I was looking through the news articles on the Indianapolis Star web site the other day and ran across this unfortunate story.
Original Article
“The Flower Lady” who for years sang inspirational tunes and sold roses from a wheelchair on Downtown street corners died Sunday.
Inez Powell, 61, had an apparent heart attack and fell off her wheelchair at Washington and Illinois streets at shortly before 4 p.m. She was pronounced dead at Wishard Memorial Hospital. The death is natural, according to the Marion County coroner’s office.
Cold is not believed to have been a factor in Powell’s death. A deputy coroner’s report noted Powell wore several layers of warm clothing.
An autopsy is pending, but coroners suspect Powell’s long history of health problems contributed to her death. Powell had polio at age 2 and survived a serious car crash in 1991, she told The Star in 1999.
Fearing rowdiness from college basketball fans in 2000, The Indianapolis Police Department asked Powell to bring her sweet singing voice outside the RCA Dome in hopes that she’d provide a calming influence after that year’s NCAA Final Four.
“I used to be at Illinois and Washington,” Powell told The Star. “But the police told me they’d rather have me at Illinois and Maryland (across from the dome), because they say my singing calms crowds down. They don’t riot if I sing.”
I remember hearing her sing several times. She would sit in her wheelchair at the northwest corner of Maryland and Illinois, across from the Steak N’ Shake (which is probably where I was eating dinner). I don’t exactly remember any of the music, to be honest, but I remember her having quite a set of pipes because she could be heard from at least a block away, if not more.
Anyway, It makes me wonder what other interesting stories are out there. The unfortunate thing is that I tend to just avoid the people I see every day on the streets of downtown, but I think it would make for a good oral history project, none-the-less.
