MS Word and columns

I am using MS Word 2013

I have a Word document with both Columns (usually some sort of header), and tables

I have a header type of data on page two, and I used Page Layout -> Columns to produce a single line with three columns.

Immediately after that I hit the ===<Enter> to create a line

It took me some time to understand that it was placing an empty line between the columnar data and the line I had created.  So it  looks something like this:

Col 1                 Col 2                Col 3

----------------------------------------------

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But if I simply create text, hit return and then enter ===<enter>, I will get a line with no empty line between the line of text I wrote and the line, in other words something like this:

Text
--------------------------------------

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So my question is:  How can I eliminate the line between the columnar data and the line.  When I try to delete the empty middle line of text, the === line is also deleted.

This appears to be some soft of breaking issue for the columnar data.  How can I eliminate the middle line (I have tried lowering its font, but I need to eliminate it all together.

Thanks