CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : Buck Helm License Plate to Be Shown

The automobile license plate of Bay Area earthquake victim Buck Helm will be on public display soon, and his former wife says she hopes it will serve as a symbol to “give others strength against all odds to hold on.” Helm, 58, a longshoreman from Weaverville, was found alive after being trapped in his car for 90 hours amid the rubble of the section of Interstate 880 in Oakland that collapsed in the Oct. 17 temblor. He died on Nov. 18 in an Oakland hospital. Lorene Helm, the victim’s former wife, announced that the family was donating the California license plate to Ripley’s Believe It Or Not for display at the organization’s museum at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. “We hope that Buck’s story of survival in a time of desperation will be told over and over again,” Lorene Helm said.