Mrs. Helen B. Rainey, born to Nan and Zachariah Banner in Philadelphia, Pa. on May 15, 1912, was a wife (to the late Leslie L. Rainey Sr.), mother to Nancy, (deceased), Regina, and, Leslie Jr.; grandmother, great-grandmother, great-great-grandmother, Educator, community activist, servant to the people, and, a friend to hundreds.

It was around the year 1935, when Mrs. Rainey arrived in Virginia, after graduating from Westchester State teachers College in Pennsylvania, to begin teaching in Surrey County Virginia. A year or so later she and her husband Leslie L. Rainey Sr., relocated to Norfolk, Va., where they began their family.

In those early years in Norfolk, Va., unable to get a contract with the Norfolk City public Schools, Mrs. Rainey served as a lay teacher at the old St. Joseph’s Catholic School, on Brambleton Ave.

It was not until 1957 that Mrs. Rainey would attain the status as a contracted teacher for Norfolk Public Schools. In that year, she received her first full time assignment at the Old Ruffner Junior High School, from which she retired in 1970.

However, that retirement did not last long. In that same year, she rejoined the Norfolk Public Schools system, receiving a new assignment at the Azalea Junior high, where she remained until her final retirement in 1974.

On May 15, 2001, while celebrating her 89th birthday, Norfolk Mayor Paul D. Fraim proclaimed May 15, HELEN B. RAINEY DAY.

In his proclamation Mayor Fraim stated, “…Whereas, she is known for her belief in the power of civic involvement as both a responsibility of citizenship and an effective way to improve neighborhoods; and

Whereas, in pursuit of this belief she was responsible for the creation of the Brambleton Community League in 1956, and led it in a long campaign to improve conditions that were threatening its stability and quality of life, …”

One very significant example of Mrs. Rainey’s involvement in civic affairs was her concern for the plight of homeowners in the old Brambleton section of Norfolk. Reference is made to those homeowners who were being offered far less money for their properties, in lieu of a fair market price, during the early Norfolk State University expansion period. At the time she, among others, journeyed to Washington D.C. to lobby the authorities of the Department of Housing and Urban Development,(HUD) on the financial injustice to the residents being greatly short-changed for their property during that expansion period of Norfolk State.

As a direct result, of their trip to Washington, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, (HUD), dispatched a representative to Norfolk to investigate to unfair practice. Subsequently, the affected property owners began to get fair prices for their property. Moreover in the early 1970’s, a Norfolk city street was named, Rainey Dr., in her honor.

Our Father God truly blessed our mother, Helen Banner Rainey, thereby enabling her to properly use her gifts and talents in a way that was indeed, acceptable and pleasing to God and man. She will be missed tremendously.

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