Isabel Lackey Moser

She was born August 30, 1915 and died Nov 25 1989. She was at the Shelby Convalescent (?) nursing home in Shelby, where she had been since 1987. I think that she bled to death from a perforated stomach (ulcer?). She had been given medicine for something else (arthritis?) which prevented blood clotting and then was kept on the medicine when it was no longer needed. Also a feeding tube had been left in too long. Both Brenda and I were with her when she died. She died the same way Brenda would die 20 years later, taking fewer and fewer breaths until finally she didn’t breath any more. It was late in the afternoon, about dusk (which is when Brenda died). Earlier that day she told Brenda that she loved her.

This is what I know of her family tree:


Here are the bits and pieces I know of her family lore…

WD Lackey Sr. was Cleveland County sheriff from 1914 to 1919, moving from Fallston to Shelby to take the job. At some point he was a county commissioner and the mayor of Shelby. He might have been the one who was in the Klu Klux Klan or it might have his son, Jesse. (Brenda said she found a costume when she was living with her grandmother Matilida.) Of course it could have been both of them.

Harriet Hessintine was a source of names. Isabel was almost named Hessintine but somebody (her mother or father) had the birth certificate changed. As Brenda told the story I had an image of somebody actually rushing down the street. Brenda’s first name (which she hated even more than the name “Brenda”) was Harriet. (I think “Brenda” came from the actress Brenda Marshall.)

Jesse Lawrence Lackey (who might have been a Klansman) was a car dealer. At one time (before or after he died) the dealership included Cadillac, Pontiac, Buick, and GM trucks. In the early 60’s they even had the franchise for MG’s and Austin Healey’s. His sons WD and Evans ran the business after he died. Isabel had an interest but, according to legend was cheated out of her share. Brenda said that the two brothers were in the habit of forging Isabel’s signature on legal papers.

Isabel was a sucker for smooth talking men. She was especially vulnerable after Curtis died. I think her brothers managed to get a chunk of Curtis’ veteran’s benefit. However having said that I should note the WD and Evans were kind to Brenda and helped her with her parents. WD was the one Brenda would call if her father ended up in jail or got stuck somewhere drunk. (Brenda told the story about being called to find them in the 56 Buick - Speedo - stuck in the middle of a muddy red clay field.) Perhaps the brothers felt that they were owed something for putting up with a bothersome sister and drunken brother-in-law. And of course in the car culture from which they came, cheating and being a hard-ass were just part of the game.

The only one of the Lackey ancestors that Brenda remembered was her Grandmother Matilda. Brenda lived with her for the last year or two of her grandmother’s life. I’ll write more about that in Brenda’s stories. All I’ll note here is that I was never quite sure why Brenda was there - although I suspected that her parents just wanted her out of the house. However, Brenda seems to have regarded those few years as the best time of her life. I think that when she (Brenda) moved back home in 1950 it was the beginning of The Fall (which was completed a few years later when Moser Furniture Company went bankrupt).

Either Matilda or Harriet Hessintine (the latter I think) had a difficult childhood, losing a mother early and having to look after a number of siblings. I believe that Matilda kept lodgers in the big house on Warren Street - evidently even after JL got rich. Brenda remembers a travelling sales lady who handled Luziers cosmetics. The woman gave Brenda facials and little sample bottles of cosmetics (Brenda always liked perfume bottles). Brenda also told stories about her grandmother making fancy pastries for the town’s rich people.

Matilda note (2/8/10) - Looking at this picture I remembered Brenda telling me that once Matilda locked herself in a bathroom and threatened to shoot herself. This was because of an affair by Jesse Lawrence. I think Brenda told me the story in response to my comment that her grandmother - based on pictures I had seen and on what Brenda had told me about living in her house, was very stable.



These are the bits and pieces that Brenda told me about Isabel’s early life…

Isabel seems to have been emotionally fragile and spoiled, especially by her father. (Did her brothers resent her or love her?)

The family, although living in town (Shelby, in the big house on Warren Street) kept a cow for milk. Isabel would feed the cow jelly biscuits, perhaps visiting the cow when things went badly in the house.

During her last years of high school, Isabel was sent off to St Genevieve of the Pines a Catholic school for young ladies in Ashville, NC. It’s my impression that a boy might have been involved. (At least one other girl in the extended family - Larue Lackey - went off the deep end for a man.). Isabel transferred from St Genevieve to Fassifern - a finishing school in Hendersonville, NC. I never heard Isabel talk much about it - but she didn’t talk much to me anyway (never addressing me directly by name). I know that by the time I came on the scene she wasn’t keeping up with anybody from that time. However her annual is signed by a number of girls. Brenda treasured the Fassifern class ring but I think it was lost.

At one point, Isabel had a driver’s license, but sometime in her youth - before she was 20, ran off the road and never drove again. However, as soon as Brenda became 16 she bought a second car for the family which Brenda used to haul her mother and run errands. I recall that the Isabel was the calmest passenger I ever encountered. Nothing bothered her - even the time I drove our Buick station wagon across the rickety bridge. (Brenda, Yancie, Isabel, an I were coming back from Saturday night dinner just across the SC line in Gaffney. I took a scenic side road and ended up crossing a rushing creek over a bridge that literally seemed about to fall in. Once on the bridge and committed I was horrified but Isabel laughed and seemed to think it was a grand adventure.)

