Celestine Sibley (1914 - 1999) noted author & columnist featured Arizona Bell in several of her columns.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) Monday 19 May 1958 pg21
MRS. ARIZONA BELL EDWARDS
The funeral services for Mrs. Arizona Bell Edwards will be conducted Monday at 11 o'clock from Dillion's Chapel. Rev. Clarence Dranke will officiate. Interment will be in Hillcrest Cemetery. The following gentlemen will act a pallbearers and assemble at the chapel at 10:45: W. C. Howse, J. S. New, P. O. Dennis, C. C. Wheeler, Dave Kilgore, H. F. Ariail.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) Tuesday - 14 May 1957 pg 11
400 IN GAY 80s FROLIC AT BIRTHDAY PARTY HERE
More than 400 persons-- most of them in the 80s and 90s -- were honored at a giant-sized, fun-filled birthday part here Monday. . . . Oldes woman present was Mrs. Arizona Bell Edwards of 224 Carroll Street, S. E., who will be 97 on July 4. Mrs. Edwards, an ex-newspaper vendor and one-time circus performer, was given a black leather pocketbook and a large orchid. Mrs. Edwards, wearing a hat bedecked with flowers and feathers, danced her way to the microphone and told the audience: "I spend 41 days in the hospital recently, and the doctors thought I was going to die. But I fooled them. I got out because I wanted to live. I love to live."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) Wednesday - 25 April 1951 Front Page
ARIZONA BELL HERALDS SELF
Woman News Hawker Is Dazzler At Opera
By Celestine Sibley (1914-1999) author and columnist
No matter what thousands of other persons thought, the Metropolitan Opera Association was in business Tuesday night for a newspaper street sales woman named Arizona Bell. Cinderella for a day, Queen for a Night, 91 year old Mrs. Bell played truant from her customary corner at Broad and Walton Streets, N. W., and went to the MET "quite as elegant and fine as any society lady you ever saw." Mrs. Bell, a one time bareback rider in Buffalo Bill's circus and an early actress in stock companies, spent the afternoon getting groomed and beautified to see "Fledermau" and star in "the biggest performance since 1916" when she saw a Metropolitan Opera production in New York.
While Marguerite Piazza and capricious Patrice Munsel starred on the stage, Mrs. Bell starred on the stage that went on THIS side of the footlights. She arrived in state, wearing a borrowed turquoise evening gown, a great bronze orchid and a matching bow in her freshly curled and lacquered hairdo. Flashlight cameras went off in her face, The photographer's historic all "Holf it, Mrs. Bell," stopped her mementarily as she moved through the lobby and into the dress circle.
"Who is the celebrity?" other opera-goers whispered to each other and Mrs. Bell, beaming with pride, held her head high and said in a clear voice: "This is Arizona Bell. You find me on view on the corner of Broad and Walton most any other night. Tonight, I'm a glamor girl!"
The tiny, gnarled little woman who says she hasn't any relatives "this side of Sister Pearl in California," was asked to the Met as the guest of The Constitution for which she has worked for 10 years. Recalling her days as a bareback rider in the circus, she said, "Having been in show business myself, I am sure I will enjoy the opera, but what about my job?"
Two long-time newspaper boys, Eddit Atkinson and Harvey Smith, who were already primed to participate in Old Newspaperboys Day May 30, rushed in to sub for Mrs. Bell while she did the opera. They took over her papers a good helf-hour before curtain time and she swept regally toward the Fox Theater with one last warning "see that you look after my customers and turn in your money promptly." The newsboys for the night meekly promised to obey her orders.
"Fledermaus," a new opera to Mrs. Bell as well as to regular seasoned opera goers, delighted but did not surprise her. "It's so natural and realistic," she said. "I had a dress just like that once myself, ruffle in the back and not much around the neck."
