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Helen Lorraine Jolly was born in 1926 in Jefferson County, Alabama to Ethel Dagnan Jolly and Lewis Jackson Jolly. She was the 2nd child of four. The family lived in Warrior, Alabama where Helen attended school. She graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in home economics and education. Helen met and married Walter Lee Brooks in 1948 in her home town of Warrior before moving to Tennessee where she earned her Masters degree from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville after studying home economics, child development and family relations. Helen taught school for 13 years during which she introduced 'Domestic science' into her classes and was subsequently honored for this. Helen then began a career in community work where she supervised the 'Head Start' and 'Follow Through' programmes in Bradley County, Tennessee. She became director of the Community Human Services in Tennessee and helped pioneer assistance to families with children who were not covered under other State organizations. Helen developed a program to help unemployed families within her directorship of the Community Services. Not satisfied with these achievements, Helen went on to become one of the first female Assistant District Attorneys in Tennessee. During all of this she managed to divide her time between her work and her family raising 2 children and fostering others who were in need. She has helped refugees from Poland integrate into the community following Perestroyka and now retired, Helen works with her husband Lee within the methodist church community in Bradley county and the Habitat for Humanity programme. |
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