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Doris Beeks Little: The Button Lady and The Flea Market at Eastern Market

What is essential? What is that transcendental, metaphysical element that binds? "That note in music heard not with the ear?' What do we long for?

WHAT BUILDS A COMMUNITY?

I came to the Flea Market at Eastern Market sometime in 1992. I was in my mid-twenties, and I remember thinking that the Flea Market was not as cool or interesting as the Saturday, Market 5 Gallery, Arts and Crafts Festival. The Flea market had fewer artists, fewer produce merchants and a whole lot more old people selling old stuff--antiques, collectibles, vintage etc. Many of theses exhibitors reminded me too much of my mother's crowd. You know them...

So, I avoided "them" like the plague. I mean I was an Artist, cool, club-hoppin' twenty-something, child of the dream, feminist, alternative....

"They," I was sure, paid me and my set of young arty hipsters "no never mind". I would speak when spoken to and, if need be, I could pull out my Sunday-goin'-to-meeting-manners". After all, I had good "home training".

A couple of months after arriving at the Flea Market at Eastern Market, Tom Rall, manager and founder, gave me a permanent space on a picnic table across from produce merchant Jesse Dunham, vintage exhibitor Doris Beeks Little, and importers Pia and Mitch Phulsuksombat. I set up my stand there on Sundays from 1992-2007. The fire that devastated the structure of the building was Sunday night/early Monday morning in late April of 2007. I remember thinking when I heard about the fire but I was just there, how could it have happened?

But for years before the fire, during the transition afterwards, and still today, there was and is Doris Beeks Little: The Button Lady at The Flea Market at Eastern Market.

(Mrs. Doris Beeks Little-The Button Lady-)

Doris Beeks (Little) was born in May 1932, in Laurens County, South Carolina. She was raised on Highway 25, which was on the way to Augusta, Georgia. Her father was a farmer, and she grew up farming. Her mother passed away when she was very young, but her father managed to keep hearth and home together. Ms. Little comes from a family of nine children and from a farm where Mr. Claude Beeks raised cotton, wheat, corn and a large vegetable garden.

Because of the peculiarities of life in the south (and in America in general) during that epoch, Doris Beeks attended a boarding school in another county. She and millions of other Americans were not allowed to attend local schools, or libraries, or ride on the front of buses or be treated as equal human beings in the eyes of the law, so she went to Chapman Grove High School in Grenville County.

Ms. Little tells wonderful stories about life on the farm with her family, stories in which her father is her hero and moral guide. Like the time when pickin' cotton (she was one of the youngest children) she was unable to pick as much as everyone else, so she "borrowed" cotton from the piles of her siblings so that she too would receive some praise. But she was caught by her father, who repeated her favorite bible verse, "thou shall not steal." He was always there watching over his family. Another story about her father: after a hard day on the farm in the evening, he would cook peanuts, while she and her siblings played a game called "Jack in the bush." The game involved guessing how many peanuts each person had in their hands, and if you guessed right, well, there was a forfeit of peanuts involved. Once she hid peanuts in her pockets, but once again, she was caught..and turned upside down for the forfeit.

As for growing up in a large family, she says, "...with that many in the family, you were never lonely; you had somebody to share. If it was nothing but going to the well and getting a bucket of water." She developed a love for reading and writing at a young age and now writes poems. Her father, Claude Beeks, had a fifth grade education. She notes that "books were limited because there were no libraries provided to us. Oh, we had a hard time..." She finished high school at sixteen in June 1949.

In November of 1949, Ms. Doris Beeks came to Washington, D.C. She, like many others, was part of the "field to factory" movement that transformed northern cities and reshaped the south. She notes that all her older siblings had moved to D.C.; in the deep south there were no opportunities for work other than as domestics or farmers, and educational opportunities were limited. She took the civil service exam, passed it on the first try and worked at the Civil Service Commission for nineteen months. But her high school sweetheart followed her from South Carolina, they got married in 1951 and her focus again became her own family. Mrs. Doris Little now has four daughters, one granddaughter and two grandsons.

