10/04/2026
Today Beanalli Coffee celebrates Birmingham's Mrs. Carrie Ware !
☕ Let me tell you about our Person of the Year.
Her name is Mrs. Carrie Foxx Ware. And if you've never met her, pull up a chair, because this woman has been beating the odds since the day she was born.
I mean that literally. It was 1943, in Gadsden, Alabama, and her mother almost didn't make it through the delivery. The doctors at Mercy Hospital had to do an emergency C-section. And out came this little girl, crying, already a fighter.
Now listen to this. When she was six years old, she and another little girl ran out in front of a car. The other little girl died right there at the scene. Carrie survived. Six years old. Think about that.
So not only is she our Person of the Year, she's a survivor. And she was just getting started.
She grew up and became a teacher. Fourth grade. Mrs. C. Ware. I've got her old yearbook picture right here, with her hair swept up and those hoop earrings, and that look on her face like, "I already know you didn't do your homework." And next to her picture, in blue ink, she wrote: "Best wishes to you forever." That was her. She meant it for every child who walked into her room.
She married Richard Lee Ware. He was a teacher too. He was an Army man who served in Vietnam, a Boy Scout leader and a Shriner. Together they raised two boys. There's a faded old picture of her in this bright orange-and-yellow flowered dress, holding a newborn wrapped in white, and somebody wrote his name underneath in red ink: Dishon.
In 1989? Breast cancer. She beat it.
Then came February 25, 2006. A drunk driver hit the car she was riding in with her husband, her son Richard Dishon, and his fiancée. She went into a coma. And when she finally woke up, months later, the funeral was already over. Her husband and her son were gone.
Now, a lot of people would have stopped right there. Not her.
She volunteered at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, telling the story of the city she lived through. She still goes out and puts red, yellow and pink flowers by that bronze marker that says "Richard Lee Ware, U.S. Army, Vietnam." She shows up for her grandbaby Madalynn's award night. She shows up for the Foxx family reunion in her red shirt like everybody else.
And then, get this, she wrote a book. A science fiction book! HUMANOIDS, Volume 1: Attack of the Aliens, by Carrie Foxx Ware. Robots, neon cities, a heroine with a crown on her head. That fourth-grade teacher never stopped imagining.
That's why Beanalli Coffee Station is naming Mrs. Carrie Foxx Ware our 2026 Person of the Year. We always say every cup is "The Richest Journey You'll Ever Taste." Well, hers is the richest journey I know.
If she ever taught you, or somebody you love, leave her a note down below. We're going to read every single one to her.
But not only is she Birmingham's jewel, she is also my mother.
I love you. ❤️
