Career
Longley was born Helen Angela Walsh in Springfield, Ohio. The couple married in 1949 in Ohio and moved to Lewiston, Maine. As First Lady, Longley was a proponent of the Special Olympics, as well as state medical facilities, including the Maine Medical Center and Mercy Hospital.
Helen Longley died at Mercy Hospital in Portland, Maine, on September 13, 2005, at the age of 83.
She was a resident of Falmouth, Maine, and a former resident of Lewiston.