The early part of Mrs. Little's professional life was as a home maker. She recalls having "...ironed my share of dresses...forty-two dresses a week. You starched them and sprinkled them and rolled them up to let the water penetrate and then ironed them one by one." She was active in numerous civic associations, in the library and in the PTA. I asked Mrs. Little about raising children in D.C. in the 1950's, 60's and 70's; she says life was good and that the community worked together. "I would blink my porch lights for my daughters to come into the house...everybody just abided by that in the evening." She still lives in the same house in which she raised her children in South East Washington, D.C., in the Fort Davis community.

However, Doris Little had the desire to be...a career woman. In the late 1960s, she again worked for the government as a civil servant, this time with computers that required that she change and run tapes. On this experience she says, "I found out then that I did not like dealing with machines, I prefer people."

Road to Eastern Market

(Ms. Little at her stand at the Flea Market at Eastern Market)

In the late 1970's she took a pottery class, and it was suggested to her that she sell her pieces at a flea market. Like many of us exhibitors, on her first time out showing her art work, she did not sell a piece. But she did learn about vintage items and realized that she had grown up with antiques and had a house full of them; so she started selling. In the early days she sold at flea markets, church bazaars and various local thrift shops. In the early 1980's, she (with a partner) had a store at 1315 Pennsylvania Ave., SE called L & M Thrift Shop (Little and McCray). The store sold vintage and collectible glassware and the like. It stayed open for almost two years. Then fate interceded; at another flea market she met exhibitor Darnell Jones, antique dealer, and he told her that she should give The Flea Market at Eastern Market a try.

Doris Beeks Little came to the Flea Market at Eastern Market in 1985 and has been there ever since. I asked her about her first impressions of the Market; she said that it was delightful to be under the farmers' shed. It was a learning experience and it was warm. "It just seemed family like. Everybody was very open and very concerned."

( shopping at The Button Lady's stand)

Becoming The Button Lady

Doris Little is one of the Eastern Market classics; her stand at the Flea Market at Eastern Market is internationally renowned. She was featured in an article entitled "Pushing the Right Buttons", in the Washington Times in April 1998. In 2009 she made international news and was featured in a newspaper from Denmark. Two well known Eastern Market artists have used her buttons in their work: Zoey March gained a reputation for a line of sterling silver and mother-of-pearl button jewelry, and Jenea Michelle (Range of Emotion) used Ms. Little's buttons as closures on her textile hand bags for years....

...because Mrs. Little sells buttons. Buttons from all over the world. Antique buttons, glass buttons, plastic, wooden, metal, mother of pearl, name it- -if it is a button she has it or has had it. How did she become the button lady? Ms. Little laughs about this, telling me, "when I came [to the Market] I was selling vintage glassware, china and a few vintage clothing pieces." About twenty years ago, one of her elderly neighbors named Ida (who knew that she sold at the market) asked her about selling buttons. Doris Little was not interested, but because the woman was so much older than she, Ms. Little was unable to tell her no, and ended up buying Ida and Ida's mother's collection of at least one thousand buttons. In remembering the initial purchase Ms. Little says, " I thought I had to be out of my mind to buy that many buttons. I put some in a large bowl and brought them to the market." She goes further in saying, "It has grown from there. I never thought I would be called the 'Button Lady.'"

In later conversations with one of her daughters, Shelia Little gave me more of the story of her mother becoming "The Button Lady." Shelia said that it was after her mother's second bout with breast cancer in 1990, and in returning to the Flea Market, her mom could not handle moving and carrying the heavy glassware. So, over time, she made the transition to lighter items like buttons.

(Pia, Mavis Jackson(vintage jewelry) and Ms. Little-flea market folk)

I think I remember her first button doll. Mrs. Little is the only maker of button dolls in America. In 2002 a young customer at the market(from Rhode Island) suggested that she make dolls out of buttons, but she did not know how. She says, "I was guided spiritually how to make the dolls. Man makes his plans but God directs his steps." The buttons are what has made her famous at Eastern Market, but it is the community that has formed with her at the center that makes her "Ms. Doris."

