Family keeps light shining for 'Miss Betsy'Lynne Jensen
As twilight fell on the city Aug. 28, lovers of New Orleans icon "Miss Betsy" gathered outside her Pancake House on Canal Street to remember the woman who fed their bodies and their souls.
"She was my waitress and my friend," Edwin Shorty said about Elizabeth "Betsy" McDaniel. She was 72 when she died after being brutally beaten and robbed on Memorial Day in her Marrero home. Her killer remains at large.
"I just hope that one day they catch him," Shorty said before the candlelight service. He sat inside the corner eatery at the table near the window, his table.
When sitting there for Sunday breakfast before heading to church, Miss Betsy would always say "Shorty, pray for me," he said. "Everything about her was special. She was always doing something for some one else. Never for her."
As the service entitled "A Night to Not Forget!" began, Miss Betsy's relatives, customers and friends gathered to share stories, pray and sing.
Streetcars rumbled by as amplifiers wafted Amasa Miller's keyboard music. Before the night was over, Charmaine Neville stood under the blue canvas "Betsy's" awning and sang a tribute to the woman she called "Mama."
"This is a spot in New Orleans that everybody knows," Jesuit Brother Larry Huck said. Miss Betsy created "a place that we came to find Christ at these tables . . . because Miss Betsy loved Christ."
Brandy Hills shared the story of how she became a member of Miss Betsy's extended family. When Hills said she wanted to be a cook, Miss Betsy offered Hills a week to prove herself. That week became a year "of working together with her," Hills said, recalling the day Miss Betsy got mad at her "for making the pancakes too big."
Laughter arose from the crowd. It was the typical cast of characters that gathers for meals at Betsy's. Lawyers and judges stood with cab drivers, firefighters and police officers. People of all ages and races shared tears and memories as candlelight flames were reflected in the restaurant window.
Employee Jeanette Michaelson was a customer before she started working at Betsy's. She told the crowd that she was sitting at the counter and thought "there's something in here I want." She found it, she said. "It was happiness."
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Photo is of the interior of The Pancake House
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