That time the hilarious and salacious Lady Chablis played Macon

They put her up at the Motel 6.

The Lady Chablis came to Macon steering an ice-blue Olds Ninety-Eight Elite.

She came dressed in a leathery mustard top, black felt boots, soft-powdered cheeks and lipstick red enough to turn Christmas into Valentine’s.

And they went and put her up at the Motel 6.

“I thought those went out of business when Doris Day did,” The Lady Chablis said as she sashayed in to sign books at a downtown gift shop Saturday evening.

“Can I get a glass of, ah, water, darling?” she asked someone. “A glass of champagne would be better.”

Then she sat sipping, not water, not champagne, but white zinfandel, ever the drag queen — one who was 90 minutes late and not at all proud of herself.

OK, well, maybe just a pinch.

“Don’t send me to Macon County jail,” she said. “I don’t think they can handle me. I really, really don’t. ... Should I be the new Cherry Blossom Queen? Should I?”

So she sat and she signed 50 or so books by John Berendt, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” about the Savannah scene that made her famous.

She signed more copies of her own book, “Hiding My Candy,” in a shop called Colors on Cherry.

To her right, on a bookshelf, sat “The Joy of Being a Woman.” To her left, on a magazine rack, was Provocateur magazine.

Behind her, a woman admiring The Lady Chablis said, “She is precious. She is just soooo precious.”

Then The Lady Chablis refused a young woman’s request to gush, “Ooooo, girl,” on cue.

She called a younger woman from Forsyth the B-word.

Her business card it lists her as “President” of Grand Empress Enterprises. She handed it to a fellow there and told him to send her a car payment sometime.

“I didn’t know that Macon was the type of city that would be so willing to support someone like me,” she said. “Or that it had people that would come out and support someone like me. ... Macon has turned it up. On the way to the book-signing, I saw four wig stores. Four wig stores! And they’re gonna be closed tomorrow.”

She signed books with her own pen, a fine-tipped, slender black one.

“I like this one,” The Lady Chablis said. “I do it better for some reason with this one than I do with those thick things. I’m not used to thick things.”

Then she bragged on her car.

She wanted folks to know that it was the Ninety-Eight Elite model.

“Elite,” she said, “the kind that your grandmama would drive if you went to medical school and wanted to buy her something nice.”

Before long, someone drew her a map to help her get back to the Motel 6 on Macon’s west side.

Then she invited some folks to the opening of her own club, Chablis’ Cabaret, in Savannah.

You’ll find it in the historic district, she promised.

“Won’t be hard to find. Just do this,” she said, sniffing hard. “Take a whiff. Follow the scent. Welcome to the Savannah League of Uptown Women, honey.”

This story was originally published September 8, 2016 at 2:51 PM with the headline "That time the hilarious and salacious Lady Chablis played Macon."