A Tennessee coach and her grandma forged a special bond at birth. A lifetime later, she returned the favor.
LAWRENCEBURG — The baby arrived via ambulance in the bitter cold.
Alone.
It got down to 14 degrees in Nashville on that Thursday, January 31, 1985.
Snow and ice hit Music City later that evening with a vengeance. Planes slid off runways at Nashville International Airport. I-65 was shut down in both directions.
The baby, whose name was Ashley, had been born in Maury County Regional Medical Center with a life-threatening condition called "wet lung." For specialized treatment, she needed to get to Vanderbilt University Medical Center before a severe icy, snowstorm rolled in.
Doctors had been worried if the ambulance broke down en route, Ashley would freeze to death.
Ashley's mother, Penny Helton, couldn't leave Maury County because she was recovering after giving birth through a Cesarean section. Doctors had blocked the young mother from traveling with her daughter because they were worried Helton would hemorrhage during the drive.
That's when Ashley's grandparents, Bill and Donna Helton, stepped up.
They raced 82 miles from their home in Lawrenceburg to Vanderbilt so they could be with Ashley.
So she would not be alone.
"If something had happened — if she had died — we felt somebody should be there with her," Bill Helton told The Tennessean at the time.
They took one change of clothes and slept on the floor of the waiting room until doctors told them they could see her.
Bill Helton gave Ashley her first bottle.
Donna Helton placed her finger in the palm of Ashley's hand.
Ashley wrapped her tiny hand around her grandmother's finger.
And a connection was born.
Thirty-eight years later, Ashley and Donna were together again. This time, it was Donna who needed comforting.
Hoop dreams and 'Golden Girls'
Little Ashley Helton did not die.
Despite her fragile beginning, she grew up to be a bit of a dynamo.
She was a baller.
She went to Lawrence County High School, about 90 minutes from Nashville, and adjacent to Amish country. She had made her reputation on the AAU basketball circuit as a hustler, defending, passing and scoring. In her junior season (2002), Helton and the Lady Wildcats finished second in the state in the Class 3A division.
She loved to spend some of her off-court time with grandma Donna. They watched "Golden Girls," got mani/pedis and loved to shop together. "We had this bond," she said.
Helton described her grandmother as "an encourager. Meek, sweet and kind."
Every year on Jan. 31, Helton would get a call from her grandparents.
"They would tell me, 'We were so scared you weren't going to make it,'" Helton said.
Ashley Helton went on to be a star basketball player for Freed-Hardeman University, a small Christian college in Henderson, Tennessee. And she was voted Miss Freed-Hardeman (an award given to exemplary students) in 2006. In her four years, she led her college team in assists, steals and three-point shooting percentage.
After her college career, she was "kinda burned out" on basketball.
She became an elementary school teacher, got married to math teacher/golf coach, Adam Rutledge, and they had three kids, Gracie, Reese and Ray (now 11, 9 and 6). Her children are all basketball players and she's zooming around the youth basketball circuit on weekends. The Rutledge family now lives in Killen, Alabama, a 15-minute drive from the southern Tennessee border.
Basketball, however, wasn't finished with Helton Rutledge. She became the coach at Loretto High School.
She was a good player, but she has been a great coach.
Helton Rutledge was named Tennessee Coach of the Year in 2019 and 2021. Her Loretto High team won the state championship in 2021. One of the highlights of Ashley's career was coaching Karly Weathers, who now plays for the University of Alabama. Weathers was 2022 Miss Tennessee Basketball and the state's Gatorade Player of the Year.
Grandma's accident
Donna Helton had been a high school cheerleader and was voted "Best Looking" at Lawrence County High.
"Why do you think I went after her?" Bill Helton said with a laugh. He is now 85.
She had been dating an older boy, but Bill asked her out anyway while they were both applying for a job at a bicycle factory in Lawrenceburg.
She said yes.
They got married in 1957
They had four kids — Angie, Andrea, Holly and Bill Jr. (who everyone called Biff). Biff grew up and married Penny, who gave birth to Ashley in 1985.
They built a family that includes 11 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren.
In 2020, Donna Helton was in the hospital because she was having difficulty breathing when she fell and hit her head.
"Her balance was never the same," Bill Helton said.
She steadily declined. Dementia began to set in.
By 2023, Bill Helton had installed a hospital bed in their home.
Circle of life
As the calendar approached springtime, Ashley began visiting her grandmother once per week.
Donna Helton was in hospice care.
She remembers saying a prayer for her. "I prayed for God to give her peace and let her sleep," Ashley said. "She looked at me and said, 'Oh, that was really sweet.'"
It was the last time they spoke.
On the night of April 4, as Donna lay in the bed, Ashley held her hand.
So she would not feel alone.
Donna Helton died just after midnight on April 5.
It wasn't until later that Ashley realized the significance of what had happened.
"It was a full circle," she said in a recent interview on her grandparents' front porch. "She held my hand when I entered the world. I held hers when she transitioned out."
Bill Helton said he knows Donna appreciated the moment.
"They loved each other so much," he said. "Family is what she was all about."
More great storytelling from The Tennessean
Under the radar: Meet the Tennessee teens who have a shot at a world title in Paris
Can Ruth, the person, save Ruth, the 340-year-old tree in a new housing development?
This man spent a career helping others after shootings. What he thinks will stop them.
This Nashville couple broke up in 1959. Could they find love again after 63 years apart?
This Tennessee man turned to broom making when he lost his farm but love saved him
Reach Keith Sharon at ksharon@tennessean.com
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How a Tennessee coach returned her grandma's gesture a lifetime later
