Ocracokers. She 

 has since moved 

 to a nursing home 

 in Swan Quarter. 



For most 

 of her life, 

 Muzel stayed on 

 Ocracoke. She 

 began working 

 as a domestic 

 at age 14, and 

 her employers 

 eventually 

 included historic 

 Ocracoke 

 families such 

 as the O'Neals, 

 the Braggs and 

 the Ballances. 



She never married, and she only changed her 

 career and location once: During her late teens 

 she worked for relatives in a restaurant in 

 Philadelphia. She returned to the island at age 

 20, and has lived there ever since. 



A SPECIAL CONNECT! 



Today, Muzel lives a quiet retiree's life 

 with her 50-year-old caretaker, Kenny Ballance. 

 His father worked alongside Lewis Bryant, one 

 of Muzel's brothers, in the U.S. Army Corps of 

 Engineers, and Muzel and her sister Mildred 

 looked after Kenny Ballance and his siblings, 

 Alton and Kathy. 



Ballance and others on Ocracoke 

 remember Mildred as the more outgoing and 

 talkative of the two sisters. "She taught us to 

 Charleston," he says, recalling dance lessons. 

 "She was like a mother to us." 



Although more shy than her younger 

 sister, Muzel's presence was still felt among the 

 community. She was known for her daily walks 

 along the unpaved, sandy road near her house. 



"We used to say she'd lurk in the bushes," 

 Howard remembers with a smile. The road 

 didn't have a shoulder, she explains, and Muzel 

 had to walk at the edge, often obscured by 

 overgrown bushes and tall oak trees. 



"She used to walk up and down the street 

 and watch who was coming," Howard recalls. 

 People often stopped their cars or came out of 



TOP: A traditional island road, similar to where Muzel would take her daily walks. BOTTOM, LEFTTO 

 RIGHT: Winnie Blount, Muzel's grandmother, was a former slave. She died in 1925, and was believed to be 

 about 100 years old. Elsie Jane and Leonard Bryant, Muzel's parents. They died in 1964 and 1960, respectively. 



their houses to chat with her. 



Howard remembers one particular 

 gentleman who regularly came down the road 

 to talk with Muzel. "We used to kid and say, 

 'oh, he's courtin' Muze!" says Howard. And 

 many mornings, another neighbor would leave a 

 newspaper in Muzel's driveway for her to read. 



"She kept a real close connection to 

 everybody, just by her presence out there," 

 observes Howard. 



But occasionally Muzel's walks turned 

 more adventurous, remembers Ballance. 



"I looked one day, and she was going down 

 the road in an old weapons carrier!" he says. 



Ballance and his friend were headed to the 

 post office when they spotted Muzel cruising down 

 the street. "I said. . . 'Wasn't that Muze that just 

 went by in that old Army weapons carrier?' " 



The owner of the vehicle, an employee at 

 the old Coast Guard station, had seen Muzel 

 walking along the road. "He stopped and put her 

 in there . . .and the two of them were going up the 

 road!" says Ballance. 



These days, Muzel doesn't go out walking 

 as much. Shortly after Mildred died in 1 995 at age 

 87, Muzel moved out of her family's house and in 

 with Ballance. Given his family's history with the 

 Bryants, taking care of Muzel seems only natural. 



22 HOLIDAY 2004 



