Jesse Helms

Biography

Jesse Helms is a former U.S. Senator.

Early Life and Education

Helms was born on Oct. 18, 1921, in Monroe, N.C., to Jesse Alexander and Ethel Mae Helms. His father was the local chief of police, a 6-foot-4 man known as "Mr. Jesse."

He studied at Wingate Junior College and Wake Forest College, but he never graduated from college, quitting after a year to become a journalist. 

Family

In 1942, he married Dorothy Coble.

The two had met while they were both working at The News & Observer.

They raised two daughters in Raleigh as well as a son they adopted as a 9-year-old from a children's home in Greensboro after reading a newspaper story in which the boy said he wanted a mother and father for Christmas. 

Military Service

From 1941 to 1945, he served in the U.S. Navy as a recruiter in North Carolina. 

Early Career

Starting in 1939, Helms worked part time as a proofreader for The News & Observer in Raleigh. Offered a full-time job, he quit college.

Through 1941, he worked his way to sports writer and news reporter, then switched to The Raleigh Times, the paper's afternoon counterpart, to become assistant city editor. 

He worked at the Raleigh Times for a year. 

After serving in the Navy, Helms returned to The Raleigh Times as city editor in 1945, but he soon left to work at a radio station in Roanoke Rapids.

In 1950, Helms worked for conservative lawyer Willis Smith in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. The race, which pitted Smith against liberal U.S. Sen. Frank Porter Graham, is widely regarded as North Carolina's most overtly racist campaign in the 20th century.

Helms later downplayed his role and denied any hand in racist fliers that were distributed.

But after the election, he worked briefly as Smith's administrative assistant in Washington, taking a leave of absence to work for the segregationist presidential campaign of Sen. Richard B. Russell of Georgia.  

Political Career 

Helms served on the Raleigh City Council from 1957 to 1961. He served two terms, fighting against everything from putting a median strip on what is now Capital Boulevard to an urban renewal project.

Starting on Nov. 21, 1960, he became an editorialist on WRAL-TV. Over 11 years, he ended the news broadcast five nights a week with a 4 1/2-minute editorial. 

In the editorials, he called Social Security "nothing more than doles and handouts," rural electrification cooperatives "socialistic electric power," and Medicare a "step over into the swampy field of socialized medicine."

In 1970, at the urging of his daughter, he switched his registration from Democrat to Republican. In 1972, he ran for the U.S. Senate, winning as part of Richard Nixon's landslide and becoming the first Republican senator from North Carolina since horse-and-buggy days.

In Washington, Helms helped create "The New Right," organizing a conservative caucus and serving as a liaison to groups opposed to abortion and busing and in favor of school prayer.

In 1976, Helms' political organization, the National Congressional Club, helped Ronald Reagan win the North Carolina primary. Though Reagan lost the nomination to Gerald Ford, the win propelled his 1980 race. 

The Congressional Club also helped elect two other North Carolina senators: John East in 1980 and Lauch Faircloth in 1992.

Helms won re-election four times by narrow margins for a Senate incumbent.  

Retirement

In 2002, suffering from the beginnings of vascular dementia and heart problems, Helms ended his political career. He later stayed at the Mayview Convalescent Center in Raleigh.

He died on July 4, 2008. 

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