In The Company of Southern Women
written by: Pamela Ebel
The July sun began to set as a cool breeze blew over the sunbathers sitting poolside. The Mississippi Gulf water was blindingly bright.
Kate Porter sat under a red umbrella, sipping a glass of champagne, and working on her daily journal. Halfway through a month-long sabbatical from teaching at the law school, her afternoon routine included reading and writing poolside. To Kate, it was the perfect way to end the day.
She stopped writing and raised her head to sip her drink. A strange caravan of women made their way down the condo path, led by a tall, stately woman wearing a turquoise blue bathing robe and a coral scarf wrapped around her silky white hair. She sauntered smoothly, balancing a cup in one hand and some sort of tray in the other. Behind her, looking like small shore birds, scurried two tiny women, both dressed in sand colored shorts and tops.
As Kate watched the caravan come closer, the thought occurred to her.
“That woman is coming for me.”
The entourage climbed the steps to the pool deck and advanced to Kate’s table.
“My dear, my name is Lila Dave, and I have been watching you from my condo window for some days now. You look like someone I need to know. Oh, and this is Big Mama and Sissy.”
“I’m Kate Porter. It’s nice to meet you.”
She smiled at the two diminutive women peeking around Lila’s back. Big Mama, barely five feet tall, smiled at Kate and then looked up at Lila.
“My middle daughter is the tallest of the three. She got her daddy’s height; God rest his soul.”
“Kate’s not interested in our family tree, Big Mama. But you do look like you could use a snack.”
With that, Lila placed the tray on the table and settled herself, Big Mama, and Sissy in deck chairs around it.
The rest of Kate’s holiday was either spent with the Dave women or attempting to avoid them. When packing her car to leave the condo at the end of the month, Lila and Big Mama appeared with a picnic basket lunch for her. The fact that Kate was traveling alone and would hit the New Orleans city limits in under an hour seemed lost on them.
Thus began a twenty-year friendship that, like with family, had its ups and downs. Mostly, though, Kate had enjoyed her time with Lila, and she had felt loved, like family loves.
Kate’s last visit to Lila’s farm in Mississippi came just a few weeks before her friend died of cancer. She marveled at Lila’s resilience in the face of her impending death.
They sat on the patio. Lila, in her great-grandmother’s chaise lounge, wore a black kimono with a red silk dragon running down the side of it and a bright red turban scarf where her hair had been.
She had stopped taking her pain medication, choosing instead to self-medicate with strong Rye on the Rocks cocktails. As Kate watched, Lila drank deeply from the glass and then leaned back and closed her eyes.
Thinking she was sleeping, Kate started to read. Suddenly, a deep, husky, Rye-fed voice startled her. Lila was looking at her with bright blue eyes and the devilish smile that always preceded some incredible story.
“Did I ever tell you about Memphis? No? Well, my dear, that was one hell of a year. It was right after VE Day and Bubs Durrell had returned home. We were supposed to get married. You know what they say about absence making the heart grow fonder? What they don’t tell you is whose heart you grow fonder of. It seems Bubs’ heart grew fonder for a USO girl.”
A deep laugh bubbled up in her throat, followed by a heavy cough. Lila took another sip of her drink and leaned back.
“Anyway, foot loose as they say, I decided I needed a change of scenery, so I asked Mr. Connors at the Bank and Trust, where I worked as head teller, to give me a recommendation to a bank in Memphis.”
Lila’s eyes sparkled again as she took Kate back to Memphis, 1945. The train ride, her used Balenciaga “Black Banker’s Suit,” matching veiled hat, Kid gloves, stacked black heels, and a pair of seamed, silk stockings she had been saving since the day the war had begun.
“I got off the train and went directly to the Memphis Mercantile Bank and met with Lockley Pierson, the president of the bank. He was impressed with my letter of recommendation and the phone call he had with Mr. Connors concerning my ability to bring in new customer accounts.”
She smiled as she remembered the conversation and took another sip of her cocktail.
“He gave me the job on the spot, and then we went to lunch at the Peabody Hotel. I had one Rye/Rocks for celebration purposes only, and we had a wonderful meal.
But I was shaken when those damn Mallard ducks came sashaying their feathered asses right by our table on the way to the fountain. When you live on a farm, the last thing you want is duck dust in your food. But everyone else thought it was great. Did you know some form for those five Mallards have been walking their asses into that hotel since 1933?”
Another sip of Rye and another bit of rest, and then Lila asked Kate to push the chaise lounge back upright.
“I rode the train home, packed up, and was back at the bank in Memphis the next week, and did I have a time. I did well with the customers. All the boys coming back from the war were as thick as cotton balls. But about four months into my stay, Mr. Pierson called me into his office. He said he was disappointed in the number of new customer accounts I had attracted.
I told him I would get right on it, and I started that Sunday by visiting four Baptist churches within walking distance of my apartment. See, that’s how I got the new accounts at home. Baptists stick together, and they were thick as fleas on a hound dog at home. I went to so many Wednesday evening prayer meetings I was drippin’ suga’. But it just wasn’t good enough for Mr. Pierson. After eight months, I packed up and headed back to Mississippi, and decided on Jackson next. I got another bank job and was back in business as the accounts started rolling in again.”
Lila drained her glass and drifted off to sleep, leaving Kate to ponder the story she had heard. An hour later, Lila was awake again.
“You know, Lila, I have been thinking about your story, and I have to tell you something has been bothering me.”
“What’s that darlin’ girl?”
“I just don’t understand why you didn’t have any luck with new accounts in Memphis. I mean, what was wrong with the Baptists there?”
Lila looked at her like she had just dropped off the cabbage truck.
“Really, Kate, you haven’t learned anything in the twenty years we’ve been together. There wasn’t anything wrong with the Baptists in Memphis. But everyone knows that Catholics rule in Memphis! Now be a dear and pour me another Rye/Rocks.”
- The Thrill is Gone? - November 1, 2025
- In The Company of Southern Women - July 23, 2025
