Outstanding Women of New Brighton: Karen (Chaney) Helbling

Karen (Chaney) Helbling, author, historian, and ethnobotanist, was born and raised on Oak Hill in New Brighton. Her parents, the late Lee and Nancy (Butler) Chaney, encouraged her from a young age to pursue her love of writing.

Karen is proud to be a 1973 graduate of New Brighton High School — the last class to graduate from the Allegheny Street building. She always felt blessed to have teachers like Enrico Antonini, her ninth-grade Pennsylvania history teacher, who was instrumental in developing her love of history, especially New Brighton’s rich past.

After earning a degree in Children’s Literature, she later attended Rutgers, Northwestern, Texas A&M, and went on to study ethnobotany under many well-known doctors, herbalists, and shamans around the world.

For over 17 years Karen and her husband, Mark, owned and operated Helbling Farms in Enon Valley, a 74-acre herb and vegetable farm. They offered a unique farm experience that included Greenhouses, Gift Shoppe, Farm Market, tours of the theme gardens, classes on medicinal and culinary herbs, and the popular summer Herb Festivals. Karen shared her knowledge of plants through a six-month course at the Green Thumb Herb School and with the thousands who visited the farm every year from across the United States and as far away as China.

Karen was editor of Milestones, the Journal of Beaver County History, a newspaper copy editor, wrote a weekly column Looking Back, and a past president of the New Brighton Historical Society. She enjoyed lecturing about her historical and botanical finds with audiences throughout the tri-state area.

One of her most popular lectures, Pharmacy from the Rainforest, covers the medicinal uses of rainforest plants and her many exciting adventures in the Amazon Rainforest, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. She describes living in the Peruvian jungle as one of the most rewarding experiences in her studies.

Karen has written articles for many historical, gardening, and children’s magazines. Her books include Arcadia’s Images of America series: New Brighton and New Brighton Revisited; Extra Extra Read All About It, Early American Times, Lost Muster Rolls, A Trip Through Beaver County History, Lost on the Frontier, Country Cuisine, and the Let’s Talk Herbs series.

Karen’s hobbies are genealogy, traveling, collecting old newspapers, and gardening.

The Helblings have been married for 46 years. They reside in the oldest homestead in Daugherty Township, a fieldstone house built by Irish immigrants.