| Explore the life and times of Jesse Helms from his childhood through his 60-year career as a journalist and United State senator.
1934
Helms’s Monroe High School English teacher, Miss Annie Lee, promotes a return to the gold standard, the elimination of federal handouts, and impeccable grammar. Helms credits Principal Ray House with "the most remarkable influence" on him. “He taught us that we are personally responsible and accountable," Helms recalled.
Helms helps his family make ends meet during the Depression by working at a funeral home, jerking sodas at the drug store, and delivering newspapers. He lands a job as a sports writer for the Monroe newspaper.
1938
In his Monroe High School yearbook, Helms notes that his prime ambition is to become a newspaper columnist. Unable to afford traveling farther, he enrolls at Wingate, a Baptist junior college just outside Monroe with the motto: "any boy can come who really wants to come."
1939
After a year at Wingate, Helms transfers to Wake Forest, the top Baptist school in the state. He takes a job in the school's sports publicity department as part of a New Deal program, the National Youth Administration. He begins reading proofs in nearby Raleigh at the staunchly Democratic Raleigh News & Observer, which soon offers him a fulltime job in the sports department. He does not finish his second year at Wake Forest.
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