Carol Dean

Hi, my name is Carol Dean, known as Sister Dean and Miss Carol in the community. I have lived in the community ever since I was little—grew up in the community—and I just loved it. It was a wonderful place to live. Like Miss Mary was saying, my sister, the fact is that everybody knew each other. You looked out for each other. There was just a lot of love.

Just being in the courts, everybody would be barbecuing when the holidays came. It was just like a family, and that’s how it was.

I work at Taft High School with the kids. Most of the kids I have now are the kids of people we knew. We know their families. We can call their parents or guardians if they're not doing what they're supposed to do and try to mend that gap. We're someone they can feel comfortable talking to, and we can also talk to the parents so they can get a little hold on things.

I'm a person in the community who loves the children. I love it. One of them can walk in the room, and I can look at them and say, ‘You’ve got to be some kin to so-and-so,’ and they’ll say, ‘Yeah, that's my mom,’ or, ‘That’s my aunt,’ because they look just like them.

We still do Vacation Bible School. We've done it for years in the summertime. We host it four days a week during the month of July. We get them together in what we call backyard Vacation Bible School. We do it right where they live so they don’t have to travel far or cross the street alone—we’re right there. And they love it.

It was a village—a real-life village. I was in Lincoln Court. Miss May, I think, was in Laurel Homes. And it was an experience I loved. That’s why I haven’t moved. I love the West End.