Sister Hazel

If you ever met Hazel Naramore, you didn’t have to worry about which Hazel you’re going to get. If you haven’t, there are a few things you need to know about her:1. She has been known for telling it like it is.2. She makes a mean coconut cake.3. She’s as tough as a pine knot.“If she thinks I’m makin’ a wrong choice about somethin’, she’d just point blank tell you,” says Hazel’s friend Kathy Cooner.LaRue Wakefield seconds that.“If she liked you, she liked you, and if she didn’t, you knew it. She didn’t talk behind your back, she told you straight to your face,” she says.For the last thirty-plus years of her life, Hazel has been telling it like it is as a real estate agent in Walker County. She’s worked at several agencies, and her last gig was at All Four Real Estate before cancer diagnosis forced her to stop selling homes last summer. Hazel is now a resident at Ridgeview Health Services in Jasper.No matter which agency Hazel worked, the stories are all the same.“We just clicked right of the bat,” says Kathy. “We’d go eat three days a week. We’d go to Victoria’s, but her favorite was Lin Garden.”With Hazel, Kathy says, there was never a quick bite to eat, because Hazel suggested that food should be chewed “exactly 27 times” before swallowing. “It took her nearly an hour to eat,” laughs Kathy.She also says that Hazel was “like a grandmother” and cherishes the friendship that the two have shared for years. “She has been there listenin’ to me gripe. I’m gonna tell you what, I’ve really learned a lot from her. She knows a lot about real estate. She’s a very, very precious lady,” says Kathy.Kathy also claims that lifelong lessons—more potent than the message inside any fortune cookie—were a product of those weekly lunches with Hazel. “She always taught me to live by the Golden Rule. If a situation comes up, you would live under the Golden Rule. She would say to do unto others as you would have done unto you,” Kathy says.Kathy recalls other anecdotes, particularly the time when Hazel was at a real estate closing and the family accidentally left their newborn baby at home.“Hazel like to died!” says Kathy.Hazel was a committed real estate agent, and gave a great deal to her profession. Now it is time for her friend to give back. Since Hazel’s diagnosis, Kathy has been showing Hazel’s listings, which are still smattered in blue-and-white signs throughout Walker County.LaRue also says that when she moved to Jasper from Haleyville in 1987 to become a real estate agent, Hazel took her under her wing. “She taught me everything I know about real estate,” says LaRue. “Back then, she was the top agent. She was my mentor.”Hazel’s antics and quick wit have made her a popular character in real estate circles, but not all tales can be told in print, as both Kathy and LaRue suggest.Some can.“The first time she met my husband Sonny, she said, ‘Well, I like him. And I think I like him better than I like you!’” says LaRue.Hazel grew up in Jasper and was the only daughter of Will and Dolores Watson. She had four brothers: Arthur, Huel, Jackie, and Charles. Before they died, Will and Dolores gave each sibling a couple of acres on Jones Dairy Road, and that is where Hazel has lived ever since.Hazel married Alvis Naramore and the couple had two boys, Jack and Gene. Alvis ran a Shell service station beside the old Dairy Queen, and was a member of the Alabama legislature from 1970 to 1982. Hazel and Alvis were married for 31 years before splitting ways 31 years ago. Jack has worked in banking for 32 years, and Gene has been with Drummond Coal Company for over forty years.Hazel started selling real estate over thirty years ago. She worked for Tommy Simmons at Coldwell-Banker and then at Lawson Realty before signing on with All Four.Jack, who lives in Montgomery and is the Head of Business Development for South Alabama at Wells Fargo, holds fond memories of his mother. “She was a great mom. She used to ferry me around the ballpark. We would go fishing at Walker County Lake, and I remember she used to blow the car horn whenever it was time for me to come out of the woods,” he says.Jack describes his mother as “as tough a bird as you’ll ever find” and says that she loved to play Rook and make coconut cake. “Everyone always wanted to know the recipe, but she wouldn’t give it to them.”Hazel attended First Nazarene Church in Jasper, but also loved to watch Pastor Steve Gaines at First Baptist of Gardendale, when his sermons were broadcasted on TV. “She got pretty religious in later years,” says Jack.But it is her steely resolve that people will remember most about her. Telling the truth. Not pulling any punches. Sharing her knowledge with others.The bunch at All Four Real Estate have high praises for their colleague. “Hazel is a very caring, loving, and giving person,” says agent Carrie Patton.“She’s forgotten more than most people around here know about real estate,” says broker James Ann Martin. “One of the most knowledgeable agents I’ve ever been around. I mean, when you think real estate in Walker County, you think Hazel Naramore. She worked well with the people here at All Four. She helped everybody out, because she knew so much. And she was fair. And what else can I say? Hazel is just Hazel!”Jack says that he once asked his mother, “Mama, have you ever been wrong about anything?”Hazel replied, “I was, almost. One time.” 78