I wrote this article which appeared in the Salisbury Post on March 27, 2011. The article did have a couple of pictures included. Mrs. Banks died April 12, 2011.
Dale
[Here's a
link to the article in the Salisbury Post archives. Unfortunately, the article in the archives doesn't include the photos.]
A Unique Mother-in-Law
My first meeting with my future mother-in-law was less than spectacular. She did not impress me and I’m sure I did not impress her.
Margaret Banks and I started dating in August of 1969, her first year teaching at Knox Jr. High and my fourth. We enjoyed each other’s company and found that we had similar interests and beliefs. By October she had met my parents and now it was time to meet hers.
Margaret had told me that she grew up in an old house built in 1831 and that it had historical significance. I must not have been paying good attention, perhaps thinking about who should be starting in the defensive backfield for the Knox Trojans. Or maybe I was thinking about my next week’s lesson plans for my civics and world geography classes.
Traveling down to Huntersville in my ’66 GTO, I felt a bit uneasy at the prospect of meeting Margaret’s parents. What would I say? How to make it interesting? Would they approve of me? All of this apprehension went away immediately when I entered their home called “Cedar Grove” and saw them both dressed in short shorts and paint spattered shirts on top of tall ladders in their living room. They were in the process of painting this room with thirteen feet high ceilings and were not about to be interrupted to come down to greet me. Our first conversation was about what I could do to help them out by handing them tools they needed to paint. After being exasperated by their nonchalance I asked them why they were painting this room. Mrs. Banks replied, “We’re getting it ready for a wedding reception.” Little did I know that it would be mine.
Margaret Belle Pierce was born in Coatsville, Pennsylvania, on August 1, 1918. She was the oldest of six children, four girls and two boys. Ironically, Belle as she became known is the lone survivor of the Pierce family. A high school graduate, Belle never went to college because her family was too poor and college for women in those days was a rarity. She did travel extensively however and managed to survive her teenage years and early 20s as a waitress in several different states.
In 1943 she met a young serviceman on leave in Wilmington, Delaware. This young man was Richard Torrance Banks and they were married October 11, 1943 just before Dick, as he was called, had to ship out overseas. After World War II was over, Dick left the service and took his new bride to live in North Carolina which was his home.
Belle and Dick took up residence at Morris Field in Charlotte and had their first child, Margaret Donaldson in 1947. In 1949 they moved to what was then a rural part of Mecklenburg County near Huntersville. Dick had inherited the run-down old plantation home which was built in 1831 by his mother’s ancestor James Torrance. Although consisting of two floors of four rooms which reached a height of thirteen feet, the house was badly in need of repair because tenants had occupied it for a number of years and had not kept it in good repair. Belle and Dick would devote a lifetime to working and preserving this old house which had neither electricity nor a bathroom when they moved in. Today it is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Dick would work for The Charlotte Observer for forty years beginning on the state desk and ending up as the drama and music critic. A son, Torrance, was born in 1953 but Belle had neither car nor transportation in those days where their home on a dirt road was far from a neighbor. To announce the impending birth of her son, Belle tooted on the trombone belonging to her husband who was working in the field. Torrance would later become a Morehead Scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill was would her grandson, Robert Basinger.
Newspapermen did not make much money in those days and after getting her driver’s license and a car, Belle worked at several jobs including writing for The Mecklenburg Gazette. Never one to back down from a controversial issue, she was as outspoken about Davidson basketball as she was about school integration. Belle was so outraged about the condition of Mecklenburg County’s parks that she was placed on the Parks and Recreation Committee. Belle gained her love for basketball while working for the Gazette and took her family to see all the games in the Southern Conference Tournament for years. She said she had to be there in case Lefty Drisell, the Davidson coach, needed her advice.
Not only was Belle an avid basketball fan of the Davidson Wildcats and later the Carolina Tar Heels, but she became a great fan of the Carolina Panthers pro football team when they came to Charlotte. Every Sunday afternoon, she was glued to the television to see her beloved Panthers and if you tried to call her she would simply refuse to answer the phone.
In the fall of 2004 when Belle was 86 years old, I took a chance and wrote Jerry Richardson, the owner of the Panthers. I told him what a great fan Belle was and how she had never seen the Panthers play in person. Thinking nothing would come of it, I was greatly surprised when I received a letter from Mr. Richardson a couple of weeks later. Not only did he include two of his personal game tickets but the tickets were for a Luxury Suite of the 400 Club Level along with a parking pass near the stadium. Although the Panthers would lose to the Michael Vick led Atlanta Falcons, we both enjoyed the endless supply of food on the buffet line along with any drink that you might want. Belle will not hear of anyone criticizing Jerry Richardson and neither will I because of his kindness to us.
Dick Banks died in June of 1999. He and Belle had been married nearly 57 years. Although missing her husband, Belle wanted to enjoy life as much as possible. She continued playing Mrs. Santa Claus and telling stories for children as she had been doing for several years. In addition she began writing a new column, this time for The Lake Norman Times.
An avid reader, Belle had been giving book reviews at the Davidson Town Hall for a number of years. After caring for her husband during his illness, she resumed her reviews which were well received by her “groupies” in Davison. Not only did she review four books quarterly, she included raunchy jokes which she was not above telling. This made her even more endearing to her crowds which averaged over fifty people. She later came many times to the Rowan Public Library to give the same reviews and had her own following here in Rowan County.
Now 92 years old and still living in the same historic house that she and Dick moved to in 1949, Belle Banks has declined in health, both physically and mentally. She probably would not be able to tell you what she had for breakfast but just name any Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire movie and she’ll tell you the plot. She may not be able to concentrate enough to read any longer but just ask her about her favorite actor, Cary Grant, and she will give his complete biography. Just ask her about a young Elvis Presley and she will tell you that her husband turned down two interviews with him because he thought he had no talent. If you care to listen she will tell you of her experiences as a waitress in New York City, California, and Florida even though you have heard those stories many times over. And yes, do not call while the Panthers are playing. She will simply not answer the phone.
Posted by Dale
