At age 95, there was no other way to describe Dalyce Curry, or “Momma Dee†to her large extended family, other than “fabulous.â€
â€My grandmother still wore her big hair, glasses, nails, you know, painted makeup,†her granddaughter and namesake Dalyce Kelley said, “You know, she was just fabulous, period.â€
Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1929, that big personality was destined for one place: Hollywood.
She settled in Los Angeles, where she never became a star but did rub shoulders with some of the elites of old Hollywood, including backing up singer Pearl Bailey, being an extra in a scene with Diana Ross in “Lady Sings the Blues†and being mentored by the first Black woman to ever sign a movie contract.
Curry died last week at her home in Altadena as the Eaton Fire .
Her granddaughter had dropped her off at her house about 11:30 p.m., after she spent the day in the hospital for tests after she felt dizzy. On the drive, they saw the fire far off in the distance and power was out as they exited the interstate in Altadena.
But power was on in her grandmother’s neighborhood, and there was no sign of immediate danger, so Kelley told her grandmother she'd check in later and left. She asked in a neighborhood text group for someone to call her if there were .
She woke about 5:30 a.m. the next morning to an urgent message in the group text, asking if Curry got out during the overnight evacuations.
Kelley rushed to Altadena but wasn’t allowed past a police barricade. An officer called her, saying her grandmother’s cottage burned to the ground. Then she frantically looked for her grandmother in shelters.
Four days later, the family received confirmation from the Los Angeles Coroner’s office that Curry had died, one of of the devastating Los Angeles fires.
Curry said all the family mementos, including photos going back nine decades, were lost in the fire.
The only thing of her grandmother’s that escaped unscathed was a 1981 midnight blue Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham. It didn’t run, but Curry had been hoping to fix it up and rent it out to production companies making movies set in the 1980s.
Curry had other ties to the movie industry, starting after she struck up a friendship with Nellie Crawford, who went by the stage name of Madame Sul-Te-Wan, at a Los Angeles beauty salon in the early 1950s, Kelley says, telling her grandmother's stories as best she can.
Crawford was the first Black woman to be featured in films after signing her contract with Fine Arts. She appeared in such movies as the 1915 landmark film “Birth of a Nation.†When Curry told Crawford she was interested in arts and theater, Crawford said: “’Well, that’s it. I’m going to take you under my wing. You’re my goddaughterâ€.
That led to Curry getting extra work in 1956’s “The Ten Commandments,†in which she danced and bowed before king.
“It was a small part, but we were big proud,†Kelley said. Curry also worked as an extra in “Lady Sings the Blues†and “The Blues Brothers,†her granddaughter said, and sang and danced backing up Pearl Bailey in venues across the U.S.
In later life Curry became a nurse, working in convalescent homes and in private care. Curry, who used her maiden name, had one son. She also is survived by seven grandchildren and many great-grandchildren.
Kelley said she will miss her grandmother’s positivity, energy, light, strength, and her signature phrase: “Nothing is as bad as it seems, even at its worst.â€
“Everyone should just kind of live by that, even the people that have been victims of this fire and lost loved ones and lost everything, lost their homes and have had to see this devastation,†Kelley said.
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Thiessen reported from Anchorage, Alaska.
