Ms KellySue, I found this article on The Guardian's website and now I am wondering... Was Jerrie Cobb the inspiration for Helen? It says, "Chosen for the US astronaut programme in 1958, Jerrie Cobb had twice as many flight hours to her name as John Glenn, who became the first American to orbit the earth. She failed to go into space because she hadn't gone through jet-aircraft testing. She hadn't because women weren't allowed to until 1973."
maggerson

Jerrie Cobb is just one of the women who contributed source code to Helen Cobb.  Another is Jerri Truhill Sloan.  

There are others, too.  

(In my head, the character called “Oklahoma" is a more direct analog to Jerrie Cobb than Helen is, despite the shared last name.)