Women's History Month Program March 24

Ashland Community and Technical College will present Emilie Todd Helm: Rebel in the White House on Monday, March 24, at 12 noon, in the College Drive Campus Teleconference Room. This Womans History Month program is a behind-the-scenes look at the Lincolns, the White House and the Civil War.

Lexington, KY native Emilie Helm was Abraham Lincolns sister-in-law, a Southern loyalist and wife of Confederate General Benjamin Hardin Helm. Her husband, son of two-time Kentucky governor John Helm, was a lawyer in Elizabethtown when Lincoln offered him a position in the Union Army. Helm refused and joined the Confederate Army.

Benjamin Helm rose to the rank of Brigadier General in command of the First Kentucky Brigade. After his death at Chickamauga in 1963, Emilie sought refuge in the White House before returning to Elizabethtown, where she was postmistress under three different presidents.

This free Kentucky Chautauqua presentation from the Kentucky Humanities Council is sponsored by ACTCs Diversity Committee. Presenter Betsy Smith is a Cynthiana, KY native and co-director of the KY Educational Speech and Drama Association.