Picture-Perfect Life: Daughter of Ansel Adams, Anne, Attended SF State

MONTEREY HERALD -- Anne Adams Helms frolicked as a child in Yosemite, where her mother ran a small artist’s studio that doubled as the family home. Her father was a photographer and an environmental activist who became a lifetime member and a director of the Sierra Club. Her parents met, fell in love, and were married after a six-week courtship at the foot of a 617-foot waterfall known as Bridalveil. “It was such a romantic story that it got written up in the Chicago Tribune,” remembers Anne, now 80, who lives today with her 79-year-old husband, Ken Helms, in a former bed-and-breakfast with a spectacular view of the emerald hillside that rolls away from Laureles Grade. The walls of their home are decorated with stunning original photos that were taken by her father, Ansel Adams, one of the most celebrated photographers who ever lived. She ran the publishing business for many years, then returned to college, obtaining an Anthropology degree from San Francisco State.