(Courtesy Dawn Jackson)Īnd it was Myers who created Buddies’ unique style by infusing the club with her own unique personality. Sandy Myers, left, and Dawn Jackson, right, performed, and Genie Hendrickson, not pictured, emceed.
STARTING A TRADITION I The first show at Buddies was presented on a stage about the size of a table top in the bar’s first location on Fitzhugh Avenue. "You can’t talk about Buddies without talking about Sandy. It was her deal, and she did things her way," Jackson said. This new location offered much more space, including the back bar that was open during the day and an extensive patio, complete with a pool and a sand volleyball court.īut each time the bar moved, it carried with it a loyal base of employees and customers, and a style that was distinctly Sandy Myers, a woman who had a heart as big as her personality. In 1994, Myers and Jackson moved shop again, to the club’s current site at 2025 Maple Ave., and the "II" was added to the name. After about a year, the club moved to a new location on the corner of Lemmon Avenue and Mahanna Drive, where it stayed for 12 years. Jackson said the first Buddies was located "right next to the original Crews Inn" in the 3200 block of Fitzhugh, in a spot now populated by a Kwik Lube franchise and a dry cleaners. Myers, who had also owned a bar called Bacchus in Indiana, easily found work in the gay bars in Dallas. She decided right then that we were moving down here." Then we came down here to visit, and there was no snow. "We rented this apartment, and part of the deal was that Sandy would shovel the snow as part of the rent.
"It was the snow," Jackson said with a laugh. So she suggested he get Myers to manage it.Įventually, Jackson and Myers became a couple, and after a trip to Dallas to visit friends, they decided this was where they wanted to live. Not too long after that, Jackson recalled recently, the man who owned the club where she and her girlfriend danced decided he wanted to turn the place into a gay bar. Jackson said Myers’ death left her in shock for five years. HAPPY COUPLE I Dawn Jackson, left, and Sandy Myers had been together for 20 years when Myers died in August 2001. And one night Jackson and her girlfriend, another dancer, went to the bar where Myers worked. Jackson was a dancer, and Myers managed a gay bar. Jackson and Myers first met when they both lived in Indiana. But still, Jackson said, it’s hard to leave behind the employees and customers who have been her family, too, all these years, and to close the bar that she sees as Myers’ legacy to the LGBT community. Jackson has a new partner, Joy Terrell, and she will be moving to Terrell’s home in Gulfport, Miss., after she retires from the bar business. I just hope she can hang on until I get there." "But I could never forgive myself if I didn’t go and spend time with her before she passes. "I tell her I will be there as soon as I can, and she tells me, ‘Business first.’" Jackson said. The demands of business have kept her tied up here as her mother has grown sicker in Florida. Jackson has run the bar on her own since her partner of 20 years and Buddies founder Sandy Myers died in August 2001. "My mother is very ill, and I haven’t been able to spend much time with her in the last few years," she said. Not the least of those factors is that her own mother, who lives in Florida, is in failing health. And while she feels much the same way, there are a number of factors that played into her decision to close Buddies after 28 years. Owner Dawn Jackson said recently that she understands the shock and grief her customers are feeling. And for some people, it’s been their only family," Hendrickson said. "This was a home away from home for people. It’s always been more than just a bar," said Genie "Gene the Machine" Hendrickson, a current employee who has worked at Buddies in some capacity since it first opened. 27, for many people, it will be like losing a home. And usually, when a bar closes, the patrons can just go find another watering hole.īut when Buddies closes its doors for the final time on Sept. (TAMMYE NASH/Dallas Voice)īars come and go, especially in times of financial crisis such as these. Pictured are, from left, employee Becky Ramon, longtime customer Sharon Buford, employees Reesa Dillard and Genie Hendrickson, owner Dawn Jackson and bartender Betty Moore. By TAMMYE NASH I Senior Editor Dawn Jackson prepares to close down the country’s longest-running women-owned lesbian barĪ FAMILY AFFAIR I The staff and patrons of Buddies II are looking back at 28 years of fun at a bar where everyone was welcome and everyone was family as the legendary club prepares to close its doors for the last time on Sept.