Helen Elsie Austin's mother was Mary Louise Austin, née Dotson, (sometimes Dodson) herself daughter of 1872 member of the Alabama House of Representatives, Rev. Mentor Dodson, who was listed as a teacher in the 1870 Census. Austin's father was George J. Austin, visible in later years being sensitive to issues of colorism as well as casual relationships and advocacy of women. Her parents married June 10, 1906, and both worked at the Tuskegee Institute - a fact Austin recalled that distinguished Mary Louse in the eyes of Booker T. and Mrs. Washington. At Tuskegee George served as Commandant of Men, with a history as a veteran of the Spanish–American War. She was born at Tuskegee. The United States Social Security paperwork does indicate she was born in Washington DC however. The family was still at Tuskegee in 1910 according to the US Census, however from at least 1912 George worked at the Prairie View Normal School in Austin, Texas, (which evolved over time into the Prairie View A&M University,) again as Commandant of Men. However in the face of the break out of World War I George Austin spoke of enlistment, and himself sought to enlist for officer training at Citizens' Military Training Camp in New York, where he was denied for no technical reason other than the policy of the US War Department, and instead entered Fort Des Moines Provisional Army Officer Training School as a first lieutenant for training which ran June to October, 1917, and listed with the draft. He was later credited with serving with the 65th Machine Gun Company, which might be the UK unit of the same name. By January 1920 the family settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, though George was director of a civic league supported by the black community in Port Huron, Michigan, were said to have lived in West Virginia briefly before that, and then after Michigan George was director of a Civic Center supported by members of the white and black community in Zanesville. Mary Louise worked at Stowe School, named after Harriet Beecher Stowe. Austin is known to have interrupted a class in high school on an extended description of the contributions of Africans to civilization, correcting a textbook. She shared an oral history recording including the anecdote about her first day at Walnut High School: