LUMBERTON — One blisteringly hot day in Los Angeles, a woman sat on the side of the road, alone on the pavement.

Her clothes were torn, her hair mussed up, and her feet were blistered and strikingly bare against the burning pavement.

Terry Henry watched her mother, Peggi Blu, as their car pulled to a stop at the red light. Blu considered the situation for a moment, then rolled down the passenger-side window and called the woman over.

“What size shoe do you wear?” she asked. “I don’t even know anymore, ma’am,” said the woman.

On hearing this, Blu reached down and pulled the shoes off of her feet, a pair of sandals with adjustable straps at the heel. As she sat back up, she stuck them out of the window and insisted the woman try them on.

“Are you giving these to me?” asked the woman, now wearing well-fitting shoes.

Blu told her that, yes, they were for her.

“God bless you, and go in peace,” she said. The light changed to green, and she drove away barefoot.

Peggi Blu was known for her singing, acting and dedication to her career, but her daughter, Terry Henry, also knew her as a role model of kindness and love.

“That was such a lesson to me in generosity,” Henry said. “I had never seen anyone else do that.”

Henry had flown out to visit her mother in LA after graduating from Johnson C. Smith University, planning to move closer to her, when her mother left without shoes.

While Blu traveled the world and eventually settled on the West Coast, Henry said she always boasted about being from Lumberton.

“That was her heart,” Henry said. “With all of the accolades my mother received, all the international acclaim, and the successes, that woman never let you or anyone else forget that she was from Lumberton, North Carolina!”

Henry said her mother’s adoration for her hometown always stemmed from the community being one big family to her.

Blu’s mother was one of 14 children, so Blu grew up with a plethora of aunts and uncles, cousins and family friends.

“Everyone knew who the Benton family was,” said Henry. “We had pastors, dressmakers, teachers.”

Having those connections in the community and being showered with love from all angles deepened her love of her hometown.

Blu was a renowned singer and actress with several albums and studio recordings to her name.

To Henry, Blu was also her beloved mother and role model. She lived with her mother until age 9, when she went into the care of her grandparents as Blu’s career took off and the need to travel arose.

Henry said her childhood with her mom was one filled with song and dance.

“There was nothing my mother did without humming or singing,” she said, “and every type of movement she made was like watching music. If you could see music, my mother is what it would look like.”

Blu took inspiration from Frank Sinatra’s musical style, saying he told stories with his music and emulated his musical “phrasing” with her songs.

“Her vocal styling was unique,” Henry said. “I always thought she was the greatest singer on earth and totally number one in my book. I was her biggest fan, and she knew it.”

Henry said she always wanted to grow up to be like her mother and credits her for passing on her passion for the arts.

When she was young, Blu worked as a nurse while singing gospel on the side before she made it big in the entertainment industry.

Henry said she first wanted to be a nurse, just like her mom was when she was a kid, before discovering her passion for the arts in second grade.

“After I got that first applause for being the scene announcer for ‘The Sound of Music,’” Henry said, “all I wanted to know was, ‘Mommy, when can I do that again?’ She said that was the moment she knew she couldn’t leave the acting world behind again.

Though Henry and her mother were very close, Blu’s career necessitated a distance that Henry has made an active effort to avoid having with her daughter.

“When I had my daughter, I decided that anything that would take me away from her, or cause me to have to have a nanny or to leave her with somebody, was not going to be the job for me,” Henry said. “You only get one opportunity to be a parent.”

She said she feels that the entertainment industry will always be there, but her daughter’s events won’t be.

“Even though I’m very proud of my mom, she didn’t attend all of my performances, she couldn’t,” Henry said. “She’s the one who spearheaded this passion in me; she had to continue to take the lead.”

Henry has attended all but a few of her daughter’s performances, her absences countable on one hand.

When her daughter was young, she also took her along to rehearsals and let her do her homework there or volunteer in the theater. She would learn how to assist the costuming department, help hand out programs, usher and do any other variety of theater jobs.

Henry said Blu’s creative nature shines through in her descendants. Henry’s daughter graduated Summa Cum Laude from Reinhardt University in 2023 with a degree in Musical Theater and Performing Arts and is an accomplished visual artist.

A memorial to Blu painted by her granddaughter will be on display at both her wake and memorial service.

Blu died on May 19 at age 78.

“The last thing I said to her was, ‘OK, Mom, I’ll see you in the morning; I love you,’” Henry said. “The next day, she was gone. Even though I prayed and asked God for 10 more years, I’m glad He at least gave me one more day.”

Henry, along with her brothers, John Roderick Henry and Christopher Lynn Perlman, will carry on their mother’s legacy, passing the torch to their children as well.

Blu’s music can be found on YouTube and her website, Peggiblu.com.

Her wake is scheduled for 6-8 p.m. Friday at Colvin Funeral Home, 1904 E. Elizabethtown Road., Lumberton. The memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at True Believers Church of the Almighty God, 2640 7th St., Lumberton.

Henry invites all who have a connection to her mother to attend both events and wear something blue in her honor.

“My mother has a lot of friends that are still there in Lumberton, people she’s grown up with, and people she’s seen perform,” Henry said. “I know there would be so many people who would hate missing it.”