Most people know her for her food, the pepperoni rolls, desserts and other specialties she caters from Connie's Gourmet Kitchen on Oakwood Road.
But there's another whole identity behind that apron, the back story, as they say on TV.
Connie Bergstedt grew up in a convent in the Philippines. When she was just 15, a restaurant hired her as a singer. Customers loved her. That led to a singing gig at a military base in Japan, then to singing professionally for the Hilton Hotel chain.
Along the way, she met a man from West Virginia. She traveled with him worldwide, entertaining his clients, honing the culinary skills that would define the rest of her life. She stayed in Charleston after her divorce, remarried and operated several popular little restaurants around town.
She cooked and catered for a time at a dental lab on Oakhurst Drive. In 2012, she moved her business to the storefront on Oakwood Road.
At 71, she attracts about all the business she cares to handle.
She's warm and outgoing, endearingly candid and very much her own woman. Experience breeds independence.
"I grew up in the Philippines. I never met my father. He died during the war. My mother remarried, so we were distributed, my oldest brother to my grandfather, my second brother to her sister. I was put in a convent school.
"I felt really deprived and abandoned at the time, but if I did not grow up in the atmosphere I did, I probably wouldn't have turned out the way I did.
"I was nurtured by the nuns. I sang in the choir and took violin lessons. I participated in all the activities at school just so I could learn something. That was my saving grace, that I had a desire to learn. If you don't want to learn, you aren't going to amount to anything.
"I left the convent when I was almost 15 to go back to my mother. I saw that the husband she had married wasn't treating her well. So I stepped up and went to work. I could see the need in the household. My brothers and sisters didn't have any food.
"My first job was sales clerk. I stood from 7 in the morning until 10 at night, and got $4. I knew I didn't want to do that all my life.
"One day, I saw this ad in a restaurant: 'Wanted. Versatile Singer. Experienced.' I thought, well, I'm versatile. I can sing in five languages. I'm experienced. I sang in the choir. I went in and told the lady I was 18 and wanted to apply for the job.
"She didn't think I was 18. I fessed up. She said she would give me a chance, but I had to have a chaperone. I told my mom and she came with me.
"I sang twice a week. I got $30. It was a family restaurant. They had entertainment from noon until midnight. She gave me a chance to sing in the afternoon.
"I only knew five songs. I promised her I would learn five songs a day, and I kept my promise. At first it was exciting for a 15-year-old. I got a lot of notice. People sent me flowers. I was awed by all this adulation.
"There was a band going to Japan to sing at a military base. Their singer quit, Joanie Bernardino. Somebody told them there was a singer named Connie Bernardino and they could just change the Joanie to Connie. So I stepped in for her.
"To tell you how naïve I was, I didn't know anything about traveling. I went to the airport with my suitcases and didn't check in. I only had $5 to my name. I went to the gate. They said, 'You didn't check in.' I said I didn't know I was supposed to. So they checked me in from there. That was when they were still nice to you.
"I performed with them and we were considered one of the top bands in Okinawa. When you come from overseas, they look at you as big-time, so I was big-time. I got lots of invitations to appear on television. I had offers to sing in hotels and clubs. That's when I started singing for the Hilton Hotel.
"A lot of people think entertaining is glamorous, but they don't know what you have to go through. The travel. I had six suitcases full of musical arrangements and my gowns. You live out of your suitcase. You rehearse all the time. Even if you aren't feeling well, you have to appear as if you are enjoying yourself.
"My contract was for six months. Then I went back to the Philippines.
"I had an opportunity to appear for six months on a cruise liner. I met my husband from West Virginia in Japan when I was singing for the Hilton, and he followed me to the Philippines. He said I could sign up with the cruise liner or marry him.
"I married him. Being an entertainer was just a means to an end. I stopped singing. He was proud of me, so he let me sing every now and then at fundraisers and the like.
"We came here every year. He was born in Charleston. He was a geophysicist. We lived in different parts of the world. Every two years, he was assigned somewhere.
"I had developed culinary skills. My husband's job involved entertaining clients. He was vice president of the company. He said he was looking for a wife who could dress well and knew how to talk to people and entertain.
"We got divorced in '82. He got mean when he was drunk. I decided to stay here because of the friends I have. I worked temporarily in the salad bar at the Marriott. They said only men could be chefs.
"Then I had an accident in the kitchen. A guy decided he would use the kitchen for running, and he slammed the cooler door on my back. I had to have surgery. They would only let me work 20 hours a week. By the time I got my paycheck, I might have a dollar left.
"I quit. I thought I could cater. Denny Harrah and Larry Robinson opened the Executive Health Club at 405 Capitol. I was selling Mary Kay cosmetics. I told them they would have more clients with free services. Facials. And I offered to put products in the shower room.
"Just by the lobby, they had an empty space. I asked them to let me open a health bar there to make smoothies, protein drinks, salads. I would give them a percentage of my net profit. I met Don and Sally Richardson, a lot of the lawyers. I marketed myself well.
"I opened that little place for $1,000 borrowed from Sam Bowling. He loved my food. I would get up at 2 in the morning and wouldn't be home until 11 at night. I worked hard.
"I did that for one year. They closed the health club. I started catering from my apartment. I made cookies, cakes, gingerbread houses, anything I could sell.
"That was the point in my life when I realized I didn't need a man. I could take care of myself. When my ex asked me to marry him again, I said, 'I need you like I need a hole in the head.'
"Then I met Merrill. We got married in 1988. Our marriage wasn't one of those fiery love affairs. We have our understanding. He was a sales engineer with a coal sampling system.
"The YMCA president asked me to open a little café there. My friends said, 'Connie, if you open a café, we will be there every day.' Not. But I was there about six years.
"Then I also had Connie's Café at the Boulevard Towers in the Nelson Building. I was popular there, but you cannot do both things and do well unless you have really good employees. I had a lot of pilferage.
"When I realized I couldn't handle the YMCA, I opened the Chez Katherine on Capitol Street. That was my pitfall.
"I locked the door there and to the Boulevard Tower because I was so disgusted. I took a sabbatical and went back to the Philippines to do community services. My husband went with me then decided to come back here.
"I worked with the Rotary. I was teaching women how to speak out and take care of themselves instead of staying in a bad relationship. I taught them how to cook, how to bake.
"Some women would rather stay in a bad relationship than work. That was a sad awakening for me. Of the 45 women I was teaching, only two made it. I stayed two years. My husband said I'd better come home.
"I still liked to cook. There was an offer at the dental lab that used to be Oakwood Elementary. She asked if I would teach her employees to eat properly. She fixed a kitchen for me. My rent would be their meals. I was there three or four years. They sold the dental lab, but they own this building, too, so I moved here. That was 2011.
"I fix food fresh. That's my specialty. My pepperoni rolls are always good. My specialties would be my desserts, like the chocolate mousse cake.
"I am very popular. A lot of the pharmaceutical reps hire me to do their lunches. You can make a nice living just with that. It is enough for me. I'm not looking to be a millionaire. I'm just looking for a little extra money, but I am very tired now.
"The Lord has blessed me. He has guided me to where he wanted me to go.
"I make meals for old people and people who are sick. They call me. I often deliver the meals so they don't have to come out. That is a reward for me, that I am able to serve the community.
"I am a peaceful, happy person. I don't care what trials I am going through, I always think that as long as God is with me, I am fine."
Reach Sandy Wells at sandyw@wvgazette.com or 304-342-5027.