Elouise Marie Harvest

The Big E

Elouise was born on December 28, 1931 to Dudley Patrick Levy Sr. and Elnora (aka Nora) Batiste. She was delivered by a midwife at her parents’ home in Blake’s Alley, in Lake Charles, Louisiana. (Who dat!) Her father called her a Christmas present because he really wanted a girl. Elouise’s two older brothers, Dudley Jr and Herbert, who was affectionately known as Sonny Boy, welcomed Elouise into the world. Dudley Sr. declared that since he now had his little girl, he was satisfied with the size of his family.

Elouise attended elementary school in Galveston, Texas from kindergarten to the second half of sixth grade. Nora, now a widow with three children, decided to go west. Weary of the hurricanes that lashed the coasts of Texas and Louisiana every year, weary of the annual evacuations the family was forced to make, along with the water-damaged furniture they returned to, weary of Jim Crow in the Deep South, and lured by the promise of good-paying jobs and a better life, Nora and the family migrated to Los Angeles in 1944.

Elouise was enrolled at Carver Junior High School in the neighborhood now known as South Central Los Angeles where she excelled. She was elected vice president of the student body. She attended Jefferson High School in Los Angeles; she did so well academically that she was skipped a grade. She met her first boyfriend, Willie, in high school. He was on the football team; Elouise played tennis.

It was during Elouise’s junior year that a pivotal event occurred, one that would set into motion some of her major life decisions. The father of one of her classmates, a policeman stationed in a dusty Nevada town called Las Vegas, was killed in the line of duty. Several of the students, including Elouise, rode a Greyhound bus to Vegas to attend the funeral.

She fell in love with the town and vowed to return. Just three days after graduating from high school, she moved to Las Vegas. She had already secured a furnished apartment and a job in a restaurant owned by her godparents. She was such a charming waitress that she could deposit her check into her savings account and live off the tips.

She met, was courted by, and eventually married Patterson Rudolph, a young army man stationed at Nellis Air Force Base. Their marriage produced two girls, Patricia, whom we nicknamed Sis, and Haniyyah, but the young couple divorced after three years, and Elouise moved back to California with her family. A subsequent marriage produced a son, William, nicknamed BJ.

Elouise became a member of Community Missionary Baptist Church of Compton in 1958 and joined the Ushers auxiliary, which started the usher tradition in the family. She joined the Queen Elizabeth Grand Chapter of Eastern Star under the Jurisdiction of Mount Calvary Grand Lodge and was actively involved in its community and fundraising efforts .She was also a charter member of Hearese Morris Chapter Number 625. In 1993, Elouise migrated to the Inland Empire and joined First Baptist Church of Perris where she once again took up her role as usher. She also became the Black History Month coordinator. In that role, she got church members to put on plays, musicals, praise dances, and poetry recitations. Everyone looked forward to showing up and showing out in their most colorful African outfits. But Elouise knew that black history was not limited to just one month, so she introduced church members to Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park in Tulare County. She organized bus trips to the town to celebrate her favorite holiday, Juneteenth.

Early on in the 1950’s, Elouise enrolled at Los Angeles Trade Tech College, majoring in bookkeeping, but before she could get her degree, she was offered a position with the IRS. She made her career there, starting out as a clerk-typist but eventually rising through the ranks to the level of revenue officer and trainer. She retired in 1987 after 33 years of service with over 20 awards for outstanding service. Her next venture was as a travel agent with Compton Travel Agency. Carnival Cruise Lines, watch out!

With steady cruise bookings all over the world, her bling bling outfits, and her skills at getting all the passengers, including the ship’s captain, on their feet doing the Electric Slide, or dropping it like it’s hot, she opened new horizons for hundreds of people.

By now, Elouise had remarried; she and her husband, Charles went on vacations several times a year. Elouise guided tour groups and visited places all over the United States and throughout the world, such as Nassau, Washington, DC, New York City and Niagara Falls, Jamaica, Botswana, Alaska, Jerusalem, London, Yosemite National Park, Cozumel, New Orleans, Senegal, and Paris, to name a few. She collected t-shirts and souvenir spoons from all the places she visited.

Elouise was grateful for each day God gave her. It is nearly impossible to think of her without smiling because at any moment she would do something spontaneous and unexpected. She often told the family about the teacher she had in Galveston who told her to say something nice to someone every day to put a smile on that person’s face. Elouise embraced that advice and all who came within her reach benefited from it. If you were feeling sorry for yourself and having a pity party, Elouise would attend your party for a hot second, if that long, but then it was time for some healing laughter.

Preceding her in death are her parents, Dudley Levy Sr. and Elnora Levy, her two brothers, Dudley Levy Jr. and Herbert Levy, her son, BJ, and her daughter, Patricia.

Left to honor Elouise’s legacy are: her daughter, Haniyyah (Abraham) Mubashshir, her grandchildren Darryllynn (Alfred) Williams, Khatib (Amy) Mubashir, Patrice (Fred) Harris, Evelyn Cooley, and Ibrahim, Bilalia, and Kadirah Mubashshir. She was the cool aunt to her nieces Jacquelyn and Michele, and the fun “cuzan” to her cousins Patricia Blunt, Sharon Bickham, and Carolyn, Cynthia, and Julisa Jenks. After her daughter Patricia, passed, Elouise vowed to take up Sis’s mantle as grandmother. Thus, she was called “Grandmama” by her great grandchildren Mone’t McDuel, Zaria Lee, Darryl McDuel-Larry, Isaiah Harris, Joesif Williams, Breanna Cooley, Tamara Williams, Leeanna Russell, and Joesie-Skii Williams. Her first-born great-great-grandchild is Xander Holmes. She also leaves behind a host of cousins (Who dat!), family, and friends.