Hunter

By Nehru Odeh

Louis Hunter, aka Mother, was indeed not just a mother of all but also a legend. Though she had 21 children of her own, she later had a shelter for the homeless in which she catered for many other children that were not hers.

However, the founder of Love and Charity Homeless Shelter and Mission, who also had 63 grandchildren and 87 great-grandchildren, died on Saturday at the age of 85.

According to BlackDoctor, her grandson DelRay Hunter, said in a phone interview that she died peacefully.  “She left us peacefully,” he said tersely.

DelRay said when her grandmother was alive she made sure everyone, both at the shelter and her family home was fed. “I can remember growing up when she cooked a meal for us; she didn’t just cook for us, she cooked for the neighbourhood,” DelRay said.

“Kids she didn’t even know, kids we didn’t even know, were in our house eating …we shared our house with the whole neighborhood.”

Hunter, an American, migrated to Racine from Mississippi and opened the Louise Hunter Love and Charity Club at 218 Main St., in the 1970s, where she spent decades catering for those who wandered through her doors. She then moved into the shelter when her youngest child finished high school.

Yet she operated the charity even when it grew into a full mission and shelter, caring for 15 to 20 homeless children every night until she retired in 2016.

Hunter was the subject of a book, The Life and Story of Louise Hunter and The Love and Charity Homeless Shelter, written by Dennies James Woods. The book has been adapted into a screenplay.