BROOKHAVEN ENJOYING SUMMER BOUNTY • DOCTORS IN TRAINING • A CELEBRATION OF ‘BROOK-HEAVEN’
MAGAZINE
SUMMER’S BOUNTY
FROM FARMERS’ MARKET TO A NEW APPROACH TO TENDING THE EARTH
A NEW PATH
MEET THE BROOKHAVEN STUDENTS WHO ARE FORGING A NEW WAY THROUGH MED SCHOOL JULY/AUGUST 2021 $4.99 COMPLIMENTARY COPY
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Brookhaven Magazine 3
FEATURES
33 FORGING THEIR OWN PATH For two former Brookhaven students, the path to an M.D. took a different direction.
29 A NEW HOME A singer/songwriter finds inspiration.
25
Destiny Stone doesn’t forget her roots.
4 July/August 2021
PHOTO SUBMITTED
MADE IN MISSISSIPPI
25
39 PHOTO BY XX
arts & culture
in every issue
28 All About the Blues
6 Contributors 7 From the Editor 22 Read this Book
past & present
43 Where Am I? 43 Out & About
39 Recalling the history of ‘Brook-HEAVEN’
food
& drink
10 Making the most of summer’s bounty
home
& garden
50 Why I love Brookhaven
44
17 Following nature’s path
Brookhaven Magazine 5
contributors PUBLISHER Kevin Warren
GENERAL MANAGER Stacy G. Graning
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Julia V. Miller
CONTRIBUTORS Eddie Cagle Brett Campbell Stacy G. Graning Julia V. Miller Bill Perkins Emmaline Wolfe
DESIGN Stacy Graning
Julia V. Miller, Associate Editor Born and raised in Brookhaven, Julia V. Miller is the associate editor of Brookhaven Magazine. She strives to capture small town, Southern culture and stories in all forms of writing. During a hiatus from working in journalism, she pursued an MFA degree from The W, where she studied both fiction and creative nonfiction. When not chained to her computer, she’s usually found in the dance studio. She lives in Brookhaven with her daughter, husband, and two cats. She’s been a member of Church of the Redeemer for more than two decades and enjoys the opportunity to give back to the community that created her. Creative works can be found online at juliavanstory.com.
Stacy Graning, General Manager An award-winning writer, editor and publisher, Stacy Graning has worked in media publishing for nearly 30 years. She relishes the opportunity to meet people, tell their stories and explore the issues that impact our lives. She recently returned to her beloved Mississippi after spending 20 years working in Alabama and is loving her new hometown. She is the mother of sons Thomas - a professional photographer and volunteer firefighter - and Wright, an independent business owner; a beloved daughter-in-law, Kaylee; and two spoiled dogs, Leonard and Sport.
MARKETING Kristi Carney
ADMINISTRATION Kristie Champagne
BROOKHAVEN Magazine is produced and published by Brookhaven Newsmedia Inc,. publishers of The Daily Leader, 128 N. Railroad Ave., Brookhaven, MS 39601. BOOKHAVEN Magazine published six times a year and is a registered trademark. All contents herein are the sole property of Brookhaven Newsmedia Inc.. No part of this periodical may be reproduced without written permission from the Publisher. Please address all correspondence (including but not limited to letters, story ideas and requests to reprint materials) to: editor@dailyleader.com. For additional information on this issue or other publications call 601-833-6061. To inquire about advertising, email advertising@dailyleader.com. Copyright 2021 © The Daily Leader
Brett Campbell, Writer Brett loves to write and learn. He is a proud father of five and an eclectic fan of movies, books and music. He’s happier with a cup of coffee, a cigar and his dog nearby. An ordained Christian minister, Brett has studied graphic design, English, theology and apologetics, philosophy and history, and has a master’s degree. He has authored thousands of sermons, lessons, newspaper and magazine articles and co-authored a privately-published book, “Psycho-Theology: Understanding the Mind of God.”He plays guitar and fishes equally poorly, but enjoys both. Brett loves to draw and sketches on everything. He is passionate about writing stories that tell the truth in a way the average reader can understand, learn from and enjoy.
