Peninsula In Passage

She walked miles along US 17, sometimes pushing a lawnmower. She took her purple to the roadside, painting utility poles purple as high as she could reach. The power company’s linemen, surprised to find the purple poles, repainted them but after Rachel painted them purple again, they gave up. “She’s tenacious and people seem to love her,” Delzorra says. One man saw the purple poles re-appearing and volunteered to paint her house purple. “She loved it,” Delzorra says. “I was always proud of her celebrity.” And she was a celebrity. Beverly Outlaw remembers when her daughter was in high school her English teacher promised an A to any student who, over the summer, could find and interview The Purple Lady. Since Rachel occasionally walked as far as the Outlaw farmhouse on Nansemond Parkway and stopped there for a rest and cool drink, Kristen Outlaw easily earned that A grade.

One of the many local Purple Lady stories recalls that the farm she lived on was sold to developers years ago with the provision that she would be allowed to remain in her house. But later the developers decided to sell the property and approached Rachel about moving. She threatened to put a hex on both of them that would leave them penniless in 10 years. They never sold the land. The Purple Lady, now quietly living in Belleville and still wearing purple, remains a legend, unique to North Suffolk. A spiritual woman, who was also known as The Purple Prophetess, Rachel prays often and, through a veil of early dementia, can still quote a myriad of Bible verses. When Kurt Hofelich, President of Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, was running the Sentara BelleHarbour facility that opened in 2008 he heard stories about The Purple Lady. “I asked about her and got 15 different stories,” he says. He remembered those stories when it was time to erect the facility’s entrance sign on US 17. Quietly he deviated from Sentara’s usually closely regulated branding policy to have the word BelleHarbour set in purple. “The purple honors the Purple Lady and her ability to transcend race and age with her celebrity,” he says. “No one noticed but they will after this book comes out.” Left to right: Mary Priscilla Presha Gaines, Samuel Lester Presha, Howard Presha, Rachel Amelia Presha.

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