Helene Solheim passed on July 15, 2016, in East Lansing, Michigan, of congestive heart failure, after many years of poor health.

She was born in Seattle in 1946 to Mildred Johnson Solheim and Gabriel Solheim and grew up in Bellevue, Washington, where she graduated from Sammamish High School in 1963.

She earned  B.A., M.A., and PhD degrees (1976, 1977, and 1985) in English from the University of Washington.

She has taught at Illinois State University, the University of Florida, the University of Texas at Arlington, and Michigan State University.

Her field is in backgrounds to 17th and 18th century literary history and the history of the English drama, which she spent may years researching in the great libraries of the U.S. and U.K.