Helen Brandmeier was born in 1930 in Seattle, Washington. Her father owned a lumber mill, which came under severe stress during the Great Depression. Helen would later describe how her observations of her father would shape her personality, and in particular how it would teach her to value independence and problem-solving.

She trained as a nurse in Seattle, and in 1949, married Richard North, then a chief petty officer in the United States Navy. Their marriage lasted for eleven years and produced eight children. Helen was six months pregnant with the eighth child, Teresa Rose, when North, by now an officer and navigator in an A-3 squadron at NAS Whidbey Island, died in a crash of his aircraft.

She married a second time, on September 9, 1961, to Chief Warrant Officer Frank Beardsley, USN, who at the time served as Personnel Officer at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Mr. Beardsley was a widower himself and had ten children. The huge family that resulted presented nearly unprecedented logistical problems and thus became a national curiosity. The Beardsleys landed a celebrity endorsement contract, then sold the rights to their story to Desilu Productions, who produced the first of the two films based on their marriage. Helen Beardsley also appeared on the television show To Tell the Truth to tell the story of her family.

Mr. Beardsley retired from the Navy July 1966, and opened a candy store, which operated for many years, with help from the older children. Mrs. Beardsley served on the California Governor's Commission on the Status of Women during the governorship of Ronald Reagan.

This marriage lasted until Helen Beardsley's death in Healdsburg, California, on April 26, 2000, due to complications from Parkinson's Disease. Frank Beardsley later remarried.

According to Kermit Schafer, a member of the audience on the Tonight Show provided a classic quip when the Beardsleys appeared on the show with all those children. The family had just left the stage, and the show had cut to a commercial break. Johnny Carson was in awe of the huge family and he said, "I have only two kids. I don't know how they do it. " Someone in the seats stood up and hollered, "Oh yes you do!"