Helen Barbara Kruger

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Helen Barbara Kruger (July 29, 1913 - April 7, 2006) was born in Mankato, Minnesota.

She met her future husband Nudie Cohn at her parent's boarding house. He had done time in Leavenworth for trafficking in drugs, but they fell in love and moved to New York City.

They returned to Mankato to get married, then opened a business called Nudie's for the Ladies in Manhattan in 1934, which sold g-strings and lingerie to showgirls. It was around this time that Helen and Nudie had their only child, Barbara.

Later, in Hollywood, with her husband Nudie Cohn, Helen or "Bobbie" as she was more famously known, made many outrageous, rhinestone-studded, costumes for such luminaries as Tex Winter, Hank Williams Sr, Cher, Elton John, Buck Owens, Clint Eastwood, John Lennon, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Among their most famous creations was a $10,000 gold lame suit for Elvis Presley.

Nudie Cohn died in 1984. Bobbie, her sister Edith, daughter Barbara and granddaughter carried on after this until the Nudie's store was finally closed in 1994.

Helen "Bobbie Nudie" Cohn died in Valencia, California, aged 92.