Helen Bullard was born to Charles Wickliffe and Minnie (Cook) Bullard in Elgin, Illinois on August 15, 1902. She studied at the University of Chicago from 1921 to 1929 while simultaneously working for the research department at L. V. Estes, Inc. (1920-1922), as an operator for the Square D. Company (1922-1924), and as a researcher for the University of Chicago's Commerce and Administration Library (1924-1925). Bullard married Lloyd Ernst Rohrke (1902-1980) on June 11, 1924, and the couple had two children, Ann Louise and Barbara Jane. The Rohrkes divorced in February of 1931, and Helen Rohrke married Joseph Marshall Krechniak (1908-1964) on January 30, 1932. The couple had a single daughter, Mariana.

During the Great Depression, the Krechniaks moved to Ozone, Tennessee due to the city's low cost of living. Here, they adopted a primitive lifestyle so that Joseph Krechniak could continue to write. Helen Krechniak began making dolls in in 1949 and sculpting wood in 1959. She exhibited extensively with the National Institute of American Doll Artists and eventually became very well known. She also wrote a number of books, including Dr. Woman of the Cumberlands (1953), A Bullard Family (1966), Crafts and Craftsmen of the Tennessee Mountains (1976), My People in Wood (1984), and Faith Wick: Doll Artist Extraordinaire (1986). Helen Krechniak died on October 31, 1996.