Come in this House!: The Life of Granny Lucille

By Lucille Ellis McDade and Elizabeth Harper

The legacy you’ll leave then is the life you’re living now. Lucille Ellis McDade’s beautiful life story is testament to the heritage built through hospitality, intentionality, and the everyday living that make a house a home. What a treasure to preserve these stories – this life – for generations to come!
- Trudy Cathy White
Chick-fil-A Ambassador

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Dec 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9798385015320

Lucille Ellis McDade

Proud of it! Lucille is a country woman born and raised in the South. She would say, a country hick, but in reality, she is a pillar that holds family and community together. Lucille lived a country life. Her expertise is not found in fancy degrees or titles. It’s found in the simple act of opening the front door to say, “Come in this house!” Instantly, you are family. Lucille raised seven children, married a WWII veteran, and squeezed the neck of the countless who walked through her door. Lucille provides family, friends, and strangers alike the love and comfort of home. She shared her story in the hope you will do the same. Elizabeth G. Harper resides in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with her husband, Lew, a retired US Air Force Lt. Colonel, and children, Hannah and JB. Elizabeth worked with troubled and adjudicated kids and spent over twenty-five years in education. Elizabeth is the author of the young adult book I Wanted to Be a Pilot:The Making of a Tuskegee Airman, the biography of family friend and dyslexic Franklin J. Macon, the recipient of the Tuskegee Congressional Gold Medal and the Civil Air Patrol Congressional Gold Medal.

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Copyright © 2024 Lucille Ellis McDade/Elizabeth Harper.

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Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1533-7 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1534-4 (hc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1532-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023924293

WestBow Press rev. date: 12/22/2023

CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1 Aunt Vash and Childhood

Chapter 2 Dorothy Lucille’s Doin’s

Chapter 3 School Years and the Chicken

Chapter 4 The Flattop Woodstove and the Farm

Chapter 5 Nimitz and the Navy

Chapter 6 Kidder’s Restaurant Changed My Life

Chapter 7 The Early Years

Chapter 8 There Wasn’t an Angel in the Crowd

Chapter 9 Miss Mattie Mae and Fife

Chapter 10 Plastic Snakes and Broken Arms

Chapter 11 Train Whistles and Toot Wars

Photo Acknowledgments

Bibliography

About the Authors

To my family past, present, and future.

May you have God’s bounty and blessing as you go through life.

—Granny Lucille

To Granny Lucille

For endless hugs around the neck and Blessin’ It gatherings.

You taught all about family and legacy.

Gratitude beyond measure for always lettin’ us

Come in this house.

—Elizabeth

FOREWORD

If you could ask anyone who has spent significant time with Lucille McDade to create a list of his or her five most admired people, I dare say she would be high on that person’s list. She would be the first for most. She is unquestionably number one my list.

Let’s get this straight. From the start, I am not an unbiased observer. Lucille married my mom’s younger brother, Bert McDade. That makes her my aunt Lucille, whom I love dearly. She helped raise me, and any good qualities I have are from her and my mom.

You are indeed blessed if you can call her aunt, Granny, Mama, or friend. Since she has seven kids who have been quite prolific, there is a small army of grands, great-grands, and great- great-grands. Numerous are we who can call her aunt. After reading the story that follows, you may be able to call her a good friend you just haven’t met yet.

Glue may not be the most glamorous way to describe a true southern lady, but she is the glue that holds this network of family and friends together. She does it with grace and kindness, but mostly with love.

An example of the admiration she generates is by the people who married her children. They all acquired Lucille as their mother-in-law. Sometime this doesn’t work out so hot, but this group hit the jackpot. They admire, respect, and love Lucille over the top!

She has a gift given to few people. My maternal grandmother had it, and a limited number of others have it. When you are in conversation with Lucille, you feel that you are the focus of her world, and she is truly listening to every word you say.

Hospitality is part and parcel of Lucille’s lifestyle. There have been more reunions, holiday gatherings, just plain visits, and ball games at Lucille’s house than you can imagine. The ball games were true cow pasture baseball, and innumerable innings were played there. Her backyard is huge and contains a host of plants and gardens cultivated, tended, and loved by her. Lucille’s home is where numerous get-togethers are hosted with her at the heart of it all.