MARVELS AT GADGETS
The preshow preparation was almost as good as the onstage performance as far as Mrs. Bell was concerned. She marveled at the new gadgets that fill beauty shops since the marcelle wave went out 20 years ago. She demurred slightly at using lipstick, assuring beauty operator, Los Castilla, that "not even actresses painted in my day." When she was finally coaxed into tryhing a little pale pink lipstick, some mascara and a light tough of eyebrow pencil, she rubbed her gnarled work-roughened fingers over he soft curls and said breathlessly "mercy me, I look lovely."
During the intermission at the Met, Mrs. Bell sat quietly dreaming of what she had just seen and smiling happily "at all the other dressed-up people." "If you just keep living long enough, there's not much of anything that won't happen to you." she sighed. "Here I am, when I thought I had nothing much else to life for carrying on like Mary Pickford late at night."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) Tuesday - 20 May1958 pg18
CELESTINE SIBLEY (1914 - 1999) noted author & columnist
AN AUTHENTIC CHARACTER
All weekend, since they called me and told me she was dead, I've been haunted by little memories of her. The death notices named her as Arizona Bell Edwards but she was known to hundreds of Alantans simply as Arizona Bell. It was, as she would have explained, her "professional name" - the one she used when she was a bareback rider with Buffalo Bill Cody. It's the name you'll find in her scrapbooks when she was a champion walker in the West, back in the 80s or 90s, donning boots, a divided skirt and a broad-brimmed cowboy hat and walking from Cheyenne to Sacramento.
She was known as Arizona Bell when she played in stock companies around the country. I can hear her now telling it: "Mary Pickford was a little girl than and the star of the show. She died in my arms every night."
And, of course, she was Mrs. Bell to the hundreds of Constitution readers who used to buy their newspaper from her at the corner of Broad and Walton Streets every night. Mayor Hartsfield was one of those customers. Sometimes at night when he would work late at his law office in the Grant building, he'd stop by and get an early edition before he went home. It was a matter of pride with her that on occasion the may wouldn't have a nickel and she had the privilege of extending him credit. "He's a pretty good risk," she told me, chuckling happily. "If he owes me a nickel one day, the next day he'll make me take a dollar."
Her friendship with Mayor Hartsfield finally pushed Mrs. Bell into doing something she had long considered "not the part of a lady." At the age of 80-odd she registered and began voting! The League of Women Voters promptly signed her up, giving her what may be the only honorary dues-free membership on their roster.
Mrs. Bell tried to pay her dues and for a time there was a little delicate maneuvering between her and the league officials. She put out the money and since they couldn't make her take the money back, they would buy her its equivalent as a gift - something like a pair of shoes. She had tremendous price, had my friend Mrs. Bell. She accepted gifts but only from people she considered true friends, her "boys," the Atlanta Transit Company drivers, newspaper friends and favorite customers of long standing. In a way, Mrs. Bell typified something special about Atlanta. She came here from another state and got a job selling papers. She didn't have room rent the first night she was here and a circulation department official saw her dozing while she waited for her papers and allowed her to sleep in his car. When she did get money for the room she furnished it carefully, ornamenting it with pictures and mementos of the past and kept it spotlessly clean.
She made many of her clothes, including the bathing suits she wore for her annual birthday dive from the Grant Park board. She shared what she had with her neighbors and participated wholeheartedly in every civic and charitable enterprise she knew about. Every year until this one, she donned a top hat and a bright yellow apron and joined the "Old Newsboys" parade for the benefit of the Cerebral Palsy school. I'll never forget her pride the year she paid income tax.
