Helen Derr
Encyclopedia
Helen Elizabeth Clark Derr (December 17, 1918–June 21, 2011) was a nationally recognized journalist, religion writer, and editor during a career at the Alexandria Daily Town Talk
that spanned from 1955 to 1977. She later co-founded the adult day-care center Friendship House in Alexandria
, the largest city in Central Louisiana
and the seat of Rapides Parish
.
, a village in Merrick County
near Grand Island
in east central Nebraska
. She graduated from Rinard High School in Rinard
in Calhoun County
in western Iowa
. Thereafter, she graduated from Iowa State University
at Ames
.
Helen Clark married Harold J. Derr (September 7, 1917–February 7, 1992), later a forester
with the United States Forest Service
in Pineville
, Louisiana
. The couple had three children.
When their older son, Russell Edward "Russ" Derr (March 27, 1947–October 13, 2010), was born, the Derrs were living in Jackson
, Mississippi
. A landscape designer, Russell Derr died of lymphoma
at the age of sixty-three in Burbank
, California
. His widow, Tina Derr, resides in Altadena
in Los Angeles County. Harold and Helen had a daughter, Mary D. Sharkey of Ball
north of Alexandria in Rapides Parish, who is married to Richard Powell Sharkey, the managing editor of The Town Talk. Another son of Harold and Helen Derr, Allan Derr, and his wife, Betsy Derr, live in Villa Park
, Illinois
. Derr had seven grandchildren and a great-grandson. She had one sibling, a sister, Margaret Louise Dorr of Cedar Rapids
, Iowa. The sisters had similar married surnames, one with an "e" and the other with an "o".
by Martin Luther King, Jr.
In 1969, she covered former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
's visit to the First Baptist
Church of Minden
, Louisiana, where Johnson's maternal great-grandfather, George Washington Baines
, had been the founding pastor in 1848. In the spring of 1976, Derr interviewed former Governor Jimmy Carter
of Georgia
in his presidential campaign stop in Pineville. He kissed her on the cheek as the interview closed.
In 1967, Derr won the national award for "Excellence in Religion Reporting" from the Religious Public Relations Council. Only two newspapers in the country were recognized by the group for their religion coverage that year, The Town Talk and The New York Times
. In July 1977, Derr retired from The Town Talk at the age of fifty-eight. She then taught journalism at Baptist
-affiliated Louisiana College
in Pineville and wrote for the Roman Catholic publication, The Church Today.
in one hand and a newspaper in the other." During that ceremony, Jim Cole, the editor of the Baptist Message, praised Derr for helping to "break down the walls between denominations. Helen Derr has been a 'Johnny Unite-us' in Central Louisiana."
The retired Catholic priest August Thompson said that Derr was a positive force to spur area churches to recognize racial injustices and to promote civil rights
. "She was someone I really respected, and I felt she had all kind of empathies and sympathies. A true lady, she was so sensitive to the fact of what was going on and what needed to be done to change things," said Father Thompson.
Derr served for more than a decade on the board of directors of the local Family Counseling Agency. She was president and chairman of the group called Church Women United in Central Louisiana. She was the first female deacon
at First Presbyterian Church of Alexandria and served on the task force that organized the establishment of her subsequent congregation, the Woodland Presbyterian Church in Pineville
In 2002, in an interview for the twentieth anniversary of Friendship House, Derr said the center was "an idea before its time, really. Not many people understood it. We hoped it would be successful, but we really didn't know." Derr said that Maxine F. Watkins (1906–1997) initiated the idea of an adult day-care center in
Alexandria, before such enterprises became common nationwide. Julie Morris, the former executive director of Friendship House, said that Derr and Watkins "really were visionaries" who spurred life into the center, which is still functioning.
On December 22, 1996, Alexandria Mayor Ned Randolph
declared "Helen Derr Day" for her contributions to the community.
Derr had resided most of her life with her husband in the Paradise community in what is now Ball north of Pineville. Some years after his death she relocated to Regency House in Alexandria, where she died at the age of ninety-two. Services were held on June 25 at Woodland Presbyterian Church. She is interred beside her husband at Greenwood Memorial Park in Pineville.
