Ask Reita Green, the Wallpaper Queen, what makes a successful wallpaper hanger, and she’ll tell you it’s practice, patience and believing in yourself. Since 1960, the former dancer and actress has run her own wallpapering business all by herself. But a few years ago, she met Beverly Pate, 58 years her junior, and the two struck up a friendship that blossomed into a business partnership. They shared their story with “LA Times Today.”

Green said she and Pate can paper an entire room in about eight hours. At 86, Green has been papering homes for over 60 years. She has passed her knowledge onto Pate. 

“The first time I actually had seen her, she was walking through my front yard with a ladder under one arm and a table in the other arm. And I’m like, ‘Do you need help?’ It’s the first thing I said, the first encounter. She’s like, ‘Oh, no, I’m fine.’ And I was just blown away. I couldn’t believe that this 83-year-old lady was about to hang my wallpaper by herself — on a ladder at that,” Pate said. 

“When I met Beverly, I was thinking in the back of my head that someday I have to find somebody to help. Well, when I met Beverly at her home in Burbank two and a half years ago, I think when she was working in the bathroom, was a power drill... I said, I got to get to know this young lady,” Green shared. 

Pate spoke about the close bond the women share.

“I call her Auntie Reita, like we’re closer than friends. We’re like a family. I’m going through something; she was just that person that was always there. And of course, there’s friends I’ve made in LA, but it’s kind of a different connection that I have with Rita. She’s always happy, she’s always trying to uplift people. She’s always trying to make someone else’s day better,” Pate shared.  

“The older you get, the more friends you need because it’s lonesome. When you’re young, you’re really rushing around and going to nightclubs and doing this and do all that and dancing and. Life you give and take. If somebody gives you something, don’t you want to say thank you? How can I? What can I do for them to make them happy? Keep it simple. Everybody is give and take,” Green said.  

You can follow Green and Pate’s work on Instagram at @WallpaperQueenGreen.

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