(Editor’s Note: One of Scott Hudson’s first Something You May Not Have Known columns ran Jan. 25, 2021.)
On Jan. 7, 1911, a girl by the name of Thelma McQueen was born in Florida. When she was a child, her stevedore father abandoned the family, and her mother, who worked as a maid, allowed her to stay many years with her aunt and uncle in Augusta.
Thelma would go on to be a classical ballet dancer, a Shakespearean actress and would achieve world-wide fame as Prissy in “Gone With The Wind.”
Yes, Butterfly McQueen had ties to Augusta.
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Following her role in the well-known film based on Margaret Mitchell’s novel by the same title, McQueen played several roles as “silly black maids” including films such as “The Flame of Barbary Coast” in 1945 and “Mildred Pierce” also in 1945, according to her bio at imdb.com and became tired of being typecast. She turned her back on Hollywood. She played some roles on television, including being a regular on NBC’s After School Special.
It may be that one role McQueen was alleged to have played made her the inspiration for a household object. Online magazine cleveland.com in June 2020 reported that allegedly, McQueen was the inspiration for the Mrs. Butterworth’s Pancake Syrup bottle.
The actress eventually gave up acting, moved to New York City and worked as a taxi-cab dispatcher.
One legend surrounding her and her local ties to Augusta revolves around how she was able to get so much exposure to theatre as a young child. Her uncle worked for the Otis Elevator Company, and the family lived in a cramped boarding house in the Laney Walker District.
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The legend has it that McQueen befriended the janitor of the Modjeska Theatre, and he would let her slip in the back door without a ticket so she could be exposed to theatre, dance and silent films.
It is impossible to prove the legend; that janitor was killed in a car crash in 1955. Property records show that shortly after his death, McQueen bought the man’s house and then gave the property to his widow for free.
McQueen had the reputation of being a bit miserly, but she was actually very generous. Upon her death, she willed all of her properties to the tenants who lived in them.
In her later life, McQueen spent her summers in New York and her winters in Augusta. Her love for the Garden City never waned.
McQueen died at Doctor’s Hospital in 1995 at age 84 from injuries sustained in a fire at her home in Augusta.
Scott Hudson is the senior reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
