| Jesse Helms, Jr., was born and raised in the small, quiet town of Monroe, North Carolina. His parents owned a small farm in Monroe, and they both had been raised in the town as well. His father held a dual job of chief of police and fire chief and taught young Jesse about religion and respecting people.
An above average student with interests in music and writing, Jesse remembered many of his teachers, particularly his music teacher, who ultimately inspired him to go to college despite his lack of finances and to take opportunities when they arose. One such opportunity was the Vagabond Scholar, the Monroe local newspaper, for which a teenage Jesse wrote articles that sometimes appeared on the front page. He was the middle child of three, with an older brother and a younger sister, and after graduating from high school, enrolled in Wingate College, working off his tuition only to transfer to Wake Forest University. At Wake Forest, he wrote several news articles for the News and Observer to pay his tuition and accepted a job offer in the sports department before he finished college.
While he worked at the News and Observer, he met a beautiful young reporter named Dorothy, the first woman that the newspaper had hired since 1924. Helms tells the story of wooing her with Coca Cola and peanuts when they first met. His stay at the News and Observer was fairly short, though, and he accepted a job at the smaller Raleigh Times.
In the early 1940s, World War II was beginning to touch the US, and Helms wanted to support his country by enlisting. Because of a slight hearing problem, however, he was rejected until an officer gave him a waiver to join to Navy, and after his tour of duty ended, he returned to the Raleigh Times.
A.J. Fletcher then presented him with another opportunity—to work at WRAL radio. While there, Helms was one of the first broadcasters to use “sound bytes” and include taped material in a live broadcast. While he was still at the radio station, he assisted Willis Smith with his Senate campaign against Frank Porter Graham. In fact, Helms and WRAL were instrumental in convincing Smith to face Graham in a runoff after Graham won the first primary by only 4,000 votes, leading the way to Smith’s victory in the November election.
After Senator Smith won, he asked Helms to join him in Washington as his administrative assistant. At first Helms refused, not wanting to leave his family, but ultimately he accepted and worked as Smith’s administrative assistant until Senator Smith died. While Helms was in Washington, he met Senator Richard Nixon, a Republican senator whose office adjoined Senator Smith’s.
Helms returned to North Carolina after Senator Smith’s death and became the executive assistant of the Bankers’ Association. While there, he wrote editorials for the Bankers magazine, an experience that prepared him for the editorial job for the new WRAL-TV. He meanwhile kept his hand in politics, running for and winning a spot on City Council in 1957.
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