(two of "Ms. Doris's" four daughters Angie Barnes and Shelia Little)

Doris Little and her community at the Flea Market at Eastern Market

Jesse Dunham (produce merchant) and Family

(Russel Dunham [I can when remember when he was six and short] "Ms. Doris" and Jesse Dunham)

When I came to the market on Sunday's and stared sitting up my stand across from Mrs. Little, one could not miss hearing Jesse Dunham. He is boisterous, and loves to make rowdy (sometimes raunchy) jokes and laugh. He is also from West Virginia; at that time he and his family lived in a trailer. He chewed tobacco and he raised his children to work hard, respect their elders and to look out for (his name for her) "Ms. Doris" and Mr. Booker (he is another story). I can still hear him yelling at his sons (Russell and Daniel Barker) to bring Ms. Doris some fruits or vegetables from his stand (these were always gifts to her) or to make sure and help if need be as she backed out of the parking space, or to move the crates he would put there to save her space or to... And at Christmas time, while he as a produce merchant had the ability to displace all the exhibitors under the farmers shed so that he could fill it with Christmas trees, he always made space for "Ms. Doris", and later Mitch and Pia Phulsuksombat.

(Cleveland Barnes[Ms. Little's son-in-law] and Russel Dunham hang out, sell fruit and male-bond under the farmers shed)

(Mitch Phulsuksombat, Daniel "badass" Barker(Jesse Dunham's oldest son) and Shelia Little acting up at the Flea Market)

The Dunham family and "Ms. Doris" and her family have set up beside each other for over twenty five years. I have been know to call Ms. Little's son-in-law Cleveland Barnes--Mrs. Dunham's oldest child. Cleveland and Mitch Phulsuksombat(importer) are always joking and often help Jesse (now Daniel and Russell) and his crew sell produce. To see this is to witness male bonding at its finest. In the last ten years or so, two of Mrs. Little's four daughters (Angie and Shelia) have set up a stand of vintage items for sale right next to hers. Shelia Little wrote of her mother,"she is amazing at her age, she continues to be a wife and mother on a full time basis to an adult dependent child (Mrs. Little's oldests daughter), as well as a great mom to her daughters who no longer live at home."

Pia and Mitch Phulsuksombat(importer/artist)

(Doris and Pia, friends, cuttin' up at the market)

Pia and Mitch are Thai-Chinese. Originally they imported porcelain pots from Thailand. Now their stand is fulled with wonderfully made crocheted jewelry(made by Pia) and imported jewelry, scarves and wooden wind chimes. Pia has said on numerous occasions that she loves Doris like a mother. Pia said, of Doris Little that " she is my idol; when I am getting older, I want to be like her, she never angry." They are dear friends and are not above a bit of gossiping, story telling and the lively joke.

Sonda Allen and Ms. Little

The first couple of times, I don't think I really noticed. See, it was the time of year when dark comes early, and I was taking forever to pack up my stand. Most folks had left the market. But I had these lights shining right on my stand, so I was okay. I was not alone. Then it hit me. I realized that Mrs. Little was sitting in her car watching over me, making sure I was okay, waiting for me to finish packing. She had stayed to wait for me. Because I was there alone, because it was getting dark. Because...

She did not do this just once, or just in one season. Over the years, when I was running late with packing my stand, there would be these lights shining on me. I would look up and she would be there sittingm quiet and patient in her car, making sure I was okay. Later she told me how she admired the fact that I had my own business. She admired that I was an artist, she admired that I was going it alone, she admired...me?

What I realized long since is that Ms. Little is one of my momma's people. You know them! The ones who shaped and transformed America, through forbearance, dignity, actions and faith. The ones who made the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights mean something, by demanding that the words on paper apply to all. The ones who held, watched over and shaped me, instilling in me a fire of self respect, dignity and love for humanity.

Yeah, them--our people--you know, flea market folk.

