that the trio had set, as it matches with Miss Frances' birthday. After a talk with Pastor June, Helen understands the importance of needing help, which is what causes her to call all the plumbers in town. This is why Maddie couldn't find any plumbers to fix her sink.

In Lay It All Down: Helen is having more trouble with the spa renovations, as Mary Vaughn has cruelly called Ryan, Miss Frances's nephew, and has convinced him that the Sweet Magnolias are being disloyal to his aunt's house's memories by renovating it. Ryan arrives having petitioned to get the place declared a historic site. Helen is feeling nervous about the situation, as Ryan turns out to have been her on-off boyfriend many years back. After Ryan visits the old house and chats with Helen about how many memories of theirs the house holds, they end up kissing passionately.

In Dance First, Think Later: Helen and Ryan are now an official couple, but their relationship is strained due to Ryan's constant work trips. Erik is jealously watching them.

In All Best Intentions: Helen visits the school to help Cal with the mock trials and immediately notices both the tension between Ty and Annie and CeCe's talent for debate. The latter, however, is reluctant to show her true self.

In Hold My Hand: Helen is still handling the mock trials and receiving a bit of reluctance to join from CeCe. Helen finds an explanation to this when she meets CeCe's father, Russ, who is very traditional. After a convincing chat with Helen, Russ finally lets her daughter to attend the mock trials.

In What Fools These Mortals Be: lastly, Helen is still busy with the mock trials, and is helping CeCe with the mandated debate attire that she has to wear. She is also busy with the case of some farmland, thanks to which she manages to bring Ryan into town for a while.

In Where You Find Me: Helen is busy with the mock trial, worried about Kyle. She has basically forced Annie to pull double-duty role-playing due to Kyle's absence, and has given CeCe a power-suit glow-up and some earrings. CeCe wins the award for best defense attorney and manages to please her father, and the group wins second place; however, CeCe is only paying attention to Ty's relationship with Annie. The latter isn't happy about Helen's preferential treatment of CeCe, to which Helen responds: "Sometimes if we treat people as if they're good, it challenges them to be good." Later, Helen and Ryan are in Helen's kitchen talking about how excited they are for the future of the town when she mentions their future children. Ryan tells her things have not changed since they last had the conversation about him not wanting children.

In Storms and Rainbows: Ryan reminds Helen that they need to continue the conversation from the night before. When she comes back from work that day, the two sit down together and Ryan tells her story of a baby that was born in a village somewhere he traveled that died from a preventable disease. He stated that bringing a child into the world when the world cannot sustain the people who are already existing is irresponsible and selfish. Helen passionately replies that that having a child would be them helping the generation learn how to sustain the world and save everyone.

Ryan thinks that is a fantasy, and is then seen walking down the stairs with his suitcases and walking towards the front door. He asks Helen why he feels more hurt than all the other times they have broken up, and she replies that it’s because it’s the last time. Later, Helen is having a hard time coping with Ryan leaving, so she goes to the spa and does yoga to cope. Later that night, Eric comes by with brownies to talk. While they are talking, Helen gets the phone call from Maddie that there has been a car accident. Helen calls Dana Sue and tells her and they all show up on the scene of the accident.

### Season 2

#### **Casseroles and Casualties**

TBA

In *So Much to Say:* Helen tells the girls she is pregnant with Ryan's child.

## Relationships

### Ryan Wingate

*For more information see Helen and Ryan*

### Erik Whitley

*For more information see Helen and Erik*

## Gallery

**Helen Decatur** has a **photo gallery**.