Lucy Beckett has always been “a summer camp kid,” as she puts it. So it’s no surprise that when it came time for the longtime Girl Scout to apply for the prestigious Gold Award, Beckett was inspired by her love of summer camp.
The gold award is the highest honor a Girl Scout can receive for planning and implementing a “take action” project that provides a sustainable, lasting benefit to the girl’s larger community.
Sally Jeanne Luehrs was retired and living in Pennsylvania when her son called with a job offer.
Chef Deneb Williams asked his mom if she would be interested in tending the garden at Allora, his latest culinary venture with wife Elizabeth-Rose Mandalou. Allora opened last year on Folsom Boulevard in East Sacramento. The couple also owns Woodlake Tavern and Uptown Pizza on Del Paso Boulevard.
Ginger Rutland lives in Curtis Park not far from where her family resided when they first came to Sacramento in 1952.
“Of course,” Rutland says, “because of racial covenants on the deeds and real estate practices in 1952, blacks couldn’t purchase homes in this part of the neighborhood—nothing south of Second Avenue. Times change!”
When I catch up with Elizabeth-Rose Mandalou by phone, she apologizes if I hear weird noises. The restaurateur is busy delivering wine to the local eateries—Woodlake Tavern and Uptown Pizza on Del Paso Boulevard, and Allora on Folsom Boulevard—which she owns with husband Deneb Williams.
Eva Rutland had a special way to describe Sacramento: “How green, how clean, how wonderful!”
Her perspective was unique as an African-American woman who moved her family to California from the segregated South in 1952. Her book, “When We Were Colored: A Mother’s Story,” describes the family’s remarkable journey.