The Town Talk (Alexandria)
The Town Talk, started as The Daily Town Talk in 1883 and later named the Alexandria Daily Town Talk, is the major newspaper of Central Louisiana. It is published by Gannett in Alexandria, the seat of Rapides Parish and the economic center of Central Louisiana.The daily newspaper has a circulation...
that spanned from 1955 to 1977. She later co-founded the adult day-care center Friendship House in Alexandria
Alexandria, Louisiana
Alexandria is a city in and the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes....
, the largest city in Central Louisiana
Central Louisiana
Central Louisiana , also known as the Crossroads region, is the part of Louisiana that includes the following parishes: Allen Parish, Beauregard Parish, Catahoula Parish, Concordia Parish, Grant Parish, La Salle Parish, Natchitoches Parish, Rapides Parish, Sabine Parish and Vernon Parish.The five...
and the seat of Rapides Parish
Rapides Parish, Louisiana
-Military Installations:*Camp Beauregard *Esler Airfield *England Air Force Base *Camp Claiborne *Camp Livingston -Demographics:...
.
Early years and family
Derr was born to Edward and Bessie Clark in ClarksClarks, Nebraska
Clarks is a village in Merrick County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 361 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Grand Island, Nebraska Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Clarks is located at ....
, a village in Merrick County
Merrick County, Nebraska
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 8,204 people, 3,209 households, and 2,307 families residing in the county. The population density was 17 people per square mile . There were 3,649 housing units at an average density of 8 per square mile...
near Grand Island
Grand Island, Nebraska
Grand Island is a city in and the county seat of Hall County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 48,520 at the 2010 census.Grand Island is home to the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center which is the sole agency responsible for training law enforcement officers throughout the state,...
in east central Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
. She graduated from Rinard High School in Rinard
Rinard, Iowa
Rinard is a city in Calhoun County, Iowa, United States. The population was 72 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Rinard's longitude and latitude coordinatesin decimal form are 42.339095, -94.488007...
in Calhoun County
Calhoun County, Iowa
-2010 census:The 2010 census recorded a population of 14,867 in the county, with a population density of . There were 5,108 housing units, of which 4,242 were occupied.-2000 census:...
in western Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
. Thereafter, she graduated from Iowa State University
Iowa State University
Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...
at Ames
Ames, Iowa
Ames is a city located in the central part of the U.S. state of Iowa in Story County, and approximately north of Des Moines. The U.S. Census Bureau designates that Ames, Iowa metropolitan statistical area as encompassing all of Story County, and which, when combined with the Boone, Iowa...
.
Helen Clark married Harold J. Derr (September 7, 1917–February 7, 1992), later a forester
Forester
250px|thumb|right|Foresters of [[Southern University of Chile|UACh]] in the [[Valdivian forest]]s of San Pablo de Tregua, ChileA forester is a person who practices forestry, the science, art, and profession of managing forests. Foresters engage in a broad range of activities including timber...
with the United States Forest Service
United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass...
in Pineville
Pineville, Louisiana
Pineville is a city in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is adjacent to the city of Alexandria, and is part of that city's Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 13,829 at the 2000 census....
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. The couple had three children.
When their older son, Russell Edward "Russ" Derr (March 27, 1947–October 13, 2010), was born, the Derrs were living in Jackson
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
. A landscape designer, Russell Derr died of lymphoma
Lymphoma
Lymphoma is a cancer in the lymphatic cells of the immune system. Typically, lymphomas present as a solid tumor of lymphoid cells. Treatment might involve chemotherapy and in some cases radiotherapy and/or bone marrow transplantation, and can be curable depending on the histology, type, and stage...
at the age of sixty-three in Burbank
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. His widow, Tina Derr, resides in Altadena
Altadena, California
Altadena is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Los Angeles County, California, United States, approximately from the downtown Los Angeles Civic Center, and directly north of the city of Pasadena, California...
in Los Angeles County. Harold and Helen had a daughter, Mary D. Sharkey of Ball
Ball, Louisiana
Ball is a town in Rapides Parish just north of Pineville, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the Alexandria, Louisiana Metropolitan Statistical Area...
north of Alexandria in Rapides Parish, who is married to Richard Powell Sharkey, the managing editor of The Town Talk. Another son of Harold and Helen Derr, Allan Derr, and his wife, Betsy Derr, live in Villa Park
Villa Park, Illinois
Villa Park is a suburb of Chicago in DuPage County, Illinois. The population was 22,075 at the 2000 census. A special census in 2003 set the population at 22,517...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. Derr had seven grandchildren and a great-grandson. She had one sibling, a sister, Margaret Louise Dorr of Cedar Rapids
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in Iowa and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, north of Iowa City and east of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city...
