On February 24, 2024, the chapter will hold a Valentine Celebration Dinner at Ladonna’s Grill in Meeker, Oklahoma where Sue Helms will be crowned as Beta Sigma Phi’s Valentine Queen.
Sue Helms was born, raised, and graduated in Liberal, Kansas, which makes her a Jayhawker. In 1954 Sue was selected to represent Kansas in the Miss Universe contest. The contest was held in Long Beach, California, which was a long way off from a small town in Kansas. She then left home in 1955 to attend Wichita State University. In October 1956, she was married and began starting a family with her first husband Bill. She is the mother of two children. Her son and daughter-inlaw live in Tennessee and her daughter and son-inlaw live in Mississippi. Sue’s granddaughter lives in Mississippi along with her two great-grandchildren.
After much moving around from city to city, Sue and Bill settled in Wichita, Kansas. It was during this time Sue was asked to join Beta Sigma Phi. She later divorced and re-married her husband Maynard, who introduced her to the small café business and dairying experience.
Sue and Maynard purchased 40 acres east of Meeker, which meant raising cows to eat the grass, and lived in a 550 square foot cabin. Sue began working at Tinker Air Force Base while also cooking on weekends at their small café. It wasn’t too long before raising cows didn’t prove to be the “cash cow” they had hoped and they sold their 40 acres and went into the wheat growing business on a 160 acre school lease north of Shawnee, Oklahoma. While growing wheat, Sue and Maynard decided to own dairy cows. This landed them in Chandler, Oklahoma.
Sue found that she enjoyed raising dairy cows and working in the dairy business, however, after 12 years in the dairy business the government was faced with a glut in the milk market. They were offered a chance for a buyout, so Sue and Maynard sold their dairy business.
Sometime around 1980, Sue began to attend church again at the United Methodist Church. Within three Sundays of visiting the church she ended up joining the choir. She attended training in the Basic, Advanced and Certified Lay Servant ministries. With Maynard’s passing in 1999, she found herself with the time to dedicate to her church ministry. This training led Sue to be assigned to Oilton UMC which was a two point charge with the Drumright UMC. Unfortunately, Oilton later elected to close. It wasn’t long before she was given the opportunity to minister to the Mutteloke UMC in Bristow, Oklahoma. This church was a member of the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference of the UMC.
In 1999, Sue was working at NAICO in Chandler when a friend mentioned Beta Sigma Phi to her and here she is, 23+ years later in Stroud Beta Sigma Phi and 63 years from the beginning. Sue has held many chair positions on the various chapter committees over the years beginning with secretary and several years of being treasurer. She currently holds the position of President of the chapter for the third time.