Bay Area

Faces Around the Bay: Helena P. Hill

Helena P. Hill, 92, was born and raised on her grandfather’s farm in Plaquemine, Louisiana. “We had cows, chickens and horses. I even picked cotton.” She was the third-oldest child of Louis and Louella Brown, and one of 11 siblings. The closest school was eight miles away, so they home-schooled. Hill remembers her earliest “job” was assigned by her mother: “I was put in charge of the kitchen and stood on a chair to wash dishes and clean the counters.”

Published

3 years ago

March 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Helena P. Hill. Photo by Brian Anthony Butler.

Special to The Post

Helena P. Hill, 92, was born and raised on her grandfather’s farm in Plaquemine, Louisiana. “We had cows, chickens and horses. I even picked cotton.”

She was the third-oldest child of Louis and Louella Brown, and one of 11 siblings. The closest school was eight miles away, so they home-schooled. Hill remembers her earliest “job” was assigned by her mother: “I was put in charge of the kitchen and stood on a chair to wash dishes and clean the counters.”

She moved to California in 1950 and has been a resident and property owner in Berkeley and Oakland. “My first job in California was as a waitress at the California Hotel. I later went to the booths (set up by local employers) that were set up in Oakland and got a referral for a domestic position. They charged $10.”

She did domestic work for a few years, worked for the U.S. Post Office, and seven years at the Hunt Brothers Cannery in Hayward. She was employed by the U.S. government in San Francisco as a typist in the 1970s, and from 1978-92 worked for the American National Insurance Company until retirement.

Hill is a Legacy Lifetime member of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and has served as past president of its East Bay Area section. With NCNW, she coordinated voter registration campaigns and traveled to South Africa as a delegate to the South African Unification Conference.

In the political arena, she opened her home to campaign for Tom Bradley’s first historic run for the first Black Mayor of Los Angeles in the early 1970s and traveled there to campaign in his behalf. She worked tirelessly for Barack Obama’s campaign and was later named a member of Obama’s honorary Kitchen Cabinet. She assisted Linda Shepherd, the late AC Transit Board president, with her struggles with AC Transit in the early 1980s.

Hill is a board member of the Black Repertory Group and an avid supporter of the Four Seasons Arts, Inc. She continues to enjoy the Four Seasons door-to-door transportation to their concerts.

Her philanthropy includes contributions to the Democratic Party.

She has one daughter and two grandchildren. She lives in Oakland and her home church is Acts Full Gospel.

Hill paraphrases her favorite scripture: Corinthians calls us to be ambassadors, sent out to work as a citizen of God’s Kingdom, representing truth and light in a world of deceit and darkness.