Miss Eunice and the Technicolor Dress

By Beth Yarbrough

Here’s a secret about older Southern women. We don’t much give a flying flip. And that is pure joy, by the way. If you somehow think that the character of Ouiser Boudreaux in Steel Magnolias was a concoction, an outsized fantasy created for mild shock value, or yet another misguided caricature of the Southern persona, think again. Shirley MacLaine’s fodder for her portrayal of Ouiser was low hanging fruit. All she had to do was park herself on a street corner anywhere across the South for fifteen minutes and one of us would happen along. We are as plentiful as deviled eggs around here.

Not that I am there yet. I don’t plan to get truly old for at least another couple of decades, and even then, maybe not. We will just have to see. But I am finding delight in the preview of the old lady I will become, and I like her already.

I have known many versions of her throughout my life, including the grand old dame who is the subject of this story, which I first posted a few years ago. Miss Eunice, I think, deserves another curtain call.

Miss Eunice was a pillar of my community when I was growing up. Well into her 80’s, she was full of life and full of surprises. She danced to no one’s tune other than the one in her own head.

One Wednesday night I encountered Miss Eunice as we were both headed into Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting. (For those of you not from around here, this is a staple of small-town Southern life, where there is a Baptist church on every street corner and sometimes another two or three thrown into the middle of the block.) The dress she was wearing was an extremely close cousin to the fabric print you see in the photo.

Even knowing her personality, this still seemed a courageous break from tradition for a woman in her 80’s, and I couldn’t help but tip my teenage hat to the old girl.

“Miss Eunice, I really like your dress”, I said, as we entered the sanctuary.

“Well thank you, darlin’.” And then she continued, as if commenting on the fact that grass is green or water is wet. “When I bought it, it was black and white, so I decided to color the flowers in myself with Magic Marker! I almost finished it in time for Prayer Meeting, too!”

With that, she turned around and continued down the aisle in front of me, revealing a large prominent section of the back skirt that had yet to receive any color at all.

God bless the Miss Eunice’s among us. I hope to be one of them one of these days:-)