She loved the town,. She loved most of its citizens, from the pitiful old drunk she tried to hoise from the gutter to what she called "my sweet Buckhead friend." She was absolutely devoted to Grady Hospital and during the recurring illnesses of the last few years, she became something of a pet to the hospital's nurses and doctors. Now she's gone and with her has gone much that is precious to all of us who love Atlanta - her generosity, her gallantry, and perhaps most of all that gaudy little gift of showmanship which made her one of our most authentic "characters."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) Monday 19 May 1958 pg21
MRS. ARIZONA BELL EDWARDS
The funeral services for Mrs. Arizona Bell Edwards will be conducted Monday at 11 o'clock from Dillion's Chapel. Rev. Clarence Dranke will officiate. Interment will be in Hillcrest Cemetery. The following gentlemen will act a pallbearers and assemble at the chapel at 10:45: W. C. Howse, J. S. New, P. O. Dennis, C. C. Wheeler, Dave Kilgore, H. F. Ariail.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) Tuesday - 14 May 1957 pg 11
400 IN GAY 80s FROLIC AT BIRTHDAY PARTY HERE
More than 400 persons-- most of them in the 80s and 90s -- were honored at a giant-sized, fun-filled birthday part here Monday. . . . Oldes woman present was Mrs. Arizona Bell Edwards of 224 Carroll Street, S. E., who will be 97 on July 4. Mrs. Edwards, an ex-newspaper vendor and one-time circus performer, was given a black leather pocketbook and a large orchid. Mrs. Edwards, wearing a hat bedecked with flowers and feathers, danced her way to the microphone and told the audience: "I spend 41 days in the hospital recently, and the doctors thought I was going to die. But I fooled them. I got out because I wanted to live. I love to live."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) Wednesday - 25 April 1951 Front Page
ARIZONA BELL HERALDS SELF
Woman News Hawker Is Dazzler At Opera
By Celestine Sibley (1914-1999) author and columnist
No matter what thousands of other persons thought, the Metropolitan Opera Association was in business Tuesday night for a newspaper street sales woman named Arizona Bell. Cinderella for a day, Queen for a Night, 91 year old Mrs. Bell played truant from her customary corner at Broad and Walton Streets, N. W., and went to the MET "quite as elegant and fine as any society lady you ever saw." Mrs. Bell, a one time bareback rider in Buffalo Bill's circus and an early actress in stock companies, spent the afternoon getting groomed and beautified to see "Fledermau" and star in "the biggest performance since 1916" when she saw a Metropolitan Opera production in New York.
While Marguerite Piazza and capricious Patrice Munsel starred on the stage, Mrs. Bell starred on the stage that went on THIS side of the footlights. She arrived in state, wearing a borrowed turquoise evening gown, a great bronze orchid and a matching bow in her freshly curled and lacquered hairdo. Flashlight cameras went off in her face, The photographer's historic all "Holf it, Mrs. Bell," stopped her mementarily as she moved through the lobby and into the dress circle.
"Who is the celebrity?" other opera-goers whispered to each other and Mrs. Bell, beaming with pride, held her head high and said in a clear voice: "This is Arizona Bell. You find me on view on the corner of Broad and Walton most any other night. Tonight, I'm a glamor girl!"
The tiny, gnarled little woman who says she hasn't any relatives "this side of Sister Pearl in California," was asked to the Met as the guest of The Constitution for which she has worked for 10 years. Recalling her days as a bareback rider in the circus, she said, "Having been in show business myself, I am sure I will enjoy the opera, but what about my job?"
Two long-time newspaper boys, Eddit Atkinson and Harvey Smith, who were already primed to participate in Old Newspaperboys Day May 30, rushed in to sub for Mrs. Bell while she did the opera. They took over her papers a good helf-hour before curtain time and she swept regally toward the Fox Theater with one last warning "see that you look after my customers and turn in your money promptly." The newsboys for the night meekly promised to obey her orders.
"Fledermaus," a new opera to Mrs. Bell as well as to regular seasoned opera goers, delighted but did not surprise her. "It's so natural and realistic," she said. "I had a dress just like that once myself, ruffle in the back and not much around the neck."
