Born as Helena Johanna Strassburger in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, she was the youngest of six children in a large German American family.
After high school, she studied with Anna Shram Irvin[1] and earned bachelor's and master's degrees in music from Oberlin College.
During her career, she worked with many important figures in the world of music, including conductors Leopold Stokowski, Erich Leinsdorf, Seiji Ozawa and Zubin Mehta.
She met her future husband, violinist Howard Boatwright (who died in 1999), in Los Angeles in 1941 when they were to perform in a National Federation of Music Clubs competition.
Boatwright continued to study music and teach, and in 2006, she celebrated her 90th birthday with a standing-room only concert at St. David's Episcopal Church in DeWitt, New York.