Ola Mae Forte died as she lived: well prepared and in high style.

When Forte died May 7, 1998, at the age of 103, she’d had her obituary typed for almost 10 years. All her family had to do was change the names of some of the preachers who had preceded her in death. “She’s a businesswoman,” granddaughter Delano Kimbrough said. “She’s organized.” The former beauty-school owner had also set aside what she wanted to wear — a blue evening gown, new lingerie, jewelry and gold heels. Some of her former students tinted her hair and painted her fingernails and toenails. “She loved to dress, and she loved high heels,” daughter Dorothy Goins said. Students said they remember Forte as an innovative and independent woman who educated hundreds of beauticians. “The majority of the people here in the city who are beauticians finished under her,” former student Virginia Stewart said. Stewart finished the course in 1945. Forte started her first school in 1932 in Oklahoma City, but returned to her native North Carolina during the Great Depression. She came to Winston-Salem with two goals: to beautify the people and to help Black women become independent. She opened LaMae Beauty College in 1937 at Patterson Avenue and Sixth Street in what was a thriving Black business district. It had doctors’ offices, groceries, drugstores and other shops. The school was in a tall brick building, with an assembly room on the first floor, a dormitory on the second and classrooms on the third. The motto: “LaMae is our name, to beautify is our aim.” Its function: “To train colored women and men for a gainful occupation, where they can be of more benefit to themselves and their race.” About 40 students matriculated each year, from as far away as Long Island, N.Y. Some boarded, though many lived in Winston-Salem and just came for the day. They took classes ranging from anatomy and hygiene to shop management and marketing. For recreation, the women played on a basketball team. They also held fashion and hair shows, culminating in a parade of hair styles by the graduates at commencement. The school continued on for 30 years, until it closed in 1975. The building was torn down about 1988. Forte continued to work part-time as a beautician and stayed active until the last few years. Funeral-home owner, Clark S. Brown, stayed in touch with his former Patterson Avenue associate. He went to see her on her 93rd birthday at her home on 25th Street, he said.

“I rang the bell and nobody came,” Brown said. “I turned to leave and saw she was at the rear of the house, washing her Buick automobile.”