HighBeam Research

Title: Eunice 'Kelly' Hamner; owned ShelterLounge in Chatham

Date:

March 12, 2002

Publication:

Chicago Sun-Times

Author:

JanetRausa FullerAt the Shelter Lounge and neighboring Shelter Deli on 87th Street, Chathamresidents gather often for corned beef sandwiches and casual chatter. That'sexactly the scene owner Eunice "Kelly" Hamner had in mind, but it tookyears of work and determination on her part to make it so.Mrs. Hamner, 76, a petite woman who was a permanent fixture behind thedeli counter, training new employees or slipping candy to students on theirway to and from school, died Thursday of lung cancer in her Chicago home.Mrs. Hamner was born in 1926 in Chicago and reared in the Bronzevilleneighborhood.She attended Wendell Phillips High School and studied businessadministration at Roosevelt University. She worked as a bookkeeper forseveral companies, including Evans furs, Allied Electronics and South CentralMusic Co.But what she really wanted to do was start her own business, her son, Theodore Evans, said. Mrs. Hamner envisioned a neighborhood tavern whereprofessionals like herself could gather to unwind.Mrs. Hamner opened the Shelter Lounge in 1966 with her third husband, LeeHamner, who was a well-known bartender in the area. The lounge was not a showy place with music or dancing, but it caught onwith locals and, gradually, with politicians, prominent black business andcommunity leaders and entertainers. In the 1980s, the Hamners expandedwith the opening of the Shelter Deli. When her son joined the business 12years ago, she reminded him it would be hard work."She said that you have to have the personality or the fortitude to drinkmuddy water and sleep in a hollow log in order to go into business foryourself," Evans said.Other survivors are her daughter, Shirley Fay Kelly, and two grandchildren.