Helen Virginia Runnette was born January 29, 1886 to Joseph H. and Virginia Anderson Runnette. She was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania along with sisters Elizabeth Kerr Runnette, a member of the Mount Holyoke College class of 1912, and Ethel Anderson Runnette Ramsey, class of 1906. Runnette graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1910, but chose to affiliate herself socially with the class of 1909. After graduating, she taught at Briarcliffe Manor in New York, 1910-1911, and at the Lakewood School for Girls in New Jersey, 1912-1913. She took a position with Miss Tower's School for Children in Salem, Massachusetts in 1913. She attended Boston's New School of Design and Harvard's School of Education sporadically while working at Tower.Runnette had joined Miss Tower's School for Children (later Tower School) shortly after its establishment in 1912. In 1917, she became the Headmistress of the progressive children's school and changed its name to Tower School. When the school was incorporated in 1937, her title changed to Director, and she moved the school from Salem to Marblehead in 1941. Instruction at Tower stressed the development of language and writing skills and taught history through art and drama. Both boys and girls studied home economics and industrial arts together. The school's literary magazine, "The Turret", was highly regarded and was part of the collection at Harvard's Widener Library. Some issues are still held in the Mount Holyoke College library. During World War II, Runnette offered scholarships to seven British children and was honored for this with life membership to the Kinsmen of Britain. She was also a member of the Marblehead Historic Society, the Marblehead Arts Association, Mount Holyoke College Friends of Art, the Independent Artist's Group of Boston, and the North Shore Mount Holyoke Alumnae Club. In 1950, she served as a member of the White House Conference on Children and Youth and was listed in Who's Who in the East. Runnette was known as an accomplished artist and playwright with her children's plays frequently produced at Tower and published in "Plays Inc". of Boston. Many summers were spent at the Berskire Summer School for Art in Monterey, Massachusetts, and throughout her life, she designed bookplates, posters, Christmas cards, and magazine covers. She also exhibited her work in Boston and its suburbs. Runnette retired from teaching in 1956, along with longtime friend and colleague Miriam Luscomb. She had remained with Tower School for forty-four years. She died January 12, 1988 in her Marblehead, Massachusetts home at the age of 101.