Celebrating “Mama Lee”
Hello, friends and Mama Lee fans!
Tonight we celebrate “Mama Lee” Everhart, my Mother. It was the island of KeyWest that gave her the nickname. A lot of the boat boys and girls that help ake our tropical island fun didn’t and don’t have a Mom down here. So, some years back they all adopted her as Mama Lee.
She was born September 20, 1943, in Bono, Arkansaw. She was one of Six brothers and sisters who spent their younger years growing up in a log cabin in that small town. My grandfather, Winfred Levi Cook, moved the family to Southern Illinois to opena general store. I was told my grandfather had a big heart. If people could not pay he would let them run credit.
Mom was chosen to go around each month to see if the people who could not pay perhaps had some money. She was the collection agent! In reality, I think the of all the kids she had perhaps the sunniest disposition which easily made her the right one for the job.
Mom and her siblings had a Christian upbringing. Most all of them settled there in Southern Illinois, except for one fiery daughter that made her way to a city of which she knew to be a little further north, Sweer home Chicago!
It was here she met a dapper Magician named Frank (I think you guys heard this story last week). Mom took Frank Sr. (Dad) back to meet the family. Grandpa Cook embraced him almost immediately and that’s all the rest of the family had to see.
From Chicago to Key West they had many wonderful adventures together until Dad passed away in 2004. Mom spent a few years with the family and then returned to the island. There she was loved by all as she enjoyed her last decade surrounded by so many that loved her.
The stories are a little longer, a lot funnier and tonight we’ll tell as many as we can in between tricks at Frank’s Magic Bar!
See you there!!
Magic Frank