Helen Beardsley

Who was Helen Beardsley?

Helen Eileen Beardsley was the mother of the famous blended family of twenty children — eight by her first marriage to Richard North, ten stepchildren from the first marriage of her second husband Frank Beardsley, and two that she and Frank had during their marriage. She wrote a book, Who Gets the Drumstick?, about her blended family's experiences. The book was the basis for two motion pictures: the 1968 Yours, Mine and Ours, starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda; and a 2005 remake of the same film with Rene Russo and Dennis Quaid.