MARVELS AT GADGETS
The preshow preparation was almost as good as the onstage performance as far as Mrs. Bell was concerned. She marveled at the new gadgets that fill beauty shops since the marcelle wave went out 20 years ago. She demurred slightly at using lipstick, assuring beauty operator, Los Castilla, that "not even actresses painted in my day." When she was finally coaxed into tryhing a little pale pink lipstick, some mascara and a light tough of eyebrow pencil, she rubbed her gnarled work-roughened fingers over he soft curls and said breathlessly "mercy me, I look lovely."
During the intermission at the Met, Mrs. Bell sat quietly dreaming of what she had just seen and smiling happily "at all the other dressed-up people." "If you just keep living long enough, there's not much of anything that won't happen to you." she sighed. "Here I am, when I thought I had nothing much else to life for carrying on like Mary Pickford late at night."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) Tuesday - 20 May1958 pg18
CELESTINE SIBLEY (1914 - 1999) noted author & columnist
AN AUTHENTIC CHARACTER
All weekend, since they called me and told me she was dead, I've been haunted by little memories of her. The death notices named her as Arizona Bell Edwards but she was known to hundreds of Alantans simply as Arizona Bell. It was, as she would have explained, her "professional name" - the one she used when she was a bareback rider with Buffalo Bill Cody. It's the name you'll find in her scrapbooks when she was a champion walker in the West, back in the 80s or 90s, donning boots, a divided skirt and a broad-brimmed cowboy hat and walking from Cheyenne to Sacramento.
She was known as Arizona Bell when she played in stock companies around the country. I can hear her now telling it: "Mary Pickford was a little girl than and the star of the show. She died in my arms every night."
And, of course, she was Mrs. Bell to the hundreds of Constitution readers who used to buy their newspaper from her at the corner of Broad and Walton Streets every night. Mayor Hartsfield was one of those customers. Sometimes at night when he would work late at his law office in the Grant building, he'd stop by and get an early edition before he went home. It was a matter of pride with her that on occasion the may wouldn't have a nickel and she had the privilege of extending him credit. "He's a pretty good risk," she told me, chuckling happily. "If he owes me a nickel one day, the next day he'll make me take a dollar."
Her friendship with Mayor Hartsfield finally pushed Mrs. Bell into doing something she had long considered "not the part of a lady." At the age of 80-odd she registered and began voting! The League of Women Voters promptly signed her up, giving her what may be the only honorary dues-free membership on their roster.
Mrs. Bell tried to pay her dues and for a time there was a little delicate maneuvering between her and the league officials. She put out the money and since they couldn't make her take the money back, they would buy her its equivalent as a gift - something like a pair of shoes. She had tremendous price, had my friend Mrs. Bell. She accepted gifts but only from people she considered true friends, her "boys," the Atlanta Transit Company drivers, newspaper friends and favorite customers of long standing. In a way, Mrs. Bell typified something special about Atlanta. She came here from another state and got a job selling papers. She didn't have room rent the first night she was here and a circulation department official saw her dozing while she waited for her papers and allowed her to sleep in his car. When she did get money for the room she furnished it carefully, ornamenting it with pictures and mementos of the past and kept it spotlessly clean.
She made many of her clothes, including the bathing suits she wore for her annual birthday dive from the Grant Park board. She shared what she had with her neighbors and participated wholeheartedly in every civic and charitable enterprise she knew about. Every year until this one, she donned a top hat and a bright yellow apron and joined the "Old Newsboys" parade for the benefit of the Cerebral Palsy school. I'll never forget her pride the year she paid income tax.