According to legend she first saw Curtis when they were all in Cohen’s department store in Shelby - she maybe with her mother and he by himself. She was smitten by the dark, dangerous looking person and was told he was that “Moser boy”.

Although I’ll write about this in Brenda’s stories, I think Isabel visited Curtis twice after he was drafted in the Army late in WWII. The last visit was the train trip to Ft Polk Louisiana. She was accompanied by Brenda then. However, I think there was an earlier trip taken by Isabel and another young woman from Shelby whose husband was also in the service. They drove down (to Ft Polk?) in the woman’s car, having borrowed gas ration cards from a lot of people. I was always impressed by the courage it must have required for her to take that trip.

Here are some post-Curtis stories, again, bits and pieces (mostly my association with her - I'll write about Brenda's association in her stories)…

When she was younger, before I knew her Isabel was thin and very pretty - if that picture at the first of this is any guide you could say that she was smoldering - in the current vernacular, hot. By the time I came on the scene in 1961 she was plump - still pretty I guess - but as a superficial 21 year old I would have had trouble seeing the still smoldering charm of a somewhat overweight 46-year old woman. (Also in my own defense from the beginning I detected something wrong with her.)

I was always deeply suspicious of Isabel - at least until the last year or so. She pretended to be one thing and was I thought something else. Her friendliness - until the end - always seemed feigned.

After Curtis died in 1963 we lived in her house on Blanton St until sometime in the mid-1980s when she moved into an apartment. There was never any question. Brenda was going to take care of her mother and if I wanted to live with her (Brenda) I would come too. It was like a door slamming shut. Brenda felt that her mother would not survive without her. I felt that Brenda would not survive without me.

Throughout the 60's and early 70's I hated Isabel for her drunkenness and dependency - for the hold she had on Brenda and for what I perceived as her deeply devious nature. She brought drunk men into the house. I threatened to kill one with my good carpenter's hammer and I hit another one in the face, splattering his blood on the kitchen floor. A few times I yelled at her. Once I grabbed her behind the neck to forcibly move her from one room to another. I probably wanted to kill her.

Some time in the early 70's Isabel began to gradually straighten herself out. By the time Yancie came along in 1976 she had stopped drinking altogether. She finally moved a little past the vile freak show that had been the Curtis/Isabel partnership. Isabel and I still had an uneasy truce, never speaking to each other by name.

Sometime in the late 70's Brenda and I bought the Blanton St house from Isabel and she moved into an apartment where a friend lived. I always thought it was brave thing for Isabel to do. And of course I was happy to have her out of our house.

Funny asides...

There was an earthquake in Shelby - maybe in the early 70's. It happened late at night and woke us up with rattling dishes. Isabel went running across the street to cousin Reid's house, leaving Brenda and I to our own devices.

Another time something happened to the furnace and the house filled up with smoke. The cat Angel woke us up. Again, Isabel ran across the street to Reid's house

After Yancie came on the scene Isabel was a good grandmother - not exactly hands-on (I always wondered how she managed to look after Brenda) but devoted. She was Grandma Bell. Yancie loved her and has fond memories of spending afternoons at Grandma Bell's apartment, lying in bed, watching soap operas and eating junk food that I think Isabel asked Yancie not to talk about.

For a while Isabel actually had a couple of jobs and was president of the local Business and Professional Woman's association. She got into the politics and drama - maybe even getting Brenda to come to a few meetings.

Then a number of acquaintances died, including her friend and neighbor at the apartment. Isabel started to come a little unglued. She wasn't drinking again, but she became afraid and anxious. We bought a larger house with a light airy basement apartment so she could move in with us.

It didn't work out.

It was my understanding that Isabel would stay downstairs and we would stay upstairs. I said something one night when I came home and found her upstairs about to have supper with us. I immediately regretted it because I could see that she was genuinely hurt. I think she continued to come upstairs to eat with us but she started to become more and more irrational. It wasn't exactly my fault but what I said didn't help.

The climax came when Brenda went to work one morning and left Isabel sitting on the commode. Isabel said she couldn't get up without help. Brenda didn't believe her, thought it was an act, and yelled. Later that morning, feeling guilty Brenda came back home accompanied by Margaret her coworker at the Right of Way Department office. Isabel was still on the commode. However when Brenda reached out it required no effort to pull her 160 pound mother up from the commode. She rose with no effort. And I think Brenda said there were no marks on Isabel's bottom from having sat on the commode for three hours. When getting back to the office Margaret, normally a mild-mannered little woman announced "That woman is crazy as hell." We never knew if Isabele had been sitting there the entire time or seeing Brenda's car pull in the drive, she had run back to get on the commode. We suspected the latter.

(When we were all living on Blanton Street Isabel would lie in bed all afternoon watching TV then get up a half hour before we got home to fix supper. Rushing around the kitchen her hair flattened in back from being in bed all afternoon she would complain about having been in the kitchen for hours fixing our food.)

In 1987 Isabel went in a nursing home and we sold the big house no longer needing all that room. Isabel had some good months in the nursing home, blending in