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Final Farewell: Helms is remembered for kindness, ability to shake off harsh criticism
AP Photo
Former Sen. Jesse Helms' casket is carried from Hayes-Barton Baptist Church after funeral services in Raleigh.
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ONLINE EXTRA
Published: July 9, 2008
RALEIGH -- Jesse Helms was not just a five-term senator and an icon of a conservative movement.
He was also a stickler for grammar, a father figure to his staff and a good-humored collector of the political cartoons that excoriated him.
Those were some of the sides of Helms that emerged yesterday at a funeral attended by Vice President Dick Cheney, a delegation of U.S. senators and hundreds of mourners.
"Jesse Helms always stood his ground," said Sen. Mitch McConnell in a eulogy to Helms. McConnell, R-Ky., is the Senate minority leader.
Helms, who died on the Fourth of July, helped revitalize modern American conservatism and helped remake politics in North Carolina, which had been a one-party Democratic state before Helms' rise to power.
He was the son of a police officer from Monroe who came to be one of the Senate's most polarizing figures. He was lauded by his fans for his bedrock conservatism and tenacity, but criticized by many for his obstructionist legislative tactics and his racially charged campaigns.
But yesterday, Helms was remembered as a kind, unflappable man with endearing quirks.
He was a fierce editor who hated split infinitives, and if an aide submitted a speech or document that wasn't up to his standards, he would retype it on a noisy old typewriter.
He plastered the wall of his office with negative editorial cartoons -- all of them criticizing him. And after a particularly harsh New York Times editorial, he cautioned a worried staff member, "Son, just so you understand, I don't care what the New York Times says about me."
McConnell noted that many politicians are completely different people than their public image would suggest.
"No one seemed to suffer more from this peculiar disconnect than Jesse Helms -- and no one seemed to care about it less," McConnell said.
"He had a preternatural calm about what others said."
In another eulogy, Helms' former chief of staff, Jimmy Broughton, chuckled at the timing of Helms' death because, he said, it ruined the July 4 vacations of many of the newspaper editors who were hard on Helms for so many years.
About 1,000 people attended the funeral yesterday at Hayes Barton Baptist Church in Raleigh. Helms had worshipped there for decades and served as a deacon.
In addition to Cheney and McConnell, numerous state and federal politicians -- both Republicans and Democrats -- attended the hour-and-a-half-long service. They included Gov. Mike Easley and Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who succeeded Helms in the Senate in 2003. Dole was there with her husband, former presidential candidate and Kansas Sen. Bob Dole.
North Carolina's other senator, Richard Burr, a Republican, also attended, as did Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., and Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.
Cindy McCain, the wife of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, was also there.
At the front of the church, Helms' coffin was draped in an American flag. Beyond the pulpit, a choir, clad in crimson, led the assembly in hymns, including "Amazing Grace" and "When the Saints Go Marching In." The service was followed by a private burial.
Jesse Alexander Helms Jr. was born Oct. 18, 1921. He died at 86 after spending the final years of his life in poor health and living in a retirement facility in Raleigh.
"Sen. Helms was courageous for standing up for what he believed," said the Rev. Tom Bodkin in his sermon. "Even when he was in the minority. Even when he was alone."
■ James Romoser can be reached at 919-210-6794 or at jromoser@wsjournal.com.
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