The ordinary extraordinary Eastern Market community member:

Mr. John Johnson

At the market, " we", the exhibitors, all have our people who come by and check on us; some are clients, but most are friends. One of Mrs. Little's favorite folk is John Johnson. John was born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1962. He came to Washington, D.C. in 1987 for an internship in the Presidential Management Program and now works at the Government Accountability Office as a program analyst; and he loves "The Button Lady" at Eastern Market. In conversation with Mr. Johnson, he told me he started coming to Eastern Market in 1988. What attracted him to the market and keeps him coming back is "the creative energy that exists in the environment. Everybody is interdependent. It is a microcosm of the way you would want the world to work."

I remember noticing Mr. Johnson around Ms. Doris's stand about ten years ago. He would come and sit down, this very young guy, and start taking notes of conversations he was having with Mrs. Little. I asked him about all that. He told me that his goal at that time was to document their conversations. He is a writer and he "wanted people to feel Eastern Market from the point of view of a vendor." Over the years, John has introduced and had dinners for Ms. Doris and his mother. I asked him what it was about Mrs. Little that brings him back to visit her at the Market. He said, "what attracted me to her was her spirit. We are good friends. We have a lot of things in common. We have a love of family, sense of humor, love of fashion, buttons, love of kindness, a love of curiosity."

John Johnson has taken the measure of the exhibitor community at Eastern Market. If asked, he has good things to say about Quest Skinner (painter), Jenea Michelle(textiles), Mike and Jean Buryznski (antiques) and Rachel Boozer (mother of Donna-painter) just to name a few of his favorite exhibitors. I wanted to know from someone from the community who has been coming to the market for years and who knows the exhibitor community - what he sees when he is at the market hanging out and shopping with us? Mr. Johnson went straight to the heart of the exhibitor community; he said at the Market "...at bottom, everybody gotta go to the bathroom. Everybody needs someone they can trust to watch their stuff. You have to put aside childish things like bigotry and racism. At bottom, it's all about trust and by building that trust you build a relationship..."

(Ms. Little and Mr. John Johnson at "The Button Lady's" stand)

I asked John what he gets out of coming to the Market. He says, "it gives me juice." He said that coming to the market hits "that inner chord" in him. He notes that, "either you are open to it or you are not. The people who are open to it, you see them every week"...at Eastern Market.

Mrs. Little on Eastern Market:

(a world famous button doll)

In conversations with Mrs. Little over the years about her openness to the world, her experiences have given her wisdom to go beyond the superficial and physical. She has said to me on more than one occasion that she has had to set folk straight. Ms. Doris has told folk that, "you might be my color, but you are not my kind." "Ms. Doris's" folk--Pia and Mitch Phulsuksombat, Mavis Jackson, Daniel Barker, Charles Ellis, Russel, Dunham Arlene Hawkins, Tom Rall, me, Jesse Dunhman, and hundreds of customers from all over the world that send and buy her buttons--we are all "her kind." Doris Little does not suffer fools. I asked her about life and growing up, and not being in church on Sundays but at Eastern Market instead. She responded"...you give a sermon every Sunday, I try to live one everyday. I keep the church in me." She says, "your experiences make you strong. All the things I did on the farm, that I did as a housewife, all my experiences come together."

Like so many other exhibitors, one of the things that Doris Little has appreciated over the years at the Flea Market at Eastern Market is freedom. She said, "I prefer controlling my own time. When you are doing the Flea Market, it gives you the opportunity to control your own time. I do something that I enjoy but have freedom to control my own time." Ms. Little ended our conversation by stating, "I would not exchange the knowledge that I have gained from the people that I have met at Eastern Market. I would not exchange it for money."

Witnessing,

Sonda Tamarr Allen

Turtle's Webb

Many elements and factors come together to build any community. Yet, there is this one element that is vital. It binds people together. Makes them look out for one another. Encourages understanding, forgiveness, and peace. It is precious, but has no price. One can see, feel and be apart of it.

Dr. Martin Luther King spoke on it...

"Agape is creative understanding, redemptive goodwill for all men. It is an overflowing love that seeks nothing in return. Theologians would say that this is the love of God operating in the human heart." (1963)