Sunday, November 3, 2024

Augusta Blake Counts, 95, original seamstress for Azalea belles

Mrs. Counts' 94th birthday party
Mrs. Counts’ 94th birthday party

No one has heard her voice in 10 years because of a stroke she suffered, but on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013, Augusta Blake Counts will fill the room with laughter once again when her radio interview, recorded in 1987, is played. Mrs. Counts was the original seamstress for the Azalea belles. She died Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013 at Trinity Grove.

In the radio interview, Mrs. Counts tells Wilmington exactly what she thinks about being the seamstress for the belles.

“I thought it was a cheaper hobby than a lot of other things,” Mrs. Counts tells the interviewer on why she started. When asked about the stress of it all, Mrs. Counts replies, “Sometimes I run away when the festival is over.”

Her family wasn’t fooled, though. Her basement was filled floor to ceiling with fabric she collected over the years to make the Azalea belles dresses perfect. She wouldn’t allow the girls to choose their own dress, either; she’d look them over, decide what kind of personality they had and choose a dress to fit the girl. Most of the time her choices didn’t even need alterations.

Mrs. Counts started sewing in the second grade when she made a butterfly costume for school. Her teacher sent home materials for her mother to create the costume, but even at a young age Mrs. Counts was taking matters into her own hands and turned out one of the best costumes in the class.

News article from the 1980s on Azalea belles
News article from the 1980s on Azalea belles

Her love of sewing and creativity continued throughout her life, even with dresses she purchased. She bought dresses from the store, took them home and changed them to fit her personal style.

“We would go into the store and she’d ask the saleswoman, ‘Do you recognize this dress?’” Kay Counts Godwin, Mrs. Counts’ daughter, said.

Any dress that didn’t receive a compliment was either further altered or thrown out altogether. There are many dresses her daughters remember but can’t seem to find now. It’s assumed these dresses received the garbage treatment after a failed day out.

She didn’t just make her own dresses, though. During WWII, Mrs. Counts made peacoats and dresses for her children, a habit that continued throughout her life. Some of the best memories for Mrs. Godwin and her sister, Judy Counts Quaid, are from sitting beside their mother learning to sew.

After 22 years of making the Azalea belles dresses, Mrs. Counts passed the torch to her daughter, Mrs. Godwin, who still makes them each year for the girls.

Mrs. Counts found a lot of joy in traveling, too. From Hawaii to Alabama and all across Europe, she experienced everything she could. Her daughters remember stories she’s recounted over the years, particularly the European trip during which Mrs. Counts and her husband spent eating cheese and crackers for snacks and not planning a moment before it happened. They ended up in a predicament one night when her husband couldn’t find a place to spend the night, so Mrs. Counts jumped in to settle the issue at a hotel.

“She came out to bring him in and they walked into a bridal suite!” Mrs. Godwin said.

The next morning the maids walked in to find clothes hanging all around from the washing she’d done, a mental picture her daughters love to laugh about.

Mrs. Counts in her hand-sewn outfit
Mrs. Counts in her hand-sewn outfit

Back in the states she was well-known on the road in her yellow Volkswagen with “Me-Maw” on the license plate. She loved to take the car on two wheels on sharp turns and steal parking spaces from other drivers.

“Eventually we had to take it away from her,” Mrs. Godwin said.

In the mid-80s Mrs. Counts found herself in a nun’s outfit she sewed together herself and standing beside Richard Gere, filming for the movie “No Mercy.” During one of the scenes, Gere reached over to pinch Mrs. Counts’ butt, so she pinched him back. Gere yelled, “Cut!” and asked her why she did it. Mrs. Counts replied, “You don’t get to touch.”

“Mom can be summed up in one sentence: She’s one of a kind,” Mrs. Quaid said to a chorus of agreement from her family.

Around the same time period a then-child star Drew Barrymore was filming “Firestarter” and the daughter of Mrs. Counts’ friend was an extra. Between filming Barrymore would come over to swim and play in Mrs. Counts’ backyard, eventually leaving with a beautiful dress hand-sewn by Mrs. Counts that Barrymore wore on the plane ride home.

Mrs. Quaid and Mrs. Godwin both learned a lot from their mother and loved her dearly. Asked how her mother most affected her life, Mrs. Godwin replied, “She taught me the value of hard work and how to sustain myself rather than depending on other people. She taught me that whatever I do, always try to make it better.”

 

Augusta Blake Counts, 95, of Wilmington, NC, died Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, at Trinity Grove.

Mrs. Counts was preceded in death by her parents, Bradly Augustus Blake and Madie Lee Brown Blake; husband, Chester C. Counts, Jr.; son, Chester C. Counts, III; sister, Ottillia Pitts; husband, Don; brothers, Floyd Blake and his wife Alda and James Blake; son-in-law, Tom W. Quaid, Sr.; and brother-in-law, William Barry.

Surviving are her daughters, Kathryn C. Godwin and husband Steve of Wilmington and Judy H. Counts Quaid of Ada, Okla.; daughter-in-law, Nancy B. Counts of Wilmington; grandchildren, Chester “Carter” Counts, IV, Tommy W. Quaid, Jr., Mark Blackman, David A. Counts, Garlon P. Blackman, James L. Quaid and Rebekah B. Ellis; step-grandchildren, Charlotte Rollins and Cynthia Harrelson; eighteen great-grandchildren; two great-great-grandchildren; sister, Lilly Mae Blake Barry; and seven nieces and nephews.

The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18, 2013, at Andrews Mortuary Market Street Chapel.

A funeral service will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday at Wesley Memorial UMC with Rev. Margaret Hockett officiating. Interment will follow in Oakdale Cemetery.

Memorials may be made to Wesley Memorial UMC, 1401 S. College Rd, Wilmington, NC 28403 or Trinity Grove, 631 Junction Creek Drive, Wilmington, NC 28412 or Lower Cape Fear Hospice, 1414 Physicians Drive, Wilmington, NC 28401.

Please send online condolences to Andrews Mortuary.

 

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