Mrs. Gowrie, born Amanda Workitt, is Nub's wife and the mother of his six sons. She is buried in the cemetery next to Caledonia chapel, and from her headstone we learn that she was born in 1878 and died in 1926 (99). That is all the novel explicitly says about her, but "Workitt" is one of the most common family names in Beat Four (28).
This "porter" opens up the door of the barbershop at six o'clock every morning, and "sweeps out the hair and cigarette stubs" (30). The brief passage about him suggests he may also work in the pool hall nearby.
Like the other Negroes in Jefferson and Yoknapatawpha, the bootblack" (30) who works in the barbershop makes himself invisible on Sunday morning, even though that is "the bootblack's best day shining shoes and brushing clothes" (39).
On Saturdays "every tenant and renter and freeholder white or black in the neighborhood" would find a reason to go to the crossroads store, "quite often to buy something" but also often just to visit with each other (18).
