(Editor's Note: Hello all! We have been delighted to read your heartwarming memories and response to this article, which originally published in the September 14, 2023 edition of the McNairy County News and wished to share it with you all on our website, as well. We hope you enjoy it!)
Honoring history of beloved laundromat through renovations
By Drew Wheeler
Editor
SELMER - Theadee Sebree’s initials are still on the post years later.
The post in question is located at 114 Houston Avenue, at the corner of Front Street, at the former Sunshine Launderette.
Susan Lee, who currently owns the building her late husband, Robert, and his family, dating back to his own father, Charles Lee, have owned all the way back to the initial plat of the Town of Selmer, Tennessee in 1895.
“The piece of land where this building sits is on the original plat given to Henry Parker Wood, who was the first Mayor of Selmer,” said Lee. “It is a historical building in itself, as it was also temporarily a jail and firehouse for Selmer in the early 1900s – the brick in certain parts of the building is over 100 years old.”
For the last few months, the building has been empty and more recently, undergoing a series of intense remodeling efforts, but according to Sebree, the Sunshine Launderette was a veritable “hub of activity” in its heyday.
The Sunshine Launderette opened in 1962, but Sebree recalls the building being “the hangout” through the 1970s and into the 1980s and 1990s.
“After school, teenagers would come down, hang out, eat cereal burgers, and talk about their plans for the next week,” said Sebree. This was the go-to place, a hangout for all different ages and different folks.”
While Sebree insisted “some, of course” would come to do their laundry, the teenagers who flocked to the building would never bother those there to clean their clothing.
“It was the sweetest thing you’ve ever seen in your life,” said Sebree.
Speaking about being a teenager in the early 1970s and seeing photos of teenaged people in California “hanging out at burger joints, sitting on the hoods of their cars,” Sebree said the Sunshine Launderette was the same kind of thing for the kids in Selmer.
“It was so cool to come here and hang out,” said Sebree. “You ate your burgers and hung out.”
The Launderette ran from 1962 until 2010, owned by Burl Armour and partner Charles Lee.
Sebree said the business’ owners were “as good as any”, and no one would “treat you nicer than Mr. Lee did.”
Recounting times he saw patrons explain a machine had eaten money or broken on the job, Sebree said Lee “never accused anyone or thought they were lying,” but gave them their money back “without saying a word,” and mused while times have changed now, he believes this philosophy kept Lee in “such good business for so long.”
Beyond his business practices, Sebree also explained how Lee would allow teenagers to write their names on the load-bearing poles in the laundromat.
“Teenagers would come on weekends and after school and just eat these poles up,” said Sebree. “Mr. Lee would repaint them over and over but never said anything to us either.”
Sebree described the laundromat as bucking any stereotype you could imagine with regards to the southern United States in the time post-segregation, as well, stating there was “never” racial tension during the years the Sunshine Launderette was in business.
Mr. Lee was open to people of all color, and it didn’t matter what color your skin was, you were welcome in his store,” said Sebree. “Everybody here was one group.”
Sebree remembers meeting “so many” good people with “good attitudes,” cannot recall having a bad time at the Sunshine Launderette and laughed remembering the elder folks trading goods outside the laundromat’s doors.
“You got a kick listening to the old folks trading outside,” said Sebree. “They had a great time.”
“When some of my family came to town recently, you had better believe they wanted to drive by the old laundromat,” said Sebree. “It was the best life we ever had, and we did not know it.”
Many of those who lived and loved the Sunshine Launderette for what it was are no longer with us.
“A lot of the people who enjoyed the Launderette for the hangout spot have passed away, but this is going to be a dream to come true to see this building really live again,” said Sebree. “I believe it made this town what it is today.”
Looking at old photos of the Launderette in its prime, Sebree mused it was a precursor to social media.
“You caught all the information here, saw person-to-person trading or a marketplace, you got news here, and people just kept coming and coming,” said Sebree. “This really was like social media before it existed.”
Sebree hopes the building can soon house another business which will encourage the same sense of community.
“This building would have really come full circle if it could become like it was again,” said Sebree.
Lee believes the new business will do just that.
“Of all the businesses, it is interesting how the one looking to move into this space could recapture the spirit of the Sunshine Launderette – welcoming to all ages, races, everyone, and become the same sort of hangout for the new generation and beyond,” said Lee. “We want to bring some cultural awareness to Selmer and hope this can accomplish our goal.”
Nearly 61 years have passed since Bill Littlejohn painted the words “Sunshine Launderette” on the side of the building facing Houston Avenue. The words faded long ago.
Regardless of either how much time has come and gone or how successful the new business can become, the memories which were made inside the Sunshine Launderette will never fade with time.
“A lot of old timers like me, we will never forget this place,” said Sebree. “It was the most humble, peaceful place you could ever find.”
Photo by Drew Wheeler
Theadee Sebree and Susan Lee reminisce about the Sunshine Launderette while looking at a framed piece of signage from the laundromat’s history. Lee, the building’s current owner, is in the process of remodeling the historical building to prepare for a new business to continue adding to the building’s stories.