, Iowa. The sisters had similar married surnames, one with an "e" and the other with an "o".
Journalism career
Derr also reported on educational developments for The Town Talk, including school. desegregation issues in the latter 1960s. She covered an address given in 1966 at the Rapides Parish ColiseumRapides Parish Coliseum
The Rapides Parish Coliseum can seat about 6,500 people in the building. Additional space is in the smaller Exhibition Hall, also on the property...
by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
In 1969, she covered former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
's visit to the First Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
Church of Minden
Minden, Louisiana
Minden is a city in the American state of Louisiana. It serves as the parish seat of Webster Parish and is located twenty-eight miles east of Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish. The population, which has been stable since 1960, was 13,027 at the 2000 census...
, Louisiana, where Johnson's maternal great-grandfather, George Washington Baines
George Washington Baines
George Washington Baines, Sr. , a maternal great-grandfather of U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson , was a Baptist clergyman in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas who served briefly as natural science professor and President of Baylor University at its first location in Independence in Washington...
, had been the founding pastor in 1848. In the spring of 1976, Derr interviewed former Governor Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
of Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
in his presidential campaign stop in Pineville. He kissed her on the cheek as the interview closed.
In 1967, Derr won the national award for "Excellence in Religion Reporting" from the Religious Public Relations Council. Only two newspapers in the country were recognized by the group for their religion coverage that year, The Town Talk and The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. In July 1977, Derr retired from The Town Talk at the age of fifty-eight. She then taught journalism at Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
-affiliated Louisiana College
Louisiana College
Louisiana College is a private institution of higher education located in Pineville, Louisiana, affiliated with the Louisiana Baptist Convention, serving a student body of approximately 1,300 students. The college operates on a semester system, with two shorter summer terms...
in Pineville and wrote for the Roman Catholic publication, The Church Today.
Church and civic affairs
Derr herself was a Presbyterian. In 1972, she won the national Presbyterian Church award for religion reporting. She also earned awards from the national and state Federations of Press Women. In 1977, the Alexandria Ministerial Alliance honored her as "the Cenla [Central Louisiana] Prophet with the BibleBible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
in one hand and a newspaper in the other." During that ceremony, Jim Cole, the editor of the Baptist Message, praised Derr for helping to "break down the walls between denominations. Helen Derr has been a 'Johnny Unite-us' in Central Louisiana."
The retired Catholic priest August Thompson said that Derr was a positive force to spur area churches to recognize racial injustices and to promote civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
. "She was someone I really respected, and I felt she had all kind of empathies and sympathies. A true lady, she was so sensitive to the fact of what was going on and what needed to be done to change things," said Father Thompson.
Derr served for more than a decade on the board of directors of the local Family Counseling Agency. She was president and chairman of the group called Church Women United in Central Louisiana. She was the first female deacon
Deacon
Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...
at First Presbyterian Church of Alexandria and served on the task force that organized the establishment of her subsequent congregation, the Woodland Presbyterian Church in Pineville
Friendship House
As the co-founder of Friendship House in Alexandria in 1982, she served as the first president of the organization.In 2002, in an interview for the twentieth anniversary of Friendship House, Derr said the center was "an idea before its time, really. Not many people understood it. We hoped it would be successful, but we really didn't know." Derr said that Maxine F. Watkins (1906–1997) initiated the idea of an adult day-care center in
Alexandria, before such enterprises became common nationwide. Julie Morris, the former executive director of Friendship House, said that Derr and Watkins "really were visionaries" who spurred life into the center, which is still functioning.
On December 22, 1996, Alexandria Mayor Ned Randolph
Ned Randolph
Edward Gordon "Ned" Randolph, Jr. , is a veteran Democratic politician who served as the mayor of Alexandria in central Louisiana from 1986 to 2006. Randolph was also a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1972 to 1976 and the Louisiana State Senate from 1976 to 1984...
declared "Helen Derr Day" for her contributions to the community.
Derr had resided most of her life with her husband in the Paradise community in what is now Ball north of Pineville. Some years after his death she relocated to Regency House in Alexandria, where she died at the age of ninety-two. Services were held on June 25 at Woodland Presbyterian Church. She is interred beside her husband at Greenwood Memorial Park in Pineville.