patricia butler , daughter of an augusta , georgia , a.m.e. minister father and a schoolteacher mother , who lived with her grandmother in southwest fulton in order to attend beck ; tobacco brown , possessing full thighs and wide pelvis and a tongue as saturated by the burning fluids of blue-collar alleys as by the gentle waters of bourgeois pews ; frank and intimidating from afar , warm and bosomy and protective up closesomeone you wanted on your side when your team ventured into frightening territory ; startled eyes and thick nose ; gapped incisors and generous lips ; a snazzy dresser off court , not pretty , but a lover of men and effective with them and therefore vain ; a young woman who would mature into one of those industrious old ladies who took the lead in church kitchensthe large-breasted , broad-hipped , bossy ladies who were as quick to spew anecdotes about remembered youthful passions as they were to call on the name of the lord .