Farmer Helton

Farmer Helton was born just a few months after the work began at Red Bird Mission. He might have lost his life were it not for the medical workers there, and he never would have had the fruitful life he did were it not for Red Bird Mission School.
Mr. Helton was born and raised in a home on Stoney Fork. “Before the doctors came to Red Bird, many children, especially babies, died,” he recalls. He, himself, got a form of rheumatic fever and was carried in a sheet about eight miles over a mountain to the hospital at Red Bird. “I stayed at the hospital for a month, and would have died were it not for the care given by Nurse Lydia Rice and others.”
School was always hit-and-miss for children growing up in the mountains. Farmer Helton’s elementary school was 3 miles away from home. It was a one room school with up to 40 students. He later quit this school and passed the 8th grade at Red Bird, thanks to Miss Kearn. He stayed in the dormitory and went to high school. “There was no other high school for me to attend,” he says.
Rev. A.E. Lehman, then Red Bird’s Superintendent, baptized Farmer – also known as “Peaches Helton” - at the junction of Red Bird River and Cow Fork. “I was the only one baptized that day and Rev. Lehman tripped and we both were drenched,” he quips.
In 1942, after the first semester of his senior year, Mr. Helton enlisted in the U.S. Navy. In the service, he received courses in mathematics and science at Herzl Junior College. He sent the records to Red Bird School and was able to graduate in 1943, with the rest of his class. After the war, Farmer entered the University of Kentucky. “I took every extra course I could, including correspondence courses.” He completed college and law school all in four years.
In 1951 he opened his law office in Pineville, Kentucky. He ran for and was elected to the Commonwealth State House of Representatives. “That was the only time I was ever in debt,” he says, for the pay was small. He helped draft one important piece of legislation, the Helton/Golden bill, which is still on the books. Mr. Helton was elected to an unexpired term as Commonwealth Attorney. He finished that term and five more, twenty- two years total. In 1976, Circuit Judge W.R. Knuckles (also a graduate of Red Bird School) retired. Judge Helton was elected to succeed him and served three 8-year terms. He has since retired and still remains active in the community.
“I urge all Red Bird graduates and anyone else who can help to contribute to keep the important work that Red Bird Mission is doing for poor people in the area,” says Judge Helton.