LeRoy Ellis Jr. of Decatur remembers a shiny new 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air with horns attached to its fender, a chauffer behind the wheel and “Miss Daisy” cozily situated in the back.
Ellis was 4 years old when he lived with Daisy Nolan, the most famous resident of Decatur’s Old Town at the time. Ellis said he had been adopted by one of Nolan’s live-in workers and they resided in her home on Church Street until Nolan’s death in October 1960.
In the more than six decades since her death, some folks have forgotten the woman who could break hexes, cure ills and even make stray husbands stick close to home, as Ellis recalls, but that’s about to change.
A metal sign, brick-red in color, is stored in the Morgan County Archives, awaiting its placement in Decatur to honor one of its most interesting and best-known Black community leaders. The marker, made possible through the Alabama Folklife Foundation and a grant from the Pomeroy Legends and Lore Program, tells, briefly, of an African American woman who was at once revered and misunderstood:
Daisy Nolan: Herbalist, Healer, and Charm Maker of Old Town, She Would Do No Harm. Nolan Was Buried in 1960 With Her Doll Collection.
Morgan County Archivist John Allison says the sign will be installed in fall 2024 or spring 2025 to bring attention to one of Decatur’s most intriguing tales and one of its most famous and wealthiest Black women. Officials are waiting until construction is completed on the historic Scottsboro Boys House on Sycamore Street before installing the sign out front, Allison said.
The marker honoring Daisy Nolan will be installed on Sycamore Street in Decatur in fall 2024 or spring 2025.Courtesy of Morgan County Archives
Ellis said even though he was young when the woman he knew as “Miss Daisy” died, he has vivid memories of her. For example, he said Nolan was not allowed to blow her car horns in Decatur city limits because they were so loud, like “a truck horn.”
In addition to her flashy car, her doll collection and her deck of “fortune-teller cards,” Ellis also recalls Nolan’s generosity.
Healer Daisy Nolan's doll collection. She stipulated in her will to be buried with her dolls. She is buried in Sykes Cemetery in Morgan County, Ala.Courtesy of LeRoy Ellis
“She paid a lot of pastors’ salaries,” he said. “She gave away a lot of money; she had a good heart. I remember going to the store as little boy and the owner, he called Miss Daisy and told her I was down there and trying to buy some candy or something. He told her to give me whatever I wanted.”
People contacted Nolan from across the country to ask for help, Ellis said. If someone asked for help keeping their husband from straying, for example, Nolan would ask the caller to mail her an item owned by the man and, somehow, create a “spell” to keep him at home.
But Ellis is quick to say that Nolan’s brand of mysticism had nothing to do with the occult. “It was not voodoo or witchcraft,” he said. “She was a spiritualist. It was based on her religion.”
Daisy Nolan’s beginnings
When Daisy Nolan was a girl in the late 1800s, Decatur’s Old Town was home to former enslaved people. After the advent of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, Decatur was divided into White and Black districts, according to HiddenSpaces.org, a site operated, in part, by the University of North Alabama’s Public History Department.
“During Reconstruction, as White residents migrated east of the railroad tracks and settled in New Decatur to the south, Old Town re-emerged as a working-class African American neighborhood,” the site says. “The urban environment that attracted former slaves also provided educational opportunities, and by the early 1900s, Old Town was home to a number of Black professionals, including Dr. Willis E. Sterrs, Decatur’s first African American doctor and the founder of its first hospital.”
Soon, Old Town bustled with grocery stores, diners, shops and even dance halls, with numerous minority-owned businesses on Bank Street and west of the railroad on Vine Street. Weathered shacks disappeared and the residential district bloomed with wood-frame and red-brick houses. The neighborhood is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Nolan, known around the nation for her abilities as a “healer” and herbalist, was born into Old Town circa-1875-1878 to William and Julia Murphy, and lived there through its many changes until her death in 1960. She married Ben Nolan in 1924, and was widowed in 1930, but never had children. As one of nine siblings, Nolan was known to dote on her numerous nieces and nephews.
“Born to formerly enslaved parents, she may have picked up her knowledge of herbs, remedies, charms, spells, and hexes from her mother, although no one knows for sure,” the Pomeroy Foundation says. “Nolan was famous across the country for aiding in the removal of curses and remedying ailments that baffled doctors ... Nolan also received requests for help with dysfunctional relationships, illnesses, possessions, and even winning lottery numbers. Notably, Nolan only used her powers for healing, never for harming.”
Peggy Towns, an author and Old Town historian, lived next door to Nolan on Church Street as a girl. “Many people would knock at our door during the night looking for Mrs. Daisy,” she said. A 1940 Census says the highest schooling Nolan completed was first grade and listed no occupation, yet Nolan wore many hats, including as owner of the Cotton Club on Cain Street in Decatur.
“The Cotton Club served lunches during the day and would transform into a night club on weekends,” Towns said. “Mrs. Daisy’s sister and husband, the Cromwells, operated Cromwell Barbecue Restaurant on Vine Street.” Towns said Black journalists frequented the restaurants during the Scottsboro Boys trials held in Decatur beginning in 1933.
Locals recalled that Nolan owned fur coats and “employed a butler, a maid, and even a chauffeur who would pick up ladies for tea parties at her home and that she gave lavishly to local churches,” the Pomeroy Foundation said.
A photo of healer Daisy Nolan in later years.Courtesy of LeRoy Ellis
Towns fondly recalls Nolan. “The most intriguing thing I remember is her many dolls,” she said. Nolan collected Black and White dolls and asked to be buried with her collection, an unusual request which was reportedly granted with dolls placed both in her casket and in the cement vault. She is buried in Decatur’s Sykes Cemetery. Like her dolls, her secrets, medicinal and otherwise, are buried with her.