Houston, Lula Bell
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Houston, Lula Bell
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For six decades, Lula Bell Houston worked as a laundress in the college laundry and created a lasting legacy due to her dedication, goodwill and thoughtfulness.
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Lula Bell Houston was born in Cornelius, NC to her mother Rosa Carr Potts, a Davidson College laundress. Houston briefly working as a dining service employee in 1943 and returned to college as a college laundry employee in 1948. She initially took the position to support herself and two sons, Clarence and William Miller, after her first marriage failed. However, she soon became attached to the students and became a highly-regarded employee known for her smile, advocacy, and generous spirit. She frequently appeared in both student and college publications, including the Davidsonian, Quips and Cranks, and Campus Chronicle. During her tenure, Houston remarried Arthur Ervin Houston and had two daughters, Peggy and Loria. In the broader Black Davidson and Smithville communities, she remained quite active in her church and community organizations. As a gifted singer, she participated in the Gethsemane Baptist Singers and Smithville Community Choir as well as the Laundry Ladies, a group comprised of Mary Lewis Archie, Hazeline Knox and other college laundresses.
When she retired in April 2004, the Town of Davidson named April 29, 2004 as “Lula Bell Houston Day,” the campus renamed the laundry after her, and two Davison College student groups bestowed awards in her honor. For her 94th birthday, the Town on Cornelius celebrated “Lula Bell Houston Day.” After the college laundry closed in 2015, the college repurposed the building and created a student resource center named after Houston. The Spring 2017 dedication occurred only a few months before she died on November 24, 2017.
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June 15, 1923
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November 24, 2017
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Carr, Rosa
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Rivens, Peggy
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Lula Bell Houston and Kelly Wilson, "Interview with Lula Bell Houston, 8 October 2012," Archives and Special Collections, Davidson College, Davidson, NC.
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Peggy Rivens and Andres Paz, "Interview with Peggy Rivens, 5 November 2016," Archives and Special Collections, Davidson College, Davidson, NC.
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“Retirement Dinner Will Be Big Party,” The Campus Chronicle 7, no. 5 (May 1992): 1-2.
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Jane Webster, "Davidson Laundry Worker Cared 'Like a Grandmother' for Generations of Students," The Charlotte Observer, December 2, 2017.
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