Remembering the wonderful life and career of Douglas School Principal Corky Helms
If someone told you Carmett Helms had died, it might not have made an impression.
But mention Corky Helms and a heck of a lot of friends, acquaintances and others would know who you were talking about. And now they are sad.
Helms, 83, died March 2, and in these days of social distancing, his memorial was limited. That might be the only thing about him that ever was limited. Teacher, principal, family man, horseman, anvil enthusiast, sausage maker ... I knew him in all those roles and more.
He was the principal at Douglas School on Carlyle Avenue in Belleville when my kids went there. He never hesitated to take advantage of that connection to tell me when he had something he thought I should write about, and he usually was right.
He talked about his promotion of science fairs in Belleville School District 118 and St. Clair County, and I wrote. He talked about the Belleville Optimist Club Rodeo that he headed for 22 years, and again I wrote.
We talked about his amazing collection of anvils, and when he displayed some of them in the Mascoutah Historical Society Museum, I wrote about that. I am the proud proprietor of a miniature anvil, one of several he had made with the Helms longhorn brand on it.
I was a consumer when he was giving away pickup truck loads of horse manure from his horse operation on his ranch east of Belleville. I can say I helped clean up his @ I was a consumer when he was giving away pickup truck loads of horse manure from his horse operation on his ranch east of Belleville. I can say I helped clean up his @$&%! It was another of the deals he liked where everyone benefited. He needed to get rid of the manure and I could use the fertilizer. Never mind that I ran over and broke the sprinkler in his horse barn. He didn’t mind, although my wife insisted I replace it.
We were at an auction once, where he bought boxes and boxes of horseshoes for another of his hobbies, shoeing horses. Then he wondered how he was going to get several hundred pounds of horseshoes loaded. He solved the problem by offering some to a competing bidder if the guy would load them.
Again, a win-win deal.
On his obituary page online, the love from his former junior high school science students shined through in comments. Scores of them wrote to say how much they had enjoyed his class and what a difference he had made.
Loyal Service
Helms was a guy who was always willing to help, but he never seemed to consider himself as anyone special.
In 2012, when he was given the Loyal Service Award by McKendree University (his alma mater, Class of 1959), he talked about how doing things for people helped keep him active and gave him back more than he gave. His thesis was that the “positiveness you get from service” is more than worth all the work.
He made more friends later in life, hocking summer sausage he made from some of his longhorns at flea markets and farmers markets in the area. He was thrilled to talk to me about my son on the farm and happy to send him some sausage.
The connections are many and myriad. He will be missed, but he will always be fondly remembered. It was a life well-lived.
This story was originally published March 20, 2021 at 9:00 AM.
