Helen Maxine Burke Porter Jackson was raised in Topeka, Kansas. After graduating from Topeka High School she enrolled at Kansas State Teacher’s College (now Emporia State University). There she became a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma and excelled at dramatics and forensics.
The Emporia (KS) Gazette, May 17, 1946
She won a scholarship to Stanford University to study drama and she earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Kansas.
One of her jobs involved raising the funds needed to build the Eisenhower Museum in Abilene, Kansas. She taught in the Topeka Public Schools until her retirement. She helped establish the student teaching program with collaboration between Washburn, Kansas, and Kansas State Universities.
The first president of the Pi Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma, a sorority for teachers, she often served on district curriculum committees. For four years, she sat on the Washburn University Board of Regents. She served on many local, national and international boards. A member of P.E.O. , she was president of Chapter DV/KS.
In 1982, she married Walter Porter and until he died in 2004, they enjoyed travelling the world. On July 15, 2010, Dr. Donald Jackson, M.D. became her husband. She died four years later, on August 11, 2014, at the age of 89.
