- Date Of Birth: November 28, 1946
- Date Of Death: May 29, 2016
- State: Georgia
Elaine Bryant-Day was one of those rare individuals who became fascinated early on in life by a whim that, later on, could be a means of making a living. She was born on November 28, 1946 and was one of two daughters born to the late Mason Elbert and Mabel Irene Pate Bryant.
From childhood, Elaine was entranced by the possibilities of enhancing one’s looks with makeup and hair styling. As a young person, she delighted in styling hair for any of her aunts who were willing to let them be her guinea pigs. That love for the style set the course for the rest of her life. As fate would have it, marriage and the birth of her son delayed her achievement of these goals for a short time. She took a job with McCalla Insurance during the day, but would travel to Forest Park for beauty classes. Managing her lifestyle as a wife, mother, office worker, and student presented many challenges- more than many would attempt. Elaine was a Bryant woman, though. They are known for their strength of character, tenacity, and work ethic. The opportunity of a lifetime landed in her lap when a friend of hers offered to let Elaine buy her shop. She convinced the bank that loaning her the money for the purchase was a good idea. From that day forward, she never looked back and took the greatest joy in running that business for 43 years. Elaine was a woman for the times. She was one of the first to honor both her own family and the name of her son in the manner of her legal name, Elaine Bryant-Day. She would introduce modern concepts into her styles at the shop and even added tanning beds. In fact, it was a tanning bed customer who became smitten by her charms. Ed Williams would soon become her life partner for the next 18 years. Elaine relished the good times and endured with incredible strength the bad times including a bout with breast cancer and her own terminal diagnosis of respiratory illness and heart disease. She, like her predecessor in business, was able to pay forward when she offered to sell her business to a new owner.
Elaine was a woman of great compassion, brutal, at times, in her honesty, but in the end the best friend one could ever find. She identified with the songwriter who penned the phrase “I Did it my Way”.
She is survived by Ed Williams; her greatest joy and son Reginald Mason (Brenda) Day and Brenda’s daughters Stephanie Ford, Kasey (Drew) Harvill. She was a devoted sister to Connie Bryant (Mickey) Posey. In her own words, “I have more Bryant and Pate relatives than you could shake a stick at”.
