Helen Hamilton Reid was born in Savannah, Georgia, on March 12, 1942, to Robert Dennis Reid and Helen Fuller Reid. She graduated from Savannah Country Day School in 1959 and St. Mary’s Junior College in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1961. She married Pawling Schryver Steward (Peter) on September 9, 1961. He was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on September 25, 1936, the son of Pawling Schryver Steward and Jane Poindexter Steward Hunter. Helen and Pawling had four daughters: Jane, Kathryn, Helen, and Eleanor. They have seven grandchildren.

Helen has served on the boards of the Telfair Museum of Art (also as president), Junior League of Savannah, Savannah Speech and Hearing Center (also as vice chairman), Cultural Arts Commission of Savannah, Hospice Savannah, Inc., (also as president), Hospice Savannah Foundation (also as chairman), Steward Palliative Care Endowment, Bethesda Union Society of Savannah, Savannah Music Festival, and Memorial Hospital “Children’s Hospital-Kids Only” Campaign. She also served as State President of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Georgia. She is also a of the Huguenot Society of South Carolina, of Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, and an associate member of First Presbyterian Church of Highlands, North Carolina.

Pawling Steward died on December 30, 2006, age 70, and is buried in the Greenwich section of Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia.

Helen created the Helen Reid Steward Fund at the Georgia Historical Society in 2025, ensuring that her commitment to Georgia history will continue in perpetuity.