She loved the town,. She loved most of its citizens, from the pitiful old drunk she tried to hoise from the gutter to what she called "my sweet Buckhead friend." She was absolutely devoted to Grady Hospital and during the recurring illnesses of the last few years, she became something of a pet to the hospital's nurses and doctors. Now she's gone and with her has gone much that is precious to all of us who love Atlanta - her generosity, her gallantry, and perhaps most of all that gaudy little gift of showmanship which made her one of our most authentic "characters."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Celestine Sibley (1914 - 1999) noted author & columnist featured Arizona Bell in several of her columns.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) Monday 19 May 1958 pg21
MRS. ARIZONA BELL EDWARDS
The funeral services for Mrs. Arizona Bell Edwards will be conducted Monday at 11 o'clock from Dillion's Chapel. Rev. Clarence Dranke will officiate. Interment will be in Hillcrest Cemetery. The following gentlemen will act a pallbearers and assemble at the chapel at 10:45: W. C. Howse, J. S. New, P. O. Dennis, C. C. Wheeler, Dave Kilgore, H. F. Ariail.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) Tuesday - 14 May 1957 pg 11
400 IN GAY 80s FROLIC AT BIRTHDAY PARTY HERE
More than 400 persons-- most of them in the 80s and 90s -- were honored at a giant-sized, fun-filled birthday part here Monday. . . . Oldes woman present was Mrs. Arizona Bell Edwards of 224 Carroll Street, S. E., who will be 97 on July 4. Mrs. Edwards, an ex-newspaper vendor and one-time circus performer, was given a black leather pocketbook and a large orchid. Mrs. Edwards, wearing a hat bedecked with flowers and feathers, danced her way to the microphone and told the audience: "I spend 41 days in the hospital recently, and the doctors thought I was going to die. But I fooled them. I got out because I wanted to live. I love to live."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) Wednesday - 25 April 1951 Front Page
ARIZONA BELL HERALDS SELF
Woman News Hawker Is Dazzler At Opera
By Celestine Sibley (1914-1999) author and columnist
No matter what thousands of other persons thought, the Metropolitan Opera Association was in business Tuesday night for a newspaper street sales woman named Arizona Bell. Cinderella for a day, Queen for a Night, 91 year old Mrs. Bell played truant from her customary corner at Broad and Walton Streets, N. W., and went to the MET "quite as elegant and fine as any society lady you ever saw." Mrs. Bell, a one time bareback rider in Buffalo Bill's circus and an early actress in stock companies, spent the afternoon getting groomed and beautified to see "Fledermau" and star in "the biggest performance since 1916" when she saw a Metropolitan Opera production in New York.
While Marguerite Piazza and capricious Patrice Munsel starred on the stage, Mrs. Bell starred on the stage that went on THIS side of the footlights. She arrived in state, wearing a borrowed turquoise evening gown, a great bronze orchid and a matching bow in her freshly curled and lacquered hairdo. Flashlight cameras went off in her face, The photographer's historic all "Holf it, Mrs. Bell," stopped her mementarily as she moved through the lobby and into the dress circle.
"Who is the celebrity?" other opera-goers whispered to each other and Mrs. Bell, beaming with pride, held her head high and said in a clear voice: "This is Arizona Bell. You find me on view on the corner of Broad and Walton most any other night. Tonight, I'm a glamor girl!"
The tiny, gnarled little woman who says she hasn't any relatives "this side of Sister Pearl in California," was asked to the Met as the guest of The Constitution for which she has worked for 10 years. Recalling her days as a bareback rider in the circus, she said, "Having been in show business myself, I am sure I will enjoy the opera, but what about my job?"
Two long-time newspaper boys, Eddit Atkinson and Harvey Smith, who were already primed to participate in Old Newspaperboys Day May 30, rushed in to sub for Mrs. Bell while she did the opera. They took over her papers a good helf-hour before curtain time and she swept regally toward the Fox Theater with one last warning "see that you look after my customers and turn in your money promptly." The newsboys for the night meekly promised to obey her orders.
"Fledermaus," a new opera to Mrs. Bell as well as to regular seasoned opera goers, delighted but did not surprise her. "It's so natural and realistic," she said. "I had a dress just like that once myself, ruffle in the back and not much around the neck."
