ACROSS THE COUNTRY

The Bodacious Belles, a women’s group in Beaufort, N.C., shows the difference a network of support can make in an aging America.

WHY WE’RE HERE

We’re exploring how America defines itself one place at a time. In Beaufort, N.C., a group of women offers a window into what contemporary aging can be in a nation that is rapidly getting older.

Feb. 24, 2024

Martha Barnes’s home was buzzing. It was a Saturday in little Beaufort, N.C., time to get ready for the town’s Mardi Gras parade, and women were zigzagging around the house, applying makeup, laughing and calling out repeatedly for the Fireball Cinnamon Whisky sitting on the kitchen counter.

“If you want to say something,” one woman hollered above the din, “you better scream it!”

Ms. Barnes’s home is not a sorority house — she is 86 years old. But, for the day, it was something of the sort: the meeting spot for the Bodacious Belles — the town’s locally famous group of rambunctious retirees — eager to win best in show for the parade, again.

“We’re not very contained,” said Ms. Barnes, who is the Queen Mother of the group.

The Belles are a chapter of The Sweet Potato Queens — an international network of more than 6,500 women’s groups that aim for a similar balance of amusement and mutual support.

Throughout the year, the Belles perform in Beaufort’s holiday parades and organize activities among themselves, like going to the movies, playing dominoes and singing karaoke. But they have known one another for years, forming more than meaningful friendships.