LaCheryl Wilson, 64, who has lived on the streets of Oak Lawn for more than 30 years, has passed away. Known as “Crazy Mary,” and more recently “The Queen of Oak Lawn,” she was a fixture on the streets of Oak Lawn, especially along Cedar Springs Road.
While the name “Crazy Mary” was derisive at first, it became an affectionate term over the years, and Wilson answered to the name “Mary.”
In a Dallas Voice article about her in 2013, Richard Longstaff, the first gay retailer on the strip who opened Union Jack in 1975, called her a fixture in the community. In the 1980s, he’d tell her to move along, but said he didn’t do that anymore.
“I’ve gotten kind of attached to her,” Longstaff said at the time.
Dallas Voice Distribution Manager Linda Depriter said when she’d see Wilson, she’d take her to her favorite place, Starbucks, and buy her something to eat. Depriter said Wilson always wanted two sandwiches, but that was OK, since it might have been all she had to eat that day.
The story Wilson told about how she became homeless was that she ended up on the street after her husband died. She would have been in her late 20s at the time.
Latisha McDaniel started a Facebook page for people in the neighborhood to look after Wilson.
“Mary represents everything good and ugly about Oak Lawn,” McDaniel said at the time of that article.
If Wilson was seen in winter without a coat, someone on the page would make sure she got one.
The page is still active and tributes to Wilson are pouring in as news of her death spreads.
At times, Wilson became out of control and police would take her to Parkland Hospital, where she would spend a few days getting her medications under control. Occasionally, she spent several months at the state facility in Terrell.
Dallas Voice reported that in 2014 Wilson was picked up on a criminal trespass charge and was in Lew Sterrett on $500 bond. She was held in county jail several months before charges were dismissed.
To visitors on the strip, Wilson was probably just an annoyance. But to anyone who has been going to Cedar Springs Road for years, her death is a tragedy. She’s been a gayborhood fixture since Oak Lawn became the home of the LGBT community and she’ll be missed.
— David Taffet
Thank you for this kind article. It underscores the fact that so many of our homeless suffer from untreated or under-treated mental illness. Thank you to the group who looked after Mary. It represents what is great about this city and this country. – a willingness to help others with no expectation of a thank you or a financial return.
We’ll miss the Queen!
I’m so sad to hear of her passing.
I got to know her while working part-time at Off The Street in the 90’s. We had our moments, but she was loved. RIP Our Dear “Crazy Mary”.
Thank you for covering her passing. She’s someone we all worried about always. For a long time, her whereabouts and condition was simply word of mouth. I was hoping her passing and praying her passing was somewhere that she liked being but still don’t know that detail.
Thank you for letting us know, my heart goes out to the homeless we always try to help them out
It’s touching to see her life commemorated. Does anyone know of her family members, or if there will be a memorial? Thank you for sharing!
I didn’t see any reference to a source of information.?
it would be nice if there were a memorial for her on the strip so that she isn’t forgotten.
R.I.H. Angel!!!??
Jesus knows your name❤
This really saddens me but touches me at the same time. Sad to see such a legend in the community go, but good to see she made such an impact in all our lives that her passing inspired an article in the community news.
I moved to Dallas when I was 19, and lived in the vicinity till I was 21. Even then in 1990, she was such a staple in the area that everyone knew her by Crazy Mary. I’ll admit that I didn’t think too much about her at that time in my life. That was until a day in the hours around 2 or 3 in the morning that I stopped by the iHop just north of Park LN and Central after a night I had spent with friends in Oak Lawn. I remember how surprised I was to see her there because I had never seen her anywhere but Oak Lawn. I saw her as she was approaching the front door of the restaurant as I was sitting near a window. She stopped and bent over to pick up a cigarette someone had stepped on as they entered the building, and she was trying to roll it out so that she could get a drag or two from it. She came inside and sat down at the counter. I can’t remember if they had given her a cup of coffee or she was begging for one, but I do remember seeing the waitresses act annoyed she was there, and none of them wanted to deal with her.. I was just about finished with my meal and my waitress brought me my ticket. I called her closer and asked that they make Her a grilled cheese sandwich and fries, but told the waitress not to tell Mary who bought it for her. I waited around till they served it to her. She flashed the biggest snaggle-tooth smile I had ever seen. I then paid for our meals and left, but I can still see her sitting at that counter and that smile even today.
I’m happy to see that others in the community thought enough about her to look after her. Thinking about her and the life she lived brings to mind two songs (I’m a former DJ, everything reminds me of a song). The first one is the song I related to her then by Crystal Waters, “Gypsy Woman”, and the second song by Phil Collins, Another Day In Paradise. To this day I think about Mary when I hear those songs. RIP Mary. You’ll never be hungry or In need of shelter again.