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Title
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"Why I Retired in Cornelius," circa 2007.
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Description
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This local news article details some of the financial struggles of retired life faced by Lula Bell Houston in her later years.
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Date
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Circa 2007.
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Text
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If it weren't for the Red Cross Lula Bell Houston would be in a real fix. Red Cross volunteers take her to doctor visits, sometimes twice in one day; one appointment in Mooresville, one in Cornelius. "The sweetest thing to me has been the Red Cross," she says.
A daughter who has her own family and challenges, drives her to the grocery store.
Houston is 84, and nearly blind. A widow for two decades, she has some of the financial troubles that come with a meager pension and a heart that's a little bit too big.
She signed a mortgage on a house in Smithville to help a family member get back on his feet. He has got maybe one foot on the ground, she says. Houston has to pinch pennies to make her house payment.
"It's a mess," she says, shaking her head. "I used to be able to read my Bible, but the cataracts..." she also took regular walks, but lately she's been staying closer to home, "I don't have that much, just Social Security and retirement from Davidson. I can't hardly make it."
It wasn't always this way, She was the toast of Davidson for a little while in 2004 when Davidson College named the campus laundry after her. It's the only building on campus named for a black person.
For her years of service to Davidson College, and for her "warmth, love, and joy of living," she was also honored with Davidson's 2004 Omnicron Delta Kappa Staff Award.
She had worked in the laundry for 57 years. She became a fixture on the elite campus, beloved for her warmth and grandmotherly hugs. In 2004, she retired for good, having a job in the Davidson campus laundry when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in the White House.
It's easy to be forgotten. Church members are helpful, the lifelong Cornelius resident says, but everyone has their own issues. Houston is not one to speak up anyway. She's always been the caregiver.
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Language
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English.
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Source
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Lula Bell Houston Staff Folder, Davidson Archives and Special Collections.
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Subject
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Lula Bell Houston retirement.
