[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 17]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 22483]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          CAPITOL HILL MOURNS THE PASSING OF THE COSTUME LADY

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 5, 2006

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Lola Beaver, a 
longtime Capitol Hill resident who owned and operated The Costume Shop 
for 34 years after an equally long and successful career as a dancer, 
choreographer and dance instructor. She died at home in her sleep on 
Tuesday, November 28. When she died at 96, Lola's sharp wit, sparkling 
intelligence and high-spirited spunk had not deserted the woman whose 
loyalty and love were treasured by countless friends, customers and 
neighbors.
  Born Luola (Lola) Murchison Hurkamp in Fredricksburg, Virginia, on 
July 5, 1910, she moved to the Washington area after her mother 
committed suicide when Lola was four years old. After five long years 
as a boarding student at the National Cathedral School, she graduated 
in 1929, came into her inheritance and promptly hopped on a Holland 
American liner headed for Europe. At summer's end, she returned to the 
States and arrived in New York City in a Chevrolet roadster that 
boasted a rumble seat and an item she had picked up in a Paris flea 
market and screwed onto the outside of her car: a French horn.
  The 1929 stock market crash forced Lola, a student at NYC's Grand 
Central Art School, to earn a living as a dime-a-dance girl. She met 
and married a struggling actor, Andy Beaver, who was sharing an 
apartment with Henry Fonda and Burgess Meredith. When her husband 
joined the Marine Corps, the couple moved to Washington, DC. After twin 
boys died within two months of their birth, Lola opened the Lola Beaver 
Dance School in downtown Washington.
  While her husband was fighting overseas, she performed for the troops 
at Washington's Stage Door Canteen and with the USO, traveling from the 
Caribbean to the Arctic with dancers from her school. A White House 
request that Lola create handmade bow ties to match President Lyndon 
Johnson's navy blue tuxedo marked her career move into costume design 
and rental. She moved to Capitol Hill in 1972 and converted a dry 
cleaning shop at the corner of 8th and A streets NE into The Costume 
Shop. ``I liked Capitol Hill,'' she told an oral historian. ``It had a 
nice small-town atmosphere. The people on the Hill are people you 
wouldn't mind knowing.'' Donna Brazile, my former chief of staff, moved 
across the street from Lola about 10 years ago. They became fast 
friends, and Lola knew that Donna was a friend to have. Donna virtually 
adopted Lola, cooking for her and nurturing Lola with friendship until 
the end.
  Along with the city's most prestigious live theaters and Halloween 
revelers of all ages, members of Congress and burlesque queens, Lola's 
customers included every president from Johnson to Bill Clinton. During 
the height of the Watergate scandal, the lifelong Democrat took 
particular glee in outfitting then Indiana Sen. Birch Bayh as a burglar 
and his wife as a bug for Halloween. The ever-slim beauty with a thick 
mane of white hair never hesitated to render her opinion on a 
customer's choice of costume or actual weight. ``You're too fat for 
that dress'' or ``You should be a pirate/princess/clown--you look like 
one'' were the price of rental at The Costume Shop. Regarding the 
elegant turn-of-the century cutaway Bill Clinton rented, Lola recalled, 
``He was bigger than I thought he was. He must've worn a corset when he 
had his picture taken.''
  It was considered a high honor to be invited to join Lola, a 
grandmother figure for countless Hill residents, children and adults 
alike, for a bourbon-soaked ``teatime'' that lasted until the wee hours 
of the morning. Many a glass of Jim Beam will be raised in her honor at 
a luncheon that will immediately follow a memorial service to be held 
December 9 at Christ Church, noon, 620 G St., SE.
  In lieu of flowers, Lola, a lifelong animal lover, asked that 
contributions be made in her name to the Washington Humane Society 
(washhumane.org) and The Elephant Sanctuary (elephants.com).

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