But, all that secrecy was over by the time Helen Jackson died back in December,
The town of Marshfield, Missouri made her the grand marshal for the Fourth of July parade in 2018. She was riding in a Chevrolet and told the driver, "Slow down, these people want to see me."
A stone slab with her name on it was placed on the town's Missouri Walk of Fame near the town square. The school superintendent in Niangua gave Jackson, who never completed her education -- an honorary high school diploma for the Class of 1937.Her pastor set up a Facebook page "Helen Jackson, Last Civil War Widow."
She received fan mail from all over the world. A member of the Sons of Union veterans of the Civil War sent her a card each Christmas.
In 2019, Jackson sat down with a local historian for a lengthy oral history. At the time she related: "I didn't want them all to think that I was a young woman who had married an old man to take advantage of him.... Mr. Bolin really cared for me. He wanted me to have a future and he was so kind."
--Old Secesh
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