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RALEIGH (AP) - Mourners who visited the casket of former North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms on Monday remembered the conservative champion as the last politician of his kind.

Helms' closed casket lay in front of the pews of Hayes-Barton Baptist Church, where he worshipped for decades and served as a deacon. Though he often came to church late and quietly left to avoid disturbing the serene sanctuary, Helms grounded his conservative ideals and unbending beliefs in the congregation.

"The Bible teaches that your 'yes' means 'yes' and your 'no' means 'no,'" said Parker Gresham, 39, of Raleigh. "That's something he followed. You always knew where he stood."

The Republican, who served in the Senate from 1973 to 2003, was covered with a U.S. flag and flanked by two state Highway Patrol troopers. The front of the sanctuary was decorated in flowers sent by U.S. senators and a painting of Helms at work. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who took Helms' seat when he retired at the beginning of the decade, also sent flowers.

About two dozen people lined up before the doors opened Monday morning to pay final respects. The family planned to receive friends there from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The funeral was scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday at the church, followed by a private burial for family members.

Ashley Reid, 50, said he remembered Helms as a man who represented a different type of politics.

"I don't think we have any true statesman today - I think Jesse was one of the last statesman the Senate ever had," said Reid, whose father-in-law used to cut Helms' hair in Raleigh. "I didn't totally agree with everything Jesse said. He was controversial. He was polarizing. But I liked the way he stuck to his guns."

Gov. Mike Easley has ordered all North Carolina state flags to be flown at half-staff until sunset Tuesday. Visitors could sign a condolence book in the state Capitol through close of business Tuesday.

North Carolina voters first learned of Helms through his newspaper and television commentaries. He won election to the Senate in 1972 and rose to become a powerful committee chairman before deciding not to seek a sixth term in 2002.

He never lost a political race, but his margin of victory was never large, reflecting his image as a polarizing figure both at home and in Washington. In the Senate, he forced roll-call votes that required Democrats to take politically difficult votes on cultural issues, such as federal funding for art he deemed pornographic, school busing and flag-burning.

He ran racially tinged campaigns in his last two runs for Senate, defeating former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt, who is black, in 1990 and 1996.

In the first race, a Helms commercial showed a white fist crumpling up a job application, as a narrator said, "You needed that job, and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota. Is that really fair?"

As he aged, Helms was slowed by a variety of illnesses, including a bone disorder, prostate cancer and heart problems, and used a motorized scooter to navigate the Capitol as his career neared an end. In April 2006, his family said he had been moved into a convalescent center after being diagnosed with vascular dementia, in which repeated minor strokes damage the brain. He was 86 when he died Friday.

Helms was born in Monroe on Oct. 18, 1921. He attended Wingate College and Wake Forest College, but never graduated and went on to serve in the Navy during World War II.