DC’s ‘Hat Lady’ Dies at 103 After Half a Decade Designing Radiant Hats for Maya Angelou and Others
by Stacy Jackson

November 2, 2022

DC’s ‘Hat Lady’ Dies at 103 After Half a Decade Designing Radiant Hats for Maya Angelou and Others

From working as an elevator operator in a hat store to later crafting some of the most sought-after designs, the owner of Washington’s most acclaimed hat and bridal shop has passed away.

Vanilla Beane, also known as “D.C.’s Hat Lady,” reportedly died Sunday, Oct. 23, in a hospital in Washington.

According to The Washington Post, Beane was 103 years old, and her grandson, Craig Seymour, shared that complications following an aortic tear were the cause.

Beane was known for the radiant hats she designed and fabricated at the Bené Millinery and Bridal Supplies shop on Third Street, NW. Her creations drew the attention of African American women who wanted to purchase hats for special occasions like church, weddings, and funerals. Each design was one of a kind and offered a selection of hats that included tams, turbans, Panamas, sailors, and cloches.

“Nobody wants to walk into a church and see someone else wearing their hat,” she once said, according to The Washington Post.

Writer and poet Maya Angelou and Dorothy I. Height, founding matriarch of the U.S. civil rights movement, were some of the notable African American women to wear Beane’s fashions.

The outlet reported that Beane made her hats the old-fashioned way. Her technique included wetting a stiff cotton, called buckram, molding it, and decorating it with different fabrics.

“Some people like real fussy hats,” she told The Washington Post in 2009.

“Others like sophisticated hats, and a lot of people like simple hats. I try to please people regardless of their race or background.”

Reportedly, D.C.’s “Hat Lady” worked six days a week for half a century, including her 100th year, turning her fingers rough and stiff.

“The hat tradition grew out of the idea that you were expressing how God has blessed you,” Craig Marberry, co-author of Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats, said in a 2019 story about Beane in The Washington Post.

“The more flamboyant a hat, the more God has blessed you.”

Some of Beane’s hats are reportedly displayed at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, including a green velveteen design and a red, felt bicorn style.


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