Summers in East Saint started like this: me in the backseat with my little brother, anxiously awaiting our arrival at Grandma’s. The route to Grandma’s changed as my father’s duty stations did, but the destination—Grandma’s little pink house—remained the same. I would run up the stairs with my arms outstretched and there she would be: my Grandma Mae. As she wrapped me in a bear hug she would exclaim, “Hey baby!”

Ella was the queen of East Saint Louis (“ESTL”), its unofficial mayor. She always had the latest copy of the Monitor, East Saint Louis’ newspaper, and its other recent editions.

In the summertime, as we entered her home after a long day of travel, she gave us little time to get settled.

“Rosalind! Here go the Monitor right here!”

She would then launch into her state of the city. Filling my mother in on the city’s news and happenings. I loved listening to her stories and her take on the city as a little girl.

Join Louis Hilton this July for our mini-series, Ella, as we celebrate the life and legacy of my beloved grandmother.