Helen Kardashian was the mother of American attorney Robert Kardashian and the paternal grandmother of Kim, Kourtney, Khloé, and Rob Kardashian. Born Helen Arakelian in 1917, she belonged to an Armenian-American family whose history began long before the Kardashians became household names.
Although Helen spent most of her life outside the entertainment industry, her family relationships, Armenian heritage, and influence on her children have become part of the Kardashian family’s documented history.
Helen Kardashian (July 15, 1917–May 22, 2008) was an Armenian-American woman best known as Robert Kardashian’s mother and Kim Kardashian’s paternal grandmother. She married Arthur Kardashian in 1938 and raised three children: Barbara, Thomas, and Robert. Her son Thomas later described her as a determined and influential figure in their family.
Family Profile
| Attribute | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Haigoohi “Helen” Arakelian Kardashian |
| Known As | Helen Kardashian |
| Date of Birth | July 15, 1917 |
| Birthplace | California; sources differ between Los Angeles and Oakland |
| Date of Death | May 22, 2008 |
| Age at Death | 90 years |
| Nationality | American |
| Ethnicity | Armenian-American |
| Husband | Arthur Kardashian |
| Marriage Year | 1938 |
| Children | Barbara, Thomas, and Robert Kardashian |
| Famous Grandchildren | Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, and Rob Kardashian |
| Burial Location | Inglewood Park Cemetery, California |
Who Was Helen Kardashian Before the Family Became Famous?
Helen’s birthplace is one detail on which published accounts disagree. Her Los Angeles Times obituary identifies Los Angeles, while Jonathan Van Meter’s 2026 biography excerpt in Vanity Fair names Oakland. Both place her birth in California in 1917. Without an independently examined birth certificate, the disagreement should be preserved rather than resolved by guesswork.
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Her Armenian Heritage and Family Background
Helen belonged to a generation born in the United States to Armenian immigrant parents. In the family history recounted by Van Meter, her ancestors came from historically Armenian communities under Ottoman rule, while Arthur’s relatives had connections to Armenian territory governed by the Russian Empire. Their families settled in California before the devastating events of the First World War and the Armenian genocide.
The Armenian genocide, beginning in 1915, involved the systematic deportation and killing of Armenians by the Ottoman authorities, as documented in HISTORY’s overview of the genocide. It shaped the collective memory of communities whose relatives survived or escaped persecution. Helen was born after this upheaval had begun, but her family’s migration story formed part of the history that later generations discussed. It is more accurate to describe her as an American-born descendant of immigrants than as someone who personally emigrated from Armenia.
One family story involved a supposed prophetic warning that encouraged villagers to leave for California. Kim Kardashian discussed the account with Van Meter, recalling how her father repeated it during her childhood. The warning is a family tradition, not independently established evidence of a supernatural event. Its significance lies in how the family remembered departure, survival, and its eventual roots in Southern California.
Helen and Arthur Kardashian’s Marriage
Helen married Arthur Kardashian in 1938, beginning a marriage that lasted 70 years. Arthur was also born in 1917 and came from an Armenian-American family associated with Southern California’s meatpacking trade. By the time the couple married, the Kardashian family business had achieved considerable commercial success, according to a 2026 Vanity Fair biography excerpt.
Their marriage joined two families with related immigrant experiences, but the available reporting gives a more personal account of Helen than of her business activities. An established professional title or independently documented career in meatpacking cannot confidently be assigned to her. Likewise, the success of her husband’s family enterprise should not be converted into a made-up figure for her personal fortune.
The couple lived for many years in California and later spent considerable time at their home in Indian Wells. The remembrance published after Helen’s death specifically recalled this period of their lives. It provides a useful glimpse of the setting in which they spent later years, without suggesting that every aspect of their private household is public knowledge.
Mother of Robert, Barbara, and Thomas Kardashian
Helen and Arthur raised three children: Barbara, Thomas, commonly called Tom, and Robert Kardashian. Their daughter was later known as Barbara Freeman. Each belonged to the family long before television made the Kardashian name internationally familiar, and Robert’s later prominence should not obscure the wider household in which he grew up.
In an interview published by Vanity Fair in September 2026, Tom remembered his mother as an unusually forceful influence in the home. He said she set high expectations for the children’s education and behavior and encouraged them to become responsible adults. His recollection is unusually valuable because it comes from her own son rather than from a retrospective celebrity profile.
