Debbie McDaniel: The Caffeinated, High-kicking, Baby-loving, Business-owning, Insurance-providing Qu

We had done our homework. Debbie McDaniel is a well-established and respected business owner in Columbia, SC. We read the articles. We visited her stores. Everyone seemed to know her, except us. To say we were eager to meet her would be an understatement. However, none of that could had prepared us for what it was like to actually meet her in the flesh. If the lovely, yet ominous, “She reminds me of an older Brittany!” was a clue, we missed it entirely.

Finally, the day came. Nestled in the back of The Local Buzz, a neighborhood coffee stop, Brittany and I settled in, looking for a woman-of-a-certain-age with short gray hair -- intel we collected from some pre-interview Facebook investigating. Exactly on time, a woman appeared at the counter, dressed in all-black with short, salt and pepper hair. I liked her already. But before I could collect another thought, she spotted us. Her face lit up with a smile so large and infectious, combined with a bellowing call to Brittany, it left us both stunned and enraptured by her presence. It was in this moment that we were swept up in a whirlwind of laughter, tears, and a lifetime so rich with living it would be impossible to leave uninspired.

“Wait, wait, wait.” Brittany pleaded, as she fumbled to set up her recorder. “We don’t want to miss anything.” Debbie, gracefully obliged, if only long enough to take a breath. It became clear we better keep up or be left behind. Never had I ached for a real-life pause button so badly. She was easily the most exuberant person I’d ever met, and I wanted to soak up every minute of our time together.

Debbie is the retired (I use that word loosely here) owner of Revente, Sid and Nancy, and Revente’s Second Chances in Five Points in Columbia, SC. She came to the Midlands in 1970. “I walked down Greene street, turned onto Saluda and I had this overwhelming feeling, I’m home. It was so strange,” she recalled. But she was right: the intersection of those developing streets would become home to her in more ways than one. Not long after arriving in the Midlands, she landed her first retail job in Five Points at a blue jeans store located on the same block that is now Revente and Sid and Nancy. From there, she says, she just sort of fell into the retail business, working a gig at The Happy Dashery from around 1976-86, and eventually opening her first store, Revente, in the early nineties.

Debbie’s unbelievable success as a business owner is notable for a couple of reasons. Not only did she managed to create the career of her dreams by working for herself, she’s also done it as a woman in the South, at a time when women weren’t necessarily owning and running businesses on their own. In addition to beating the odds of social construct, and creating multiple businesses that live on in the heart of Five Points, Debbie did it all while maintaining her conscience. “My husband always tells me I’m giving away the store,” she joked. For example, Debbie was one of the first small business owners in town to offer health insurance to her employees. She understood the social concept that when a business takes care of its employees, it gets better, healthier, happier workers, and ultimately, a superior customer experience. And she understood the even simpler concept of: it’s the right thing to do. Debbie sold clothes, but more importantly, she recognized the people behind the clothes.

Speaking of the people behind the clothes, Debbie’s favorite people-behind-the-clothes might be her “shop babies.” She beamed with the pride of a grandmother, talking about two children of her former employees, whom she allowed to grow in the shop. I wondered as I listened to her if she didn’t realize just how unusual, progressive, and inspiring it is to create a space that her employees were able to bring their newborn children to work. This, I thought to myself while listening to her talk about baby Max, is what women supporting women looks like in practice.

As she bounced seamlessly from one subject to the next, and back again with acrobatic ease, it became increasingly clear just how free a spirit Debbie McDaniel is. One minute, she was opening her heart to us about the humbling and painful experience of caring for her mother as she battles Alzheimer’s -- leaving all of us in tears. The next, she was extolling stories of her and the “Bonwit Bitches,” a group of women she’s known for decades from working together at the now-extinct Bonwit Tellers in Columbia.

​It was nearing the end of our time together. I had long since given up on sticking to our script of questions, but decided to ask her one that has become customary -- if for no better reason than we are always fascinated to hear the answer. “Are you a feminist?” I posited to her. We should have predicted her answer, but again, we did not. Debbie laughed aloud, doubled over with the hilarity of the question, then shot back up, and threw her leg straight in the air, as if to flash us. “Damn it! I thought I was wearing a skirt!” She exclaimed. “Of course I am!” From our time together that afternoon, I’d gathered that she would say yes, but not in a million years would I ever have predicted the method in doing so.

That’s the thing about Debbie, though. Her methods aren’t the norm. Her life isn’t the usual. She revels in her individuality, and lives fiercely by what she knows is right. This is precisely what makes Debbie so incredible to be around. She’s so open with her heart, passions, time, and money; you’d expect her to be predictable. But she’s not. Her joie de vivre in some way becomes customary if you spend enough time around her, but there is absolutely no way to know what will happen the next time you see her.

As Brittany and I left that day, a bit in daze, and still laughing, we took great pleasure in having met such an inspiring woman as a business owner, a feminist, and free-spirit. We also had the satisfaction of knowing we made a new friend.