A Lehigh Acres resident is really hooked on hats.

Minnie Hooks' affinity for hats came as a teenager, when she was inspired by her late grandmother.

Now, many years later, she has amassed a collection of about 200 hats.

"My grandmother wore a lot of hats, and it was usually on Sundays to go to church," Hooks said. "We always did a lot of church things."

Hooks collects hats of all kinds and wears them on a daily basis.

She's had her oldest hat — a black cowboy-style hat covered with shiny rhinestones — for 37 years. She hasn't worn the hat in at least 10 years, but it has a lot of sentimental value.

Hooks said she'd have even more hats had she not given so many away over the years.

"I gave away about 45 hats to a nursing home one year," she said.

Another time, Hooks donated 50 hats to a school yard sale when she lived in Gadsden, Ala.

"A lot of the hats didn't even make it to the yard sale because the teachers bought them all up before they ever put them out," she said.

Ben Hooks, Minnie's husband of almost two years, supports her love of hats.

"I think it's fantastic," he said. "It's wonderful that she can go and pick out a different one to wear when she wants. She looks beautiful when she wears them."

Ben likes to see his wife most in her blue hats — his favorite color.

For now, the hats are in a closet, but Ben plans to build shelves to store the collection.

"The last time I counted, I had 179, but I've bought more since then," she said. "The last one I bought was about a month ago, and it matched a suit that I was wearing to my sorority's fashion show."

A graduate of Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Hooks was a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Recently, a sorority sister bought her a winter hat as a present.

"She knew I loved hats and that's what people give me, so she gave me this one, but I haven't had the chance to wear it yet."

Hooks has several different styles of hats with her sorority letters on it.

Such a love of hats can get expensive, so she tries to offset the costs by buying hats on sale.

"What I usually do is try to buy hats at the end of the season because they are cheaper," she said.

But she has spent up to $200 for a single hat. On one occasion, she inadvertently bought a hat for $650 when a cashier accidentally added an extra 0 to the price on a $65 hat.

Hooks noticed the mistake on her credit card receipt when she returned home. She had to call the store to get the extra money refunded.

"Now I love hats, but I'm not going to pay $650 for a hat," she said. "There are some hats out there that cost $500 or $600, but I'm not in that bracket yet."

She says no matter who the woman is, she will look good in a hat.

"Women look good in hats, but you have to have an attitude to wear hats," she said.

Having bought several hundred hats over the years, Hooks said it would be hard to estimate how much money she had spent on them over the years.

"It's thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands," she said, laughing. "I know I've spent at least $50,000, $60,000 or $70,000 on hats in my lifetime."

Her favorite color for a hat is red, but she has colors to match just about anything imaginable. If she sees a hat she likes but doesn't have an outfit to match it, she'll buy the hat and find an outfit that matches.

With so many hats to choose from, she has learned to store them based on season, color and style, making it easier to select the perfect hat for whatever the occasion.

She usually doesn't wear hats around the house.

"I have hats for going out, because I like to go out a lot," she said. "I even have caps for doing my walking."

Despite having all kinds of common and exotic hats to choose from, Hooks has one rule that she always follows when putting together an outfit.

"Everything has to match," she said.

The main things she looks at when shopping for a hat are color and price. She doesn't prefer a particular brand.

"I look for colors," she said.

"I also look for matching outfits, and I look for sets. I'll buy them when I see them, because I know sooner or later I'll find an outfit to go with them."

She said there are several different ways to wear hats.

"Some hats you need to set directly on your head, some hats you need to pull to the side," she said. "But you need to know how to wear the hat, and I've been wearing them so long, I know how they need to be worn."

Of all the hats she's acquired over the years, she does have a favorite. It's one her grandmother gave her.

It is a simple white hat with shiny stones around the front to add a bit of flair.

She may have gotten the hat bug from her grandmother, but she said wearing them these days is mainly about style and feeling good.

She said she can feel the change within her when she puts on one of her hats.

"Your whole attitude changes when you put a hat on," she said. "Today, I felt like wearing red, so I put on a red hat to go with my outfit."

Hats influence her social life as well. She is a member of a Red Hat Society group in Fort Myers.

Hooks doesn't see her lifelong passion dying out anytime soon.

"I know people that have never seen me without a hat," she said. "I have friends ask me if I have any hair. I have a lot of hair. It comes down to my shoulders, but I just love hats, and I think I just look good in hats."

This article was provided by: News-Press
Written by: Dennis Culver