MARVELS AT GADGETS
The preshow preparation was almost as good as the onstage performance as far as Mrs. Bell was concerned. She marveled at the new gadgets that fill beauty shops since the marcelle wave went out 20 years ago. She demurred slightly at using lipstick, assuring beauty operator, Los Castilla, that "not even actresses painted in my day." When she was finally coaxed into tryhing a little pale pink lipstick, some mascara and a light tough of eyebrow pencil, she rubbed her gnarled work-roughened fingers over he soft curls and said breathlessly "mercy me, I look lovely."
During the intermission at the Met, Mrs. Bell sat quietly dreaming of what she had just seen and smiling happily "at all the other dressed-up people." "If you just keep living long enough, there's not much of anything that won't happen to you." she sighed. "Here I am, when I thought I had nothing much else to life for carrying on like Mary Pickford late at night."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) Tuesday - 20 May1958 pg18
CELESTINE SIBLEY (1914 - 1999) noted author & columnist
AN AUTHENTIC CHARACTER
All weekend, since they called me and told me she was dead, I've been haunted by little memories of her. The death notices named her as Arizona Bell Edwards but she was known to hundreds of Alantans simply as Arizona Bell. It was, as she would have explained, her "professional name" - the one she used when she was a bareback rider with Buffalo Bill Cody. It's the name you'll find in her scrapbooks when she was a champion walker in the West, back in the 80s or 90s, donning boots, a divided skirt and a broad-brimmed cowboy hat and walking from Cheyenne to Sacramento.
She was known as Arizona Bell when she played in stock companies around the country. I can hear her now telling it: "Mary Pickford was a little girl than and the star of the show. She died in my arms every night."
And, of course, she was Mrs. Bell to the hundreds of Constitution readers who used to buy their newspaper from her at the corner of Broad and Walton Streets every night. Mayor Hartsfield was one of those customers. Sometimes at night when he would work late at his law office in the Grant building, he'd stop by and get an early edition before he went home. It was a matter of pride with her that on occasion the may wouldn't have a nickel and she had the privilege of extending him credit. "He's a pretty good risk," she told me, chuckling happily. "If he owes me a nickel one day, the next day he'll make me take a dollar."
Her friendship with Mayor Hartsfield finally pushed Mrs. Bell into doing something she had long considered "not the part of a lady." At the age of 80-odd she registered and began voting! The League of Women Voters promptly signed her up, giving her what may be the only honorary dues-free membership on their roster.
Mrs. Bell tried to pay her dues and for a time there was a little delicate maneuvering between her and the league officials. She put out the money and since they couldn't make her take the money back, they would buy her its equivalent as a gift - something like a pair of shoes. She had tremendous price, had my friend Mrs. Bell. She accepted gifts but only from people she considered true friends, her "boys," the Atlanta Transit Company drivers, newspaper friends and favorite customers of long standing. In a way, Mrs. Bell typified something special about Atlanta. She came here from another state and got a job selling papers. She didn't have room rent the first night she was here and a circulation department official saw her dozing while she waited for her papers and allowed her to sleep in his car. When she did get money for the room she furnished it carefully, ornamenting it with pictures and mementos of the past and kept it spotlessly clean.
She made many of her clothes, including the bathing suits she wore for her annual birthday dive from the Grant Park board. She shared what she had with her neighbors and participated wholeheartedly in every civic and charitable enterprise she knew about. Every year until this one, she donned a top hat and a bright yellow apron and joined the "Old Newsboys" parade for the benefit of the Cerebral Palsy school. I'll never forget her pride the year she paid income tax.
