Helen Margaret Tenney (née Jaderquist) was born to Rev. John E. and Mary Olsen Jaderquist in July, 1904 in Buffalo, New York. Her father, a Christian and Missionary Alliance pastor, served as a pastor, teacher, denominational executive, director of publications for the CMA, and on the board as representative for several foreign mission boards. She graduated from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois in 1925 with a B.A. in history, from Northwestern University in 1928 with a M.A. in history and from Gordon College in Massachusetts in 1928 with a B.D.
Helen taught at Northfield Seminary in Massachusetts from 1928 until her marriage in 1930 to Merrill C. Tenney. After their marriage the Tenneys moved to Wenham, where he was a professor at Gordon College. In 1943, when he became a professor at Wheaton College, the family moved to Wheaton, Illinois.
Helen served on the board of Women’s Union Missionary Society (WUMS) and was active in its work, as was her sister Mary, who served as president of the society for over ten years. She authored a history of the WUMS. She also wrote Mark’s Sketchbook of Christ (Eerdmans, 1956; reprinted by the Trust, 1971), several magazine articles and Sunday school materials and served as an officer of the Woman’s Fellowship of the National Association of Evangelicals. She frequently assisted her husband with editorial work on his publications.
After a long illness, Helen Tenney died in January, 1978.