THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 12, 1995 TAG: 9506100046
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 147 lines
THE YOUNG WOMAN looked exhausted. Maybe she'd had a lengthy doctor's visit, or trouble with her food-stamp application. Whatever the reason, she clutched her child and handbag with evident frustration and headed out the door of Norfolk's Berkley multi-purpose center.
But not so fast. At a table by the exit sat Lula Lewis. And ``Miss Lula,'' an ebullient 67-year-old, was running a voter-registration campaign.
``Excuse me, darlin','' Miss Lula Lewis asked. ``Are you a registered voter?''
``No.'' The woman paused. ``I don't know much about voting, ma'am.''
``Oh, yes, you do, precious! Let me talk to ya!'' Miss Lula said, coaxing the woman to the table.
``Who's going to take over when Miss Lula's gone?! You will! I know you know a lot about what's going on.''
Five minutes later, the formerly frustrated woman walked out of the center with a little smile on her face. For the first time, the 30-year-old was a registered voter, a participant in the electoral system. Perhaps never before had someone made her feel that her thoughts and views were so important.
If anyone has that knack, the knack for making people feel important, it's Miss Lula.
It's one of many traits that make Miss Lula, as many folks have come to call her, special. Whether she's reaching people through her monthly voter drives, passing out food at a shelter, visiting the sick at hospitals or spending her afternoons at Children's Harbor Day Care Center where she works and volunteers, Miss Lula has made altruism a career.
``I just like people,'' Miss Lula says.
``I don't ever meet a stranger, any kind of way. If you love people, you have to have that positiveness. You can't just say `I love you' and go on,'' she says, waving her hand as if shooing flies.
``You have to mean it.''
Miss Lula says love is simply a part of who she is. Something she developed by growing up in a family with 15 children, at 1410 W. 45 St. in the Lamberts Point.
``The whole neighborhood was like a close-knit family,'' Miss Lula says.
``You looked out for one another. We could go any place and didn't have to worry about anything happening to us. We played together, fought, but we never had guns. Didn't know what a gun was.''
Miss Lula recalls the days when she was known as ``jit'' for her jitterbugging and when she sang at First Baptist Church of Lamberts Point, where she's still a member. She talks about ``Mama,'' who worked as a domestic and cleaned extra bags of laundry in the evening to support the family. Her ``papa'' worked at the Lamberts Point coal piers and as a blacksmith.
Her father also became a skilled carpenter, building additions on the house for his growing family. The bedrooms he built held the many foster children the family took in over the years.
Miss Lula, according to her youngest sister, ``was a blessing then, too.''
``Always just a beautiful person. She let me run around with her even when I was small. We were sisters and friends,'' Dorothy Thompson says.
``We loved to dance, go to beaches together. Mama didn't like for us to play cards, but we'd always steal away and play `wish.' ''
Miss Lula graduated from Booker T. Washington High school in 1946 and studied physical education at Norfolk State University for two years before marrying in 1949. Her daughter, Beverly Gale, was born that year, and Miss Lula began what would become three decades of working - cleaning, sewing, sales, everything - in clothing boutiques. She loved the jobs.
``I got a chance to meet all sorts of people, and, you know, I love to meet people,'' Miss Lula says. ``Some people wouldn't let anyone wait on them but Miss Lula.''
Miss Lula divorced 10 years later and moved back home with her mother to help her and her sisters care for foster children. Miss Lula would have some low points in the years to come. A lot of death. Of 15 children, only she and Thompson remain. Miss Lula's second husband died in 1985.
But a cushion of memories seems to protect Miss Lula from the sadness.
In fact, the only time Miss Lula's smile slips during a recent interview is when she thinks of the way her Lamberts Point has declined over the years. The deterioration, she says, began when Old Dominion University expanded into the area and displaced residents during the '70s.
``I believe in changes, but it broke my heart to move,'' Miss Lula said, angrily.
``We fought for our places, and they took it all away. Everybody moved, and we're scattered about. We still see each other when we come back for church, but the area hasn't been the same since.''
Still, Miss Lula has remained engaged in the community, on the lookout for ways to help.
``She will go to a flea market and not need to get anything for herself, but will pick up something and ask herself, `Who could use this?,' '' says Maxine Scott, a lifelong friend.
``She would always help the young men in the neighborhood,'' she says. ``When a young man would (be jailed), she talked to him, kept in contact with him and followed up with him when he got out. Not many people would do that.''
Miss Lula still remains physically close to her family. She lives in a Norfolk apartment complex, her sister on the ninth floor, Miss Lula and her ``son'' Thomas on the fourth. Thomas, a 42-year-old with cerebral palsy, was one of her older sister's foster children. When her sister died 15 years ago, Miss Lula took Thomas in as her own.
After preparing a day's worth of meals for Thomas, Miss Lula often leaves home early in the morning and sets out to help the world.
That could mean setting up her card table anywhere she's allowed - recreation centers, local universities, hospitals - to register voters, a cause she's been dedicated to for the past 20 years.
``Young folks need to get out to the polls. When it comes to voting, only the older people turn out,'' Miss Lula says.
Or it could mean entertaining folks through her choral group, Voices of Norfolk, or through her church's choir.
And every afternoon at 3, Miss Lula settles at the day-care center where she knows the names of most of the children and parents who stream in and out of the doors.
``The only time we argue,'' says her daughter, Beverly Gale Greir, ``is when we fuss because she's stays so busy. She won't slow down, even when she isn't feeling well. She's always saying there's something to do, someone needs something.''
Miss Lula did slow down recently, if just for a couple of hours. Her rest came when a local woman's group, Women Allied Liaison Leaders of Strength, honored about 30 woman, Miss Lula among them, as ``movers and shakers'' in the community.
``People ask me all the time, why do I stay so busy? Why don't I just slow down? I can't. I don't have to retire just because I've gotten older,'' Miss Lula says, laughing.
``If I see something that needs to be taken care of, I try to take care of it. I might not be able to, but Miss Lula has got to try!'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photos by Motoya Nakamura
Lula Lewis, far left, says a prayer with her choir mates from First
Baptist Church of Lamberts Point.
Lewis' grandson, Ryan Wesley Greir, 14, kisses Lula as his mother
Beverly Gale looks on.
Adam Rosen, 3, says goodbye to volunteer Lula Lewis before he leaves
Children's Harbor Day Care Center in downtown Norfolk.
Lewis, 67, holds a photo of her mother and aunts. She grew up in a
close-knit family of 15 children.
Staff photos by MOTOYA NAKAMURA
Lula Lewis has worked for Children's Harbor for five years. On her
left side is Norfolk State student Sakinah Walker.
Lula Lewis, from left, with her granddaughter, Shauna Monique; her
daughter, Beverly Gale; and her grandson, Ryan Wesley.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB