Beloved CT fast-food worker remembered for her ‘hair, her lollipops and dog biscuits’
NORWALK — For nearly 50 years residents of Darien and, later, Norwalk heard the greeting from the Duchess Family Restaurant drive-thru in the distinctive voice of Anne Shirley Alston.
Alston, a lifelong Norwalk resident, died on Dec. 27 at age 76. She worked at the Duchess on Main Street in Norwalk for 22 years and at the Darien location for decades before, Norwalk Duchess manager Mirian Smith said. To locals she was known as “Shirley from Duchess.”
“Shirley was more of an icon here,” Smith said. “Everyone knew Shirley by her hair, her lollipops and dog biscuits.”
At her station in the drive-thru window, Alston kept lollipops for children and treats for dogs in the cars that stopped by. She often wore a bright red wig and sported a hat with a hot dog on top to advertise Duchess’ promotional events, Smith said.
Outside of Duchess, Alston was a mother of two, a grandmother of nine and great-grandmother of seven, Alston’s granddaughter Chyanne Sandri, 21, said. Alston had two daughters Janice and Valerie, Sandri’s mother.
Sandri last saw Alston on Christmas Day, but said her mother Valerie found Alston unresponsive when she visited on Dec. 27. While the cause of death is unknown, a toxicology report is not being conducted due to Alston’s age and the existence of a preexisting heart condition, Sandri said.
There is no suspicion Alston’s death was COVID-19 related, she said.
Growing up in Norwalk, Sandri said she was close with Alston, who had small gifts for Sandri and her brother each time they visited.
“She used to play the claw machine on her break
at her job,” Sandri said. “Every time I went to her house, she would get Red Sox gear for my brother and silly bands for me.”
Before working at Duchess, Alston worked briefly in the Norwalk tax office, Sandri said.
“She was like a walking book,” Sandri said. “She watched ‘Jeopardy!’ every
night. She knew all the answers.”
While Sandri knew she had a level of local celebrity, she saw Alston only as her caring, headstrong grandmother.
“She was funny. She was very loving and stubborn. She doesn’t like her picture being taken,” Sandri added.
Alston also genuinely enjoyed her job at Duchess and cared for the customers, she said.
“She always knew the names and faces and families,” Sandri said. “She knew the pets of people coming through the drivethru line. She was very caring.”
One of those customers, Alex Morsanutto, 29, knew Alston well.
Morsanutto’s family went through the Duchess drive-thru often when he was a child and remembered one interaction with Alston that exemplified her care for others.
He recalled at age 13 going through a phase of dressing his salads only with olive oil. For a period, each time the family went to Duchess, Morsanutto would order a salad and inquire if the restaurant had olive oil, to which the answer was invariably no.
“We’d go there so often that one day, when I was going by to order a salad, Shirley whipped out a bottle of virgin olive oil she got for me,” Morsanutto said. “It was so cute. She was so thoughtful knowing I’d go in there so often.”
Alston was so wellknown in the area that one Norwalk resident, Melissa Boccanfuso, 30, dressed as Alston for Halloween, wearing a red wig with a hotdog hat and the trademark red shirt of Duchess employees. Boccanfuso dressed as Alston in 2014 and visited her at the restaurant in the costume.
“I was 24 at the time. I wrote on the note thank you for serving me past 24 years,” Boccanfuso said. “She served me my first fries at 2. She probably knows every single person in Norwalk.”
Alston will be buried beside her grandson Marc Anthony Marshall at Mountain Grove in Easton, Sandri said.