No More Hats

This book is about a woman named Elsie Banks and her long life, her family, and her hats. Elsie and her husband Marty Banks had sixteen children. She was the amazing old lady who struck up a conversation with anyone she met. Elsie wore hats to church as if it was mandatory and frowned upon her daughters as they grew older and refused to don hats for church. She was a Black Southern Baptist lady and somehow felt God paid attention to the hat on your head as a symbol of holiness. The stories tell of love of Elsie, from youth to her aging life, drama of sibling rivalry with her children, and the tragedies of cancer and HIV in the family. She died at the age of one hundred and one. She said, “no more hats because a crown awaited her in heaven.”