A 70-year friendship started at one of Charlotte’s segregated drugstore lunch counters.
THE SMILE IS WHAT Betty McQuay-Tysinger noticed first. When she was just 16 years old and starting her first real job, at an Eckerd drugstore on the Square in Charlotte, Betty needed to see a kind face. That smile welcomed her.
It didn’t matter that the grin came from Lucille Stewart, a 23-year-old black woman. And it didn’t matter that in 1946, Betty, who is white, was hardly encouraged to befriend the woman who prepared food for lunch counter patrons at the store.
They became friends. And they stayed friends after Betty left Eckerd in 1949 to get married and eventually raise three children, while Lucille moved on to work at North Carolina National Bank, first as what she calls a maid and then in the cafeteria.
For years, they heard updates primarily from their go-between, Libby Helderman, who had been their boss at Eckerd. She remained friends with Lucille for the rest of her life, and became Betty’s aunt when she set up the young girl with her nephew.
Since Lucille retired from her job at Bank of America in the late 1980's, Lucille and Betty have talked on the phone more frequently, and have visited each other for momentous birthday celebrations, Thanksgivings, and quiet afternoons of conversation.
“I don’t think I ever saw her angry,” Betty says. “Even now, I haven’t seen her angry. She’s just a good person.”
That’s 70 years of friendship during which Betty has never seen Lucille angry.
Lucille is now 94. Betty is 86.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 2016-Ausgabe von Charlotte Magazine.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 2016-Ausgabe von Charlotte Magazine.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
‘This Is How We're Going to Make Your Child Better'
Pediatric neurosurgery is technically and emotionally complex—and traditionally dominated by men. As Novant’s first female pediatric neurosurgeon, Dr. Erin Kiehna Richardson has had to learn the intricacies of a demanding field and battle sexism along the way
The Dumbledore of CMC
A surgery resident wrote a series of children’s books and created a special kind of medical magic
LGBTQ HB2+5
Five years after the furor of House Bill 2, the LGBTQ community—in Charlotte, in North Carolina, and across much of the nation—fights attacks on new fronts
Oh, Snap!
New ‘selfie museum’ in Concord celebrates the 1990s
ALLISON LATOS
The WSOC anchor on her hard trek from one episode of loss and grief to another—and the meaning of resilience
GOOD HEALTH
For years, Charlotte has been one of the largest American cities that lacked a four-year medical school. The health care professionals who finally made it happen overcame a series of setbacks, false starts, and failures, and they plan to use their clean slate to create a new kind of community asset
Summer Partee
From woodwork to retail, the kindergarten teacher-turned-designer has learned how to do it herself
Uptown or Downtown?
Archives illuminate how long we’ve argued over the perennial question
NOW OPEN NOVEL ITALIAN
Paul Verica brings a simpler version of the city’s hottest food trend to NoDa
TOP DOCTORS 2021
The annual list you can't without
