I like to think of myself as an optimist.
But nearly two and a half years ago, when I interviewed 98-year-old Helen Killoren of Barnhart for a column about Flag Day, neither Helen nor I necessarily believed we’d be able to visit again in 2020, the next time she’d have the opportunity to cast a vote for president of the United States.
Helen, who drew my attention because of the ever-present flag attached to her mailbox, didn’t tell me who’d gotten her vote in 2016 (pssst, it was Donald Trump, she now acknowledges). But she said she’d voted in every presidential election since she came of age and would like to do so again.
But she couldn’t promise she’d make it.
“We’ll see,” she said, with a light laugh.
Helen turned 100 on May 22. She put her absentee ballot in the mail on Oct. 17.
She wasn’t as eager to do that as you might think, despite her rare status in this presidential election year.
Helen turned 100 the same year as the 19th Amendment, which in 1920 gave women nationally the right to vote. Statistically speaking, not too many others like Helen are casting a vote this fall.
But when I caught up with her a couple of weeks ago, she was having trouble filling out her ballot.
“I’m going to do it (vote), because it’s so important,” she said. “But I’m still up in the air. Every day I change my mind. I don’t like either one of them (Trump or Joe Biden).”
It was entirely different in 1944, when Helen enthusiastically cast her first presidential vote for Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
“He got us out of the Depression and the end of Prohibition,” she said. “He was a wonderful president. There’s been none like him since.”
Helen, who later enjoyed a career in real estate, recalls the travails of the Great Depression with enviable clarity. She got a government-paid job in 1938, making 38 cents an hour at the St. Louis Public Library, money that made a big difference for her family.
By 1943, she was a war wife, praying for the safety of her husband, Jack, who was serving as a first lieutenant in the Medical Administrative Corps, helping to care for and transport wounded soldiers from Europe during World War II.
Jack and Helen displayed the American flag throughout their marriage, and she kept up the tradition after he passed away in 1995.
Helen cites her voting history to prove her fierce independence: against Republican Eisenhower in his two terms, but for Nixon both times; for Democrat Adlai Stevenson, but against Kennedy and Obama. She voted for both Republican Bushes and tells a sweet story about George Herbert Walker Bush.
“My husband had a stroke and had a pension that should have been coming to him as a veteran. I couldn’t get anywhere with the Veterans Administration.
“I wrote to President Bush and within a week, the head of John Cochran (Veterans Hospital) called me on the telephone and said he had heard from the White House. My husband’s pension would commence immediately and be paid retroactive to when he applied.”
Helen won’t quite put the first Bush on the pedestal alongside FDR, but he ranks high.
Not so the two opponents on the ballot Nov. 3.
“There’s a lot that goes into this – my religion (she is Catholic), the way people treat other people,” she said. “I don’t approve of name-calling and I don’t approve of lying.
“Each side tells you that the things the other candidate says are not true.
“You have to figure out their character for yourself. Are they honest or dishonest, are they just putting on a show for the cameras?”
Helen doesn’t blame Trump for America’s struggle with the coronavirus, but she judges him for his lack of progress on health care and considers his policy regarding China wrongheaded. She likes his outspokenness but often decries his behavior.
She likes some things about Biden but, as a fellow Catholic, she abhors his position on abortion.
Given the age of both candidates, she knows a responsible voter must consider the records of both vice presidential candidates.
“It’s just very difficult this time,” Helen said.
Her politically divided three daughters – one on one side and two on the other – have weighed in, and Helen has listened, but she said she’d be making up her own mind.
And, although still conflicted, that’s what she did on Oct. 17.
I didn’t want to know Helen’s final decision before she signed, sealed and sent her ballot, and that’s good, because she didn’t tell me.
But I know how seriously she took it, and I take that as an inspiration for the rest of us as we join her in 2020 balloting.
She didn’t take her responsibility lightly, and neither should we.
My husband and I have been watching the two-part “American Experience” documentary on the suffragette movement, “The Vote,” and I’m in awe of the women who were beaten, imprisoned, force-fed when they went on hunger strikes, and disappointed again and again before finally achieving their goal.
One hundred years later, people like Helen Killoren do credit to their sacrifice.
What say we talk again in 2024, Helen?
If I’m still around by then, I’d love to.