Robert, born in Los Angeles in 1944, became a lawyer and businessman. He attracted major public attention as a member of O. J. Simpson’s defense team during the 1995 criminal trial. His career is the principal reason Helen’s name appears in many biographical family trees, although no credible account suggests that she took part in that legal case herself.
Robert died of esophageal cancer on September 30, 2003, at age 59, several years before his mother. Contemporary reporting in the Los Angeles Times documents his death and names his four children with Kris Jenner. Helen’s later obituary also identifies Robert as the one of her three children who had already died. That chronology matters when distinguishing her life from later Kardashian family events.
Relationship With Kim Kardashian and Her Grandchildren
Helen was the paternal grandmother of Robert’s children, Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, and Rob Kardashian. Her family also included grandchildren through Barbara and Tom. The obituary published in 2008 counted nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren at that time, figures that should not be mistaken for a permanent count across subsequent generations.
Tom’s recollections offer insight into Helen’s connection to her grandchildren. Speaking about his mother in the 2026 Vanity Fair feature, he described her as interested in Robert’s daughters as individuals and suggested that Kim shared something of her determined personality. That is a relative’s interpretation, not proof that any particular personality trait was inherited.
Kim has separately described the importance of Armenian identity in her upbringing. In a first-person essay published by TIME in 2015, she recalled Robert speaking frequently about their ancestry and teaching his children to remember their roots. The account shows how family history was passed down, although it should not be misread as a verbatim statement from Helen.
Helen lived to see the family’s first reality series, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, begin in 2007. The show gave audiences a new view of her grandchildren, but she was not established as a regular reality television personality. Her significance to their story comes instead from documented family relationships and the recollections of relatives who knew her.
The generations can sometimes become confused in online family searches. Kim is Helen’s granddaughter; Chicago West, Kim’s daughter, is Helen’s great-great-granddaughter. Chicago was born after Helen’s death, so the two could never have met.
Helen Kardashian’s Final Years and Death
The family’s published remembrance describes years spent with Arthur at their Indian Wells home. It also records Helen’s final days at Ararat Nursing Home in Mission Hills, California. She died there on May 22, 2008, at age 90, less than two months before what would have been her 91st birthday.
A private graveside service took place at Inglewood Park Cemetery. The obituary identified Arthur as her surviving husband and Barbara and Tom as her surviving children. Its mention of extended family and friends gives a contemporaneous picture of how she was remembered, rather than relying on stories written years later because her descendants became famous.
The death notice did not name a medical cause of death. Describing her passing as peaceful, as the notice did, is not evidence of any particular diagnosis. Claims that Helen died from a specific illness should therefore be treated cautiously unless substantiated by trustworthy documentation.
Arthur outlived her and died in 2012, aged 95. Their seven-decade marriage, three children, and large extended family provide a more grounded summary of their shared life than speculation about wealth or hidden family conflicts. The publicly documented record is concentrated on these family events rather than a detailed independent career biography for Helen.
Conclusion
Helen Kardashian was an American-born woman of Armenian descent, a wife to Arthur Kardashian for 70 years, and the mother of three children, including attorney Robert Kardashian. Her grandchildren’s celebrity brought renewed attention to a family history rooted in migration, business, and cultural memory. Her obituary and her son’s later recollections provide the clearest evidence of her life: a strong presence within a large family whose name became famous after its earlier generations had established their lives in California.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Who was Helen Kardashian?
Helen Kardashian, born Helen Arakelian on July 15, 1917, was Robert Kardashian’s mother and Kim Kardashian’s paternal grandmother. She was an Armenian-American woman who married Arthur Kardashian in 1938 and raised three children.
2. What was Helen Kardashian’s ethnicity?
Helen Kardashian was of Armenian descent. She was born in California to an Armenian immigrant family. Her ancestry connected her to Armenian communities whose migration to America preceded the Armenian genocide of 1915.
3. What was Helen Kardashian’s cause of death?
Helen Kardashian died on May 22, 2008, at age 90. Her published obituary confirms that she passed away at Ararat Nursing Home in Mission Hills, California, but it does not specify a medical cause of death.
4. How many grandchildren did Helen Kardashian have?
Her 2008 obituary recorded nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Among her best-known grandchildren are Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, and Rob Kardashian, the four children of her son Robert and Kris Jenner.
5. What was Helen Kardashian’s net worth and occupation?
Helen’s husband belonged to a commercially successful family involved in Southern California’s meatpacking industry. However, available dependable sources do not establish Helen’s individual net worth, a specific professional position, or a separately documented business career.
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