She loved the town,. She loved most of its citizens, from the pitiful old drunk she tried to hoise from the gutter to what she called "my sweet Buckhead friend." She was absolutely devoted to Grady Hospital and during the recurring illnesses of the last few years, she became something of a pet to the hospital's nurses and doctors. Now she's gone and with her has gone much that is precious to all of us who love Atlanta - her generosity, her gallantry, and perhaps most of all that gaudy little gift of showmanship which made her one of our most authentic "characters."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) Monday 19 May 1958 pg21
MRS. ARIZONA BELL EDWARDS
The funeral services for Mrs. Arizona Bell Edwards will be conducted Monday at 11 o'clock from Dillion's Chapel. Rev. Clarence Dranke will officiate. Interment will be in Hillcrest Cemetery. The following gentlemen will act a pallbearers and assemble at the chapel at 10:45: W. C. Howse, J. S. New, P. O. Dennis, C. C. Wheeler, Dave Kilgore, H. F. Ariail.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) Tuesday - 14 May 1957 pg 11
400 IN GAY 80s FROLIC AT BIRTHDAY PARTY HERE
More than 400 persons-- most of them in the 80s and 90s -- were honored at a giant-sized, fun-filled birthday part here Monday. . . . Oldes woman present was Mrs. Arizona Bell Edwards of 224 Carroll Street, S. E., who will be 97 on July 4. Mrs. Edwards, an ex-newspaper vendor and one-time circus performer, was given a black leather pocketbook and a large orchid. Mrs. Edwards, wearing a hat bedecked with flowers and feathers, danced her way to the microphone and told the audience: "I spend 41 days in the hospital recently, and the doctors thought I was going to die. But I fooled them. I got out because I wanted to live. I love to live."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) Wednesday - 25 April 1951 Front Page
ARIZONA BELL HERALDS SELF
Woman News Hawker Is Dazzler At Opera
By Celestine Sibley (1914-1999) author and columnist
No matter what thousands of other persons thought, the Metropolitan Opera Association was in business Tuesday night for a newspaper street sales woman named Arizona Bell. Cinderella for a day, Queen for a Night, 91 year old Mrs. Bell played truant from her customary corner at Broad and Walton Streets, N. W., and went to the MET "quite as elegant and fine as any society lady you ever saw." Mrs. Bell, a one time bareback rider in Buffalo Bill's circus and an early actress in stock companies, spent the afternoon getting groomed and beautified to see "Fledermau" and star in "the biggest performance since 1916" when she saw a Metropolitan Opera production in New York.
While Marguerite Piazza and capricious Patrice Munsel starred on the stage, Mrs. Bell starred on the stage that went on THIS side of the footlights. She arrived in state, wearing a borrowed turquoise evening gown, a great bronze orchid and a matching bow in her freshly curled and lacquered hairdo. Flashlight cameras went off in her face, The photographer's historic all "Holf it, Mrs. Bell," stopped her mementarily as she moved through the lobby and into the dress circle.
"Who is the celebrity?" other opera-goers whispered to each other and Mrs. Bell, beaming with pride, held her head high and said in a clear voice: "This is Arizona Bell. You find me on view on the corner of Broad and Walton most any other night. Tonight, I'm a glamor girl!"
The tiny, gnarled little woman who says she hasn't any relatives "this side of Sister Pearl in California," was asked to the Met as the guest of The Constitution for which she has worked for 10 years. Recalling her days as a bareback rider in the circus, she said, "Having been in show business myself, I am sure I will enjoy the opera, but what about my job?"
Two long-time newspaper boys, Eddit Atkinson and Harvey Smith, who were already primed to participate in Old Newspaperboys Day May 30, rushed in to sub for Mrs. Bell while she did the opera. They took over her papers a good helf-hour before curtain time and she swept regally toward the Fox Theater with one last warning "see that you look after my customers and turn in your money promptly." The newsboys for the night meekly promised to obey her orders.
"Fledermaus," a new opera to Mrs. Bell as well as to regular seasoned opera goers, delighted but did not surprise her. "It's so natural and realistic," she said. "I had a dress just like that once myself, ruffle in the back and not much around the neck."
