[1] In 1904, at the age of 21, Bonfils eloped with Clyde V. Berryman, a non-Catholic sheet music salesman; they were married in a civil ceremony in Golden, Colorado.

[6] In 1934 Berryman left her for good,[7] and in 1943[8] she obtained a "quickie divorce" in Reno, Nevada, on grounds of "cruelty, nonsupport, and desertion".

[12][13] Helen, who became manager of The Denver Post, went so far as to order that Bonfils' name not be mentioned in the newspaper, "except for uncomplimentary remarks".

[14][16][17] The estate grounds included a 50 acres (20 ha) manmade lake,[18] formal gardens, and grazing areas for 50 fallow deer and herds of prize Suffolk and Hampshire sheep.

[21][18] Built in 1937 for more than $1 million, the white terra-cotta mansion[16] was designed by noted Colorado architect Jacques Benedict.

[7] It contained a pink marble chapel where priests from the St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church of Denver held private masses for Bonfils,[20] and a full-service dental clinic.

[22][17] Bonfils purchased paintings, sculptures, antique furnishings, and rare dolls to decorate the mansion and grounds on her annual trips to Europe.

[19][28] Bonfils met Charles Edwin Stanton (1909–1987),[21] a noted interior designer, in the course of her charitable work for the Central City Opera, and asked him to oversee the installation of an elevator in her mansion.

[19][31] Lacking heirs, Bonfils invested her fortune into supporting culture, arts, healthcare, education, and humanitarian causes in Denver and the state of Colorado.

[32][33] She endowed the Clinic of Ophthalmology at the University of Colorado Medical Center, the library and auditorium at Loretto Heights College, the Bonfils Wing at the Denver Museum of Natural History, and the interior décor of the Catholic Chapel at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

[34][35] She rebuilt and funded the St. Elizabeth's Church and monastery on the Auraria Campus in Denver, and endowed the Villa Nazareth Orphanage in Rome.

[18] Bonfils Stanton put the other half of her estate in trust for the Franciscan Religious Order of St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church of Denver.