Widowed at thirty, Alice Minor achieved uncommon business success for a woman of her generation. A professional dressmaker whose elite clientele included wives of University of Virginia presidents, she also had a sideline growing and selling boxwoods, flowers, cherries, and grapes. Neighborhood children liked to hold meetings in her home, popping corn around her pot-bellied stove. She recruited them to harvest cherries and grapes, some for regular customers and some for themselves and their families. She lived well, supporting herself with style for ninety-nine years.