MARVELS AT GADGETS
The preshow preparation was almost as good as the onstage performance as far as Mrs. Bell was concerned. She marveled at the new gadgets that fill beauty shops since the marcelle wave went out 20 years ago. She demurred slightly at using lipstick, assuring beauty operator, Los Castilla, that "not even actresses painted in my day." When she was finally coaxed into tryhing a little pale pink lipstick, some mascara and a light tough of eyebrow pencil, she rubbed her gnarled work-roughened fingers over he soft curls and said breathlessly "mercy me, I look lovely."
During the intermission at the Met, Mrs. Bell sat quietly dreaming of what she had just seen and smiling happily "at all the other dressed-up people." "If you just keep living long enough, there's not much of anything that won't happen to you." she sighed. "Here I am, when I thought I had nothing much else to life for carrying on like Mary Pickford late at night."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) Tuesday - 20 May1958 pg18
CELESTINE SIBLEY (1914 - 1999) noted author & columnist
AN AUTHENTIC CHARACTER
All weekend, since they called me and told me she was dead, I've been haunted by little memories of her. The death notices named her as Arizona Bell Edwards but she was known to hundreds of Alantans simply as Arizona Bell. It was, as she would have explained, her "professional name" - the one she used when she was a bareback rider with Buffalo Bill Cody. It's the name you'll find in her scrapbooks when she was a champion walker in the West, back in the 80s or 90s, donning boots, a divided skirt and a broad-brimmed cowboy hat and walking from Cheyenne to Sacramento.
She was known as Arizona Bell when she played in stock companies around the country. I can hear her now telling it: "Mary Pickford was a little girl than and the star of the show. She died in my arms every night."
And, of course, she was Mrs. Bell to the hundreds of Constitution readers who used to buy their newspaper from her at the corner of Broad and Walton Streets every night. Mayor Hartsfield was one of those customers. Sometimes at night when he would work late at his law office in the Grant building, he'd stop by and get an early edition before he went home. It was a matter of pride with her that on occasion the may wouldn't have a nickel and she had the privilege of extending him credit. "He's a pretty good risk," she told me, chuckling happily. "If he owes me a nickel one day, the next day he'll make me take a dollar."
Her friendship with Mayor Hartsfield finally pushed Mrs. Bell into doing something she had long considered "not the part of a lady." At the age of 80-odd she registered and began voting! The League of Women Voters promptly signed her up, giving her what may be the only honorary dues-free membership on their roster.
Mrs. Bell tried to pay her dues and for a time there was a little delicate maneuvering between her and the league officials. She put out the money and since they couldn't make her take the money back, they would buy her its equivalent as a gift - something like a pair of shoes. She had tremendous price, had my friend Mrs. Bell. She accepted gifts but only from people she considered true friends, her "boys," the Atlanta Transit Company drivers, newspaper friends and favorite customers of long standing. In a way, Mrs. Bell typified something special about Atlanta. She came here from another state and got a job selling papers. She didn't have room rent the first night she was here and a circulation department official saw her dozing while she waited for her papers and allowed her to sleep in his car. When she did get money for the room she furnished it carefully, ornamenting it with pictures and mementos of the past and kept it spotlessly clean.
She made many of her clothes, including the bathing suits she wore for her annual birthday dive from the Grant Park board. She shared what she had with her neighbors and participated wholeheartedly in every civic and charitable enterprise she knew about. Every year until this one, she donned a top hat and a bright yellow apron and joined the "Old Newsboys" parade for the benefit of the Cerebral Palsy school. I'll never forget her pride the year she paid income tax.
She loved the town,. She loved most of its citizens, from the pitiful old drunk she tried to hoise from the gutter to what she called "my sweet Buckhead friend." She was absolutely devoted to Grady Hospital and during the recurring illnesses of the last few years, she became something of a pet to the hospital's nurses and doctors. Now she's gone and with her has gone much that is precious to all of us who love Atlanta - her generosity, her gallantry, and perhaps most of all that gaudy little gift of showmanship which made her one of our most authentic "characters."
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Gravesite Details
Added from cemetery records. Birth date was not included.
