The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

Living Beyond Politics

Corene McDaniel remembers being punished as a child and forced to lay underneath a bed surrounded by bottled fruits and jams for hours while she thought about what she did.

At the time, she and her nine siblings hated the punishment their mother often handed out, but they would make the most of it by sneaking a spoon under the bed and eating the delicious foods to pass the time.

It wasn't until a few years ago that McDaniel discovered her mother knew all along that the eight girls and two boys were eating from the jars. She then realized how much her mother really loved her despite being so strict.

"She made me into who I am today," she said. "It was a hard time growing up, but I wouldn't have had it any other way."

Carbondale residents know McDaniel as the first black woman to serve on the City Council, but it's the little things most citizens don't see that show a remarkable life far from politics.

Beneath the public persona, which sits in front of the city twice a month, lies an interesting history marked with many accomplishments - all of which stems from a strong ethnic background, rich with black history that has helped her lead a happy and successful life.

Although she has been a member of the council for three years, president and co-founder of The African American Museum of Southern Illinois, Girl Scout and owner of a beauty salon, McDaniel considers herself to be in "micro-retirement." At 54, she lives her life to the fullest and regularly travels with her husband Milton throughout the country and elsewhere.

"There's no such thing as settling down," said McDaniel, who plans to take a cruise to Nassau in the Bahamas with a friend in March.

She's also been to Aruba, Mexico and throughout the United States, including four trips to Washington, D.C., including the one she took Wednesday for the opening of the Southern Illinois African American Museum's Coal Miner's Exhibit at the Department of Interior. The exhibit will remain in D.C. until Feb. 28.

"It's going all over the country," she said. "It'll be at least a year before it comes back to the [University Museum]."

With her strong connection to the museum and being an active member of the NAACP, McDaniel was picked to serve as representative for the museum and therefore asked to make the trip.

Her love and history in southern Illinois is another reason why she is so involved in the community. She has lived in the area her whole life, including 38 years in Carbondale.

McDaniel attended Egyptian High School until, at 18, she decided to further her studies at SIUC. Her relationship with the school would continue until after she graduated, when she followed in her mother's footsteps by working at Building Services, but that wasn't her dream.

"I really wanted to own and manage a beauty salon," said McDaniel, who has been a stylist for 15 years. Within six months after graduating beauty school, she opened her own place. And Corene's Hair Palace, 508 E. Jackson St., still operates today. McDaniel said she only works a few days a week, and when she does, she likes to do as many pedicures as possible.

"That's an experience for me, to do their feet," she said. "Maybe it's the humble experience of doing feet. I just love it."

Brenda Brackett, who works in the salon, but does so independently by renting a styling booth, has worked next to McDaniel for six years. Before that, the two started as friends and have never had a single argument.

"She has the utmost respect for the human spirit," Brackett said. "She's a wonderful person to work with and we have a lot of fun."

Brackett said McDaniel has always been self-motivated and very goal oriented. Starting up a business right after school is just one example.

"She was a gutsy woman back then," Brackett said. "All the instructors at beauty school say you shouldn't open your own business right out of school, but she broke the rules. That's just Corene for you."

Aside from her love of running a salon and making feet beautiful, Corene's other passions include watching reruns of Perry Mason on the Hallmark Channel, being responsible for the distribution of all Girl Scout cookies in Carbondale and De Soto, and especially quilting.

"I love to quilt," she said. "But it wasn't always that way. My mother used to quilt and I hated it with a passion. She quilted all day long."

That hatred went away when McDaniel started quilting with older women at the Carbondale Senior Center, where she worked as a bookkeeper during college. As the years passed, her relationship with her mother improved and to spend more time together, they quilted.

McDaniel was brought to tears when she talked about how her mother and her were working on a quilt together, but never finished. Her mom died, and the quilt has sat unfinished in a hallway closet ever since.

"I just can't bring it out to finish it," McDaniel said, drying her eyes.

McDaniel said family has always been the most important thing in her life. She has two children, Zenetta and Milton Jr., who are nine years apart, and they both have a child.

Marleny, 3, and Sheridan, 17 months, are the jewels of McDaniel's eye. With their grandma sitting on the couch, the two girls took turns sitting on her lap and enduring numerous kisses and hugs. McDaniel has an arrangement with her children that allow her to see her granddaughters at least once a month, usually for a week.

McDaniel said the two girls are spoiled, but that's what grandparents are for.

" People always say they love being grandparents, but you never know until you have them," she said. "When they call you grandma for the first time, you just have them wrapped around your finger."

Spending lots of time with her husband has also been an important part of her life, and it almost didn't happen. She first dated him when she was 18, and did not like him. He had to smooth talk her into going out with her again.

It worked, and they were married three years later.

"He promised me all the things I needed and half the things I wanted if I'd marry him," McDaniel said, joking, adding that wants often turn into needs.

Milton joked back with, "You'll say anything when you're 18 and in love."

McDaniel said that, after all these years, she only has one complaint about her husband.

"He's always late," she said. "He has no conception of time."

The irony of this is that he spent 34 years as a locomotive engineer before retiring from the job that demanded trains always be on time.

Despite the one thing that bothers McDaniel, she is happy that Milton fully supports her efforts as a city councilwoman and encourages her if she continues to pursue the job after her four-year term is up next year.

This year, she is the only council member not up for election, aside from one councilwoman who is running for mayor, and said she will decide next year whether she wants to campaign again. She added that she loves the position and believes she helps make Carbondale a better place to live.

"It's wonderful to sit there and know that the community thought I would make a difference," she said.

Reporter Brian Peach can be reached at bpeach@dailyegyptian.com.