Helen Fitzgerald Dougher was born in Dunnville, Ontario in 1911, and worked professionally for the Department of Veterans of the Federal Civil Service in Hamilton for thirty years. She began writing poetry while in elementary school, and was encouraged by her teachers and various editors of magazines and literary publications that accepted her early works. She was widely published in Canada, the United States and Britain. She was a long-standing member of several poetry groups including The Tower Poetry Society (Hamilton, Ontario).