When her widowed father, Daniel Gould Fowle, became Governor of North Carolina in 1889, she served as the state's First Lady.

Knight was born Helen Whitaker Fowle in Raleigh, North Carolina on June 14, 1869, to Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Gould Fowle, a Confederate officer and member of the North Carolina General Assembly, and his second wife, Mary Eagles Haywood.

[1] An article in The News & Observer covering the inauguration noted that, "Miss Helen Fowle, in white plush, silver brocade and diamonds, was the favorite of the ball and was indeed a poem of beauty, grace and loveliness.

"[1] Since the North Carolina Executive Mansion was still under construction when the Fowles assumed office, they continued to live in their family home on the future site of the Sir Walter Hotel.

[1][2] Her time as first lady was short, as her father died of heart failure at the executive mansion on April 7, 1891.