farewell, to the lady

On Saturday afternoon, the Celebration of Life of Lady Chablis was held at the Lucas Theatre.
It had originally been scheduled for that second weekend in October...
which would have been one month after her death...
but Hurricane Matthew put those plans on hold...
at least temporarily...
certainly not permanently.

The Lucas was packed, of course, but my job as event usher assured me a space.
Brenda Dale Knox, born Benjamin Edward Knox on March 11, 1957, had been bringing tourists to Savannah for the last twenty years. Ever since her star turn in THE Movie, aka "Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil", in 1997, folks have come from all over the world to see her perform at Club One.
She really didn't have to act in the movie.
She simply played herself, albeit the make-up artist certainly helped her attain the needed look.
After all, consider the math. When the movie was filmed, she was already forty years old. Yet, she was playing her 24-year-old self, using the name Chablis Deveau.
She owes much of her fame to Clint Eastwood for allowing her to do so.

Now that pneumonia has clutched her to its clammy chest, I have to wonder what effect her loss will have not only on the LGBT night club, but also on tourism in this city.
There are many folks who still come here because of THE Book and THE Movie, hoping to meet some of the characters they've read about or seen on the screen.
However, it's been thirty-six years since the events which were the basis of THE Book.
Most of the people in the murder tale have died in the last ten years.
Now, Lady Chablis has died, too, at only 59 years old.

Honestly, I had thought she was a good bit older than me, not just by one year.
Scary thought...
I've had pneumonia twice in my life.
Maybe it's time for another pneumonia vaccine...