Stories

She lived simply to give generously

Charlotte Observer | 11/03/2007
BY JOE DEPRIEST

From Billy Graham to textile workers, Thelda Hendrick treated all her customers like family at Shelby’sBridges Barbecue Lodge.
Generous tips added up during the 38 years she waited tables. A divorced mother of three daughters, she lived frugally in an old mobile home, recycling everything from tin foil to plastic foam cups. When Hendrick died in August at 81 from Lou Gehrig’s disease, family and friends were surprised to learn she’d also recycled her tips. She left $140,000 to an array of charities. Her will bequeathed $60,000 to the N.C. Baptist Men disaster relief effort. She also left $20,000 each to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Hospice of Cleveland County, the American Cancer Society and Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, where she was a member.

“I’d never met her and she hadn’t been personally helped by our volunteers,” said Richard Brunson, executive director-treasurer of the N.C. Baptist Men. “This is a gift from someone who worked very hard, and it’s been entrusted to us to help people in other ways. It’s very humbling.”

Lori McKee described her grandmother as a “caring and compassionate person.”

“I was amazed at how much (money) she had,” said McKee, who was executor of the will. “She was a very social person and loved people.”

Kathryn Hamrick, former manager of the Shelby MetLife office, said Hendrick worked long hours and invested most of her money in fixed accounts. She left an estate valued at more than $500,000. In her will, she’d looked after her family members financially, but wanted to give what was left to charities, said Hamrick, who was Hendrick’s financial representative.

“Periodically, Thelda would bring a $5,000 check to the office to add to her accounts,” Hamrick said. “I knew Thelda’s life story well enough to know that whatever money she was saving came from her earnings as a waitress, the bulk of which was tips.”

N.C. Baptist Men would get the most because of a connection Hendrick had with the organization while waiting tables at Bridges.

On Palm Sunday 1994, a tornado touched down in the Cleveland County town of Boiling Springs, damaging homes. Volunteers with the N.C. Baptist Men doing relief work stopped at Bridges for ameal. Hendrick waited on them and heard their story.

“She was very, very impressed by them,” Hamrick said. “Their work literally goes on around the world.

She knew their efforts were the real deal.”

Hendrick didn’t want anybody to know about her plan to donate the tip money to charity until after death. According to Hamrick, Hendrick said it was OK to tell the story then.

“She had a very fulfilling life,” Hamrick said. “Her frugality didn’t impair it. She was rich in friendships.”

Born in Windsor, Colo., Hendrick grew up during the Great Depression. When her mother died, her father moved back to Cleveland County and farmed land near present-day Bridges Barbecue. “She came up the hard way,” said Hendrick’s sister, Lucille Gardner, 89, of Shelby. “But she had a heart of gold.”

Founded in 1946 by Elmer Leroy “Red” Bridges, the Shelby barbecue lodge became a renowned regional restaurant. Billy Graham would stop by on his way to Montreat, and actor Mickey Rooney stopped in once. For Hendrick, it was like home. Customers Jim and Kathy Holland and their two children used to visit with Hendrick while eating at thecounter.

“She’d tell us jokes,” said Jim Holland. “Maybe sometimes they weren’t funny, but we’d laugh anyway because Thelda was telling it to us. She was taking her time to treat you like somebody more than a customer.”

Hendrick worked until she was 78. She had a small house built near the old trailer, read two newspapers a day and worked crossword puzzles. She also traveled the 50 states, Mexico and Canada. The Panama Canal was on her list, but she never made it.

Doug Dickens, pastor at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, where Hendrick taught Sunday school, said the amount of money she left behind doesn’t matter.

“It’s still a significant legacy,” he said. “She’d found something to do with her money that really mattered. In fact, what she did with her life as a waitress really mattered.”

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