Heartbreaking final words of Blues Brothers actress Dalyce Curry before she was killed in California fires

Dalyce Curry was eager to return home to Altadena, California, after spending 15 hours in a hospital when the devastation struck.

It was just after midnight on January 8 when Curry, 95, and her granddaughter, Dalyce Kelley, arrived at Curry’s quaint cottage on Krenz Street.

As they drove into Altadena, they both noticed flames and smoke about four miles east of Curry’s home.

The granddaughter said she wasn’t concerned at the time because the smoke seemed too far away to reach her grandmother’s neighborhood.

Curry, affectionately known to everyone as “Momma D,” was tired from the hospital and just wanted to sleep in her own bed, her granddaughter said.

“She gave me a big wet kiss and said I love you,” Kelley told DailyMail.com.

‘I said, “I love you too” and I made sure she was inside safely. We were both so tired from the day at the hospital. I didn’t feel like I was in great danger because there was no evacuation order at the time.

‘Sometimes her kisses were so wet you had to wipe it away a little. That’s who she was. Just love. We kissed, said goodbye and I drove back to my house. That was the last thing we said to each other.’

Kelley, who lives about 25 miles away in Claremont, said she woke up hours later to the horrifying news that the Eaton fire had already destroyed several blocks of Altadena.

She called the sheriff and fire department and asked someone to check on her grandmother, but the system was just too overwhelmed with calls.

Then she decided to jump in her car and frantically drove 25 miles back to her grandmother’s house.

‘I later heard that people in the area were given an evacuation order at half past two in the morning [Wednesday] morning, but Mama D wasn’t a girl with a cell phone. When you’re older, it’s hard for them, or they just don’t like using their cell phone.”

By the time she arrived in Altadena around 5:30 a.m., police had already placed barriers around the neighborhoods.

Ash and smoke covered the sky so she couldn’t even see the sun, Kelley said.

“It was completely black and I just panicked because I felt like I was in hell,” she said. ‘A man passed me and shouted that his whole house had burned down.

“Another lady was driving by and she shouted, ‘The whole town is gone!’ And I’m like, “Oh, my God! What’s happening?”

Kelley said an officer saw her and took down her grandmother’s information, but suggested she drive to the Pasadena Civic Center, just a few miles away, where some residents had been evacuated.

“I was on my way to Pasadena when he called me back,” Kelley said. “He said, ‘Ma’am, I hate to break it to you, but your grandmother’s house is completely gone.

“I still went downtown and then to Arcadia Recreation Center because maybe someone had taken her out of the house and brought her here somewhere. I clung to the hope that someone had her.”

Two days later, Kelley and her family still received no confirmation from law enforcement or the LA County Medical Examiner’s Office. She was told someone would come to her grandmother’s house this weekend to check on it.

Kelly instead decided to return to Altadena on Friday to look for her grandmother’s remains.

“I went there to see if I could look for her body myself, but I was stopped by the National Guard,” she said. “They told me there was nothing they could do, but one of them took pity on me and said she would escort me there, but we had to walk.”

A resident who also decided to stay nearby spotted Kelley and the soldier and gave them a ride through the devastated Altadena neighborhoods.

“The devastation was unbelievable,” she said. ‘The power lines were down everywhere. When we went to the house it was a nightmare.”

Kelley said that when she arrived at the cottage, she could barely make out the spot where her grandmother’s favorite chair normally stood.

“She loved that chair and would fall asleep on it all the time, so I thought she might be there, but I didn’t see any remains,” Kelley said. “The gas smell was so overwhelming that the National Guard told me we had to go.”

Two days later, Kelley received a call from county medical examiner officials.

“It was 5pm on Sunday when I saw the coroner’s number and my heart skipped a beat,” she said. “They said, ‘Unfortunately, we found remains at your grandmother’s house.’

Officials said the only remains found in the small house was half a skull with glasses frames.

“That means she was probably asleep and so tired she didn’t even take off her glasses,” Kelley said through tears.

Kelley told DailyMail.com that her 95-year-old grandmother had suffered heart complications a few months earlier. However, during Curry’s last visit to the hospital, the doctor ordered a CT scan.

After some tests, the doctor said her scans and her vital signs were normal for a 95-year-old, so Curry was released from the hospital on January 7 around 11:30 p.m.

By then, a fire was already raging near some power lines above the Eaton Canyon trail in Altadena. Within 30 minutes and just as the couple arrived at Curry’s cottage, the canyon was already on fire.

Kelley said she is heartbroken and blames herself for bringing her mother back to Altadena.

The distraught granddaughter said she is struggling with the guilt of having to leave her beloved mum D that night, but had to return to her home to help her sick sister, who has been diagnosed with cancer.

“In her 95 years of life, Mom D has never had a CT scan, but they ordered one the day before the fires,” Kelley told DailyMail.com. “I don’t know why this happened, but ironically that’s the only thing we have left to help identify her remains because only part of a skull has been found.

“I thought to myself, ‘Did this have to be this way, God? Why did this happen? Why didn’t we just stay in the hospital?’ There are so many questions and what ifs. She wanted to leave the hospital that night and go where she would be happy, which was in her own home.”

Kelley said block after block of houses near her grandmother’s cottage were destroyed by the Eaton fire. She said neighbors, all of whom cared for her 95-year-old grandmother, are also distraught over her death and their own loss.

She recently found out that one of her grandmother’s neighbors was frantically banging on her door as the flames got closer to their homes. However, the 95-year-old didn’t answer, so the neighbor took off, Kelley said.

Kelley said city and county officials need to come up with a better plan to warn residents about wildfires, especially seniors who likely didn’t hear the evacuation alerts sent to cellphones.

“Altadena was an amazing place and it breaks my heart to see such destruction for miles,” Kelley said. “I’ve never seen this kind of devastation in the US, except during Hurricane Katrina.

‘You never think something like this could ever happen to you. We thought it would be impossible for fire to come from the mountains and wipe out the entire city.”

She said her grandmother was “still sharp” at age 95 and often spoke of her days as an actress in Hollywood.

Curry had small roles in several Hollywood films that became pop culture classics, such as The Blues Brothers and The Ten Commandments.

Kelley said her grandmother would tell the family stories about her work in Hollywood and how she got her start in films. Curry’s godmother, Madame Sul-Te-Wan, known as the first black actress to sign a film contract in Hollywood, helped her start the company.

Although she had roles in films such as Lady Sings the Blues, starring Diana Ross, Curry abruptly decided to leave the film industry shortly after 1980.

“There was a casting couch situation when she was interviewing with a major producer and director when he made disrespectful advances toward her,” Kelley said. “He told her to lift her skirt, but she was a woman of some integrity and she quickly put it in place.”

Kelley said her grandmother never revealed the producer’s name.

“He threatened her and said she would never work in this city again. Then the calls from Hollywood stopped.”

Curry performed in community theater from time to time, but she devoted the rest of her life to her career as a home nurse for the elderly until her retirement.

Curry lived in her cottage in Altadena for more than 20 years and loved her independence. Kelley said her family is struggling to move on without their matriarch and they are trying to raise money for her memorial and funeral.

“She loved her cheeseburgers, telling stories and going to all her local shops and stores in Altadena. It’s a special place full of eclectic people and hardworking black and Latino families.

“Everyone who met her loved her. I wouldn’t wish this pain on my worst enemy. Mama D always said, “Well, honey. Nothing is as bad as it seems, even in the worst case.” I try to remember those words because I miss her so much.’