ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, December 13, 1995           TAG: 9512130031
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-1  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER 

SHE'S BACK ... AND THE OLD NEIGHBORHOOD REJOICES

Lucy Saleeba's kids wondered what to give their 73-year-old mother for Christmas. They settled on the whole store.

They reopened Saleeba's Grocery this week to get the little white-haired Southeast Roanoke grocer back into business and out of a two-year funk that had followed coronary artery bypass surgery and the closing of her business.

Since the store's Rainbo Bread door swung open Monday morning, the word's been getting around. Letter carriers, police officers, mechanics, neighbors and other old customers are showing up.

Saleeba, operator of the store for 45 years, has a limited inventory: drinks, snacks, milk, bread and plenty of jokes. She needs new permits to sell her icy-cold six-packs and smoked sausage sandwiches.

Her children schemed for weeks to pull off the surprise.

Saleeba missed the store but couldn't decide whether to reopen. So her children decided for her.

Last weekend, daughter Elizabeth Baker and her husband, Cliff, cleaned the store at 10th Street and Tazewell Avenue. Son Edward Saleeba in Charlotte and daughter Maria Niswander in Texas helped hatch the plot.

Monday morning, Saleeba flipped the "closed" sign to "open" and was back in business. She was nervous, but her confidence was returning by Tuesday.

"We kind of wanted to do it for her for Christmas, to help her get going again," said Elizabeth, an operating-room nurse at Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

Saleeba's first customer was mechanic Norm Pratt, from Norm's Garage across the street. "She's always done so much good for everybody," he said. He had missed her and the store. "It'll be really nice to be able to buy a loaf of bread and a quart of milk without going anywhere."

For years, Saleeba lent money to customers, fed elderly people and clothed troubled families in Southeast. She was honored by the General Assembly a few years ago for her generosity and this year was named one of Roanoke's Mothers of the Year.

As soon as Saleeba heard the city garbage truck screeching down Tazewell Avenue on Tuesday morning, she was back in gear. She hustled to the stand-up cooler and grabbed three Dr Peppers for the men. No charge for garbage crews at her store.

"I had no business closing it," she said. "That was the worst mistake I made in my life."

LENGTH: Medium:   52 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  WAYNE DEEL/Staff. Lucy Saleeba (left) and her daughter, 
          Elizabeth Baker, are again behind the counter of Saleeba's little 
          grocery store. As a Christmas present, Saleeba's children gave her 
          back her role as a Southeast Roanoke mainstay. color.