In the early 1980s, Nell Redwine Harrelson opened Big Nell’s Pit Stop Grill. Over decades of caring service, with a few pranks and laughs thrown in for good measure, Mrs. Harrelson created a restaurant filled with Richard Petty memorabilia that felt like coming home to its customers. Her Pit Stop Grill is now known in the area by locals and tourists alike as a Brunswick County landmark.
Mrs. Harrelson, of Ocean Isle Beach, died Monday, Aug. 4, 2014, at the age of 72.
Born in Brunswick County on Feb. 1, 1942, Mrs. Harrelson ran the Pit Stop Grill with her husband, Al Harrelson. Her cousin, Judy Clayton, who grew up in Mrs. Harrelson’s home from the age of 15 until she left for college, said Mrs. Harrelson had always worked in restaurants. She just loved to cook.
She also loved taking care of her customers, whether she was paid for her efforts or not. Anyone who came in hungry didn’t leave that way; if her customers didn’t have money for food, she fed them anyway.
“In fact, she probably gave away more food than she sold,” Ms. Clayton said.
Mrs. Harrelson remembered most everyone who came into the Pit Stop Grill by name. If a stranger walked through the door, Ms. Clayton said her cousin treated them as if they’d known each other for years, hugging old friends and new when they came through the door. According to Ms. Clayton, if someone came to the beach for vacation they made it a point to visit the Pit Stop Grill while they were there; Mrs. Harrelson made her customers want to come back for both her food and her hospitality.
Mrs. Harrelson was taking care of her community and customers even before she opened the Pit Stop Grill. While working as a waitress at the Holiday Grill in 1970, Mrs. Harrelson, then Hewett, ran for sheriff of Brunswick County. Ms. Clayton said her cousin was accepting of everyone, no matter their background or ethnicity. Because of this, Ms. Clayton said those who knew Mrs. Harrelson welcomed her with “with open arms.”
In a newspaper article at the time, Mrs. Harrelson told the reporter her running began as a joke, but she became quite serious about it. Her focus was to give women a voice in how their government was being run. Though she didn’t win the election, she was fully supported by those who knew her.
Mrs. Harrelson took care of her family much in the same way she took care of her customers. She raised her own two daughters, then two granddaughters and was in the process of raising two great-granddaughters as well. Ms. Clayton said “her house was as big as her heart.”
Abigail Bentley, Mrs. Harrelson’s granddaughter, saw her grandmother as more of a mom than anything else. Mrs. Harrelson took her in when she was young and, to this day, Ms. Bentley still catches herself doing little things and realizing, “Grandma taught me that.”
For years, Mrs. Harrelson grew her hair out, then cut it off for Locks of Love donations. Ms. Bentley, along with some of the other girls raised in Mrs. Harrelson’s home, grew hers out to donate along with her grandmother.
There aren’t just big moments in her life that Ms. Bentley recalls when thinking of her grandmother, though.
“There’s not just one story about her. We didn’t have a bunch of big stories, it was little things that made everything awesome,” Ms. Bentley said.
One fond memory is of Mrs. Harrelson watching America’s Funniest Home Videos. Ms. Bentley loved her grandmother’s laugh and every once in a while, her laughter would travel throughout the house.
“We’d know AFV was on,” Ms. Bentley laughed.
Her laughter was often heard at the Pit Stop by the manager, Etta Ericksen, who was introduced to Mrs. Harrelson’s sense of humor early on. During her first few days of work she took an order for eggs Benedict from a customer. When Mrs. Harrelson received the ticket, she yelled, “What is this?” to which Ms. Ericksen replied if they say “eggs any way” on the menu, they were bound to be asked for eggs benedict.
Mrs. Harrelson replied by throwing an egg at her newest employee.
“She was always cutting up,” Ms. Ericksen said. “Never a dull moment.”
From egg throwing to chasing a patron out of her restaurant in jest with a chocolate cake in her throwing hand, including scaring him so badly he tore the door off the hinges, Mrs. Harrelson made the Pit Stop Grill a welcoming and joyous place to be. Her friends and family will deeply miss her.
Surviving in addition to her husband are daughters, Yolanda Bentley, of Ocean Isle Beach and Billie Jo Hewett, of Canton; a son, Ricky Harrelson and wife, Pat, of Rozwell, Ga.; a sister, Sandy Wilson and brother, Charlie Dennis, both of High Point; and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Lillian Bentley, Abigail Bentley, Hannah Underwood and Zoe McComb, all of the home and whom she raised as her own, and Jessie Underwood, Cody Hardin, Isaac Overstreet, Ephraim Overstreet, Jeremy Harrelson, Jason Harrelson and Angel Harrelson.
Funeral services were conducted at 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 9, 2014, at Jennies Branch Baptist Church by the Rev. Robbie Stephens. Burial followed at Brooks Cemetery.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.brunswickfuneralservice.com.
To view the most recent listing of Port City Daily obituaries, click here.