One of my favorite people was Ludlow Porch, a humorist, writer, and radio personality. A great statement he made was, Deliver me from the humorless people of the world. Good words to live by. When I am around Lucille and her crew, humor is right there or just around the corner.

She was in on one of the more memorable stunts involving her husband, my uncle Bert, and her kids. When she, Uncle Bert, and their children had an unsuspecting guest at a meal, a sign would be sent. Instantly, everyone stopped eating and stared intently at the guest. The victim wanted to disappear as the McDades burst out laughing. Then Lucille, in her magical way, made the guest feel like family.

Lucille has a wonderful sense of humor and the best laugh. Once I told her what happened on a visit to Ireland with my wife, Eve. We inquired about our heritage while visiting an Irish pub. Eve asked about her maiden name, Bailey. The bartender smiled and said the Baileys were fine people, They make the Irish cream, you know. Well, I inquired about my mother’s maiden name, McDade. The bartender put his head down and said, They’re up north, causing all the troubles.

Being an optimist, I thought I’d try again the next night in a pub sixty miles away. The exact reply came from the second bartender, so I quit asking about the McDades. This story was told to Lucille, and her reply was, To think I married into that mess.

Superpowers seem to be a big deal these days. Lucille has the superpower to love until someone gives her a reason not to. And then she loves them five times more.

Another power that she wields is an uncanny ability to know what you did. Just the specter of her knowing what you did has a conscience effect. If someone in the family does something mean, makes a bad choice, or tempted something illegal, his or her first thought is, What will Granny think?

Her life and lifestyle have created a direct family, extended family, and friends to be proud of for many reasons. For all these she should take credit, but she won’t. She is very humble. Many wonderful things have happened in her life, but all hasn’t been rosy. There have been some severely hard times. Paramount among those is the loss of her oldest son in a car accident and a daughter, her middle child, to ALS.

She handled these tragedies with grace and dignity supported by the family and friends she nurtured through the years. Lucille is a godly woman of great faith. Even the word respected lacks the power to describe what she means to her church and community.

The following pages tell of a life well lived. She has had some sorrow and pain, but mostly, she is a lady who loves and is loved by legions of people.

This is a love story, not in the classic romantic meaning, but still, it is a love story.

John (aka Johnny) Harris

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To John (aka Johnny) Harris—For being in on the secret, for serving this great nation, and for capturing Granny Lucille’s love story.

To Britt McDade—For living out Granny’s gift of hospitality and for opening doors to sharing Granny’s story.

To Jean McDade—For being a sounding board, an encourager, IT help, and my go-to aunt. Without you, this project would never be completed.

To Jessica Mesrobian—For new friendship and opening doors.

To Hannah—For keeping the secret, for popping in on our granny chats with really good interview questions, and for loving history.

To JB—For helping your mama with all things tech, researching, and being my right-hand man.

To Lew—For supporting every project, editing a lot, and for making me part of the McDade family. I love you!

INTRODUCTION

Twenty-six years ago, Granny Lucille said, Come in this house, and hugged my neck for the first time. I was engaged to her grandson Lewis Jr. In true Granny fashion, she hosted a dinner. I needed to meet the rest of the family. It wasn’t a shower with decorations. It was a gathering. It’s how you become part of the family.

As Johnny mentioned in the foreword, you just never know what mischievous welcome might be headed your way when you go to Granny’s. From Granny you get a hug, a blessing, and great food. From the rest of the family, you just might get a little friendly teasing to see if you can take it. That first day, my test came from Cousin Michael. At the ripe age of thirteen, Michael couldn’t wait to pull a fast one on me. He must have thought, Here’s an easy target.

Michael secretly prepared his little trick, a plain stick of butter on a plate, unwrapped, and a shaker of salt. He filled in his older cousins on the trick, so they circled the table to watch. Michael gave me this big spiel about how he learned in science class there is a chemical reaction when you shake salt on a stick of butter. It generates heat. Michael goes through the motions. He shook the salt and held his hand over the butter, remarking how much heat he felt. I can’t remember if it was Matt or Jason, but another cousin repeated and acted astonished.