SAD TOLL OF DEMENTIA ON BELOVED LATE RESTAURATEUR
The final years of Izola White highlight the toll dementia is taking on the African- American community. White, 96, died on Tuesday. Her namesake soul food restaurant was an institution on the South Side before it was forced to close in 2010.
Izola’s Restaurant opened in the ’ 50s in Chatham, where African- Americans were building a stronghold for the black middle class.
Things fell apart when White was diagnosed with dementia and was no longer able to run the business.
In 2012, DeWayne Mason, then a Chicago Police officer, tried to raise money to keep White from losing her home and moving to a nursing home, DNA info reported.
But too few people stepped up to donate the sums needed to rescue White, and the public guardian had to step in. It was heartbreaking. Unfortunately, what happened to White is becoming more commonplace since we are living longer.
Recent studies show that African- Americans are twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s disease or dementia than whites, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
Another study presented at the association’s conference in London found “harsh life experiences” appear to leave African- Americans vulnerable to dementia.
But the loved ones of a person showing signs of dementia wait too long to try to put together a plan of action for dealing with the disease.
My 90- year- old mother was diagnosed with dementia 10 years ago.
But by the time we realized she had a serious problem and sought out medical treatment, my mother was convinced we were trying to take control of her life.
It took several years and a bad fall for her to agree to move in with my sister.
Early signs of Alzheimer’s include memory lapses, confusion or disorientation, challenges with word formation when speaking and writing, and changes in personality and behavior, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
One day my mother broke down and cried because she couldn’t remember my twin sister’s name.
“That’s OK. I remember you,” Marie told her.
Although a legend, White was forgotten by the thousands of patrons who came through her doors.
Most of us didn’t even think about it. We just passed by the boarded- up restaurant and found somewhere else to eat.
But think about all the black business owners who have disappeared from 79th Street, 87th Street, and 71st Street. Where did they go? And there are still only a few black- owned eat- in restaurants on the South and West Sides.
Years ago, I used to go to Gladys just about every Sunday after church.
That historic restaurant opened in the 1940s on State Street and later moved to 45th and Indiana, where it was the favorite spot for visiting VIPs. Gladys Holcomb, the original owner, died in 2003. She had given up ownership in 1997 because of failing health.
Similar to what happened with Izola’s Restaurant, Gladys never regained its popularity under new owners, and the building was torn down in 2012.
Army & Lou’s is another popular restaurant that couldn’t survive. And Soul Queen, on Stony Island, was where three of my brothers found their first jobs. It’s now a day care center.
These business owners were pioneers, and they provided a vital service at a time when black consumers were not welcomed in downtown stores and restaurants.
Quiet as kept, judging by my recent emails, we still aren’t welcomed in those establishments.
It is true that black patronage helped Izola’s Restaurant stay in business for more than 50 years.
It is also true that this entrepreneur provided a place where black people could socialize around a home- cooked meal in their neighborhood.
But as the times changed, so did our commitment to support black businesses.
Mason shouldn’t have had to beg for help to make White’s last years her best years.
But without a plan of action, this scenario is likely to play out over and over again.
Everybody ate at Izola’s Restaurant — cops, politicians, judges, Mayor Harold Washington, Count Basie, Pulitzer prize- winning playwright August Wilson.
For over a century, Izola White’s delicious soul food — and the lively customer debates at her Chatham eatery — made it a South Side landmark.
“Everybody was privy to everybody else’s conversations and contributed back and forth, and Izola was like the referee,” said funeral director Spencer Leak Sr. “Not only was the food good, the politics was good.”
Ms. White, who had dementia, died Tuesday at Holy Cross Hospital, said DeWayne Mason, a retired Chicago police officer who served as her guardian. She was 96.
“She’s probably one of the first black restaurant owners in the city of Chicago, and female — that’s a lot back then” when she opened in 1957, Mason said.
In a 1988 interview, she told the Chicago Sun-Times she was born in Kenton, Tennessee, and came to Chicago in 1940. Before opening Izola’s Restaurant at 522 E. 79th St., she worked at a soda fountain at 61st and King Drive, as a waitress at the Vernon- Rhodes restaurant and at Vernola’s eatery on 61st Street.
Her biscuits were famous. So were her ham hocks and black- eyed peas. She always cooked the ham hocks and peas separately.
“Ham hocks are tough, so they need to cook longer,” she’d say. “I throw salt pork in the black- eyed peas for flavor.”
“I was crazy about the short ribs of beef and the pork chops; greens and sweet potatoes, mac and cheese — the best in the world,” Mason said.
One of her most popular breakfasts was brains- and- eggs.
“We first came to Chatham, and that was 1959, and Izola’s Restaurant was there,” Leak said. “At that time, 79th Street was really busy, one of those South Side streets where there was every kind of business you could think of.”
She hosted regular political fund- raisers at the restaurant and at her nearby home in West Chesterfield.
“I met Obama at one of her parties,” Mason said. “Her restaurant was symbolic of her heart and her caring.”
According to Mason, Ms. White sponsored a number of Little League baseball teams, and, he said, “She loved police.”
Many people got their first jobs at Izola’s.
“She hired people who couldn’t get hired anywhere else,” Mason said. “Maybe they had scars on their life, substance [ abuse]. She trained them to cook. She had such a big heart.”
Izola’s Restaurant closed in December 2010, Mason said. Subsequent fund- raisers to help her with bills and allow her to continue to live independently circulated on social media. Most recently, he said, she lived in a nursing home.
“She was heartbroken and depressed after her store closed,” Mason said. “That was her life. . . . The dementia set in, and she couldn’t go down there anymore and run it.”
Ms. White had been married but was divorced years ago, he said. She had a dog named Button that she loved. And she became a mother figure to many, telling the Sun- Times: “I talk to a lot of kids who come in here and try to get them straight. Just parents talking to them and hugging them and saying, ‘ I love you’ makes a difference a lot of times.”