Legends and fables: Storyteller spins a yarn about her life

ST. LOUIS -- Loretta Washington practices what she calls the world's oldest profession. She's a storyteller. She makes a living by dipping into her repertoire of 200 tales, legends, fables and stories, give or take a few.

One recent afternoon, Washington, 60, of Ferguson, was recounting the story of her great-grandmother, Ellen Walker, the woman she called Mama and who helped to rear her for four years in the Missouri Bootheel until Walker died in 1953 at age 93.

After a long career in bookkeeping and accounting, Washington, mother of two and a grandmother and great-grandmother herself, "stepped out there on faith."

She tells stories to children, adults, church and other religious groups and anyone else who wants to revisit one of the most ancient and revered forms of communication.

When she speaks to groups, Washington, president of Midwest Inspirational Storytellers, can earn more than $100 for less than an hour of captivating stories.

Her story of her great-grandmother is to appear in a soon-to-be-published book, "African-American Storytelling in Missouri," which will have many stories gathered and written by Gladys Coggswell of Frankford, Mo.

"Loretta was my apprentice," said Coggswell, a master storyteller.

Washington spent many hours listening to her great-grandmother tell stories. In those days, segregation of whites and blacks was both the law of the land and the custom of daily practice.

The little town in the heart of Missouri's cotton country had two grocery stores, one for whites, the other for blacks. There was a tavern for white patrons -- and a "juke joint" in the back for blacks.

On a recent afternoon, Washington was the featured speaker at Parkwood Elementary School in Maryland Heights, in the Pattonville School District.

"One day, Mama sent me out to get a willow branch for a snuff brush," Washington said, warming up to her tale. "She'd peel back the bark and chew it until it was soft. Then she'd put snuff into her lower lip.

"I knew I'd hear a story that day, and it'd be a good one," said Washington, her voice resonating with emphasis as she spoke to 200 youngsters from the third, fourth and fifth grades sitting cross-legged on the floor of the multipurpose room.

"Mama," she told the students, was born into slavery in Tennessee in 1860, the year before the American Civil War began.

After the slaves were freed at the end of the war in 1865, her great-grandmother's family moved to Missouri. When she was 18, M