Bill Perkins, Photography Bill Perkins has contributed to The Leader and our magazine publications with coverage of a diverse variety of subjects from a pictorial of the snow storm of 2017 to civic clubs and public events. A Brookhaven native, Bill has been active with publications of his photography and copy beginning with the 1970 BHS annual, Millsaps College Purple & White, The Mississippian at Ole Miss, journals in the energy industry, corporate internal publications for Western Geophysical, Parker Drilling, & MEDCO ENERGI, and various newspapers & magazines especially in the Far East and Central Asia. He was General Manager for PetroMin Asia magazine in Singapore which covered energy and mining activities in Asia.
BROOKHAVEN ENJOYING SUMMER BOUNTY • DOCTORS IN TRAINING • A CELEBRATION OF ‘BROOK-HEAVEN’
ON THE COVER A thriving garden Photo by Julia V. Miller Design by Stacy Graning
MAGAZINE
SUMMER’S BOUNTY FROM FARMERS’ MARKET TO A NEW APPROACH TO TENDING THE EARTH
A NEW PATH
6 July/August 2021
MEET THE BROOKHAVEN STUDENTS WHO ARE FORGING A NEW WAY THROUGH MED SCHOOL JULY/AUGUST 2021 $4.99 COMPLIMENTARY COPY
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from the editor
Recently, my daughter threw herself across our bed once again complaining that she had no one to play with. As an introvert with more siblings than I know what to do with, this particular plight isn’t one I can easily identify with. I always imagined unlimited quiet time was the dream. My extroverted only child couldn’t disagree more. So on this particular day, she flipped over, pointed at my husband and me and said “I wish y’all two could be kids with me.” Of course, we immediately agreed. Long summer days of doing whatever we wanted sprung to mind. For me, I pictured long days beside the pool reading books. I imagine my husband thought of hot days on the tennis courts. There is a stage of life where summer signals a time of rest and renewal, where you are given months to slow down, to follow your own particular interests, to recoup from the pressure of grades or state testing. And then one day that space to breathe that seems to be built into the calendar just disappears. One day, you wake up and realize summer is not different than the rest of the year, except maybe hotter. This year, I intended to recreate that feeling of summer freedom. I pictured days at the park with my daughter, a book in my hand and her laughter filling the air. After the last few years filled with graduate school, high demand volunteer positions, and the hands-on energy of raising a toddler, I was looking forward to something a little bit easier. Instead, I came back to Brookhaven Magazine. When I stopped writing for the Daily Leader and Brookhaven Magazine in 2017, I was exhausted. I had an almost 1-year-old I was caring for full-time. I was wrapping up my first year back in the dance world. And I was dealing with the fact that somewhere along the way I had lost my own personal writing. The stories in my head had been replaced with a to-do list that only ever seemed to get longer. Now four years later, I’m picking up where I left off. There’s always something special about the place you’re from, the place that helped make you who you are. And Brookhaven is no exception, in part because of the people that make up this community. The best thing about working for Brookhaven Magazine is getting to know those people, to hear about their passions, and this issue is filled with people pursing
their passions. We’ve got farmers filled with a passion for caring for the land and for our food. You can see this in our farmer’s market story from many different growers, but we got to dive in a bit deeper to what that can mean with Jayne Brown as she shared how she was working to create a more symbiotic relationship with her land as she shifted into permaculture. Our history story is a compilation of anecdotes from people last century that were passionate about Brookhaven. How much do you think has changed? How much has stayed the same? Artistry requires a certain amount of passion, and MSA Alum Destiny Stone is no exception as she shares her thoughts on the craft of writing music. You can hear some of her original songs live right here in Brookhaven at the end of September. Finally, I got to catch up with two people I met at Brookhaven High School. Jamarius Waller and Hannah Rice Turbeville both decided to pursue a PhD as well as a medical degree, and they spent three additional years in the middle of their medical training to become better researchers. The fact that I was struck with while talking to them both is the passion they had in their quest for the knowledge. They each had a gift for science, but more importantly, they were both driven by a desire to help others with that gift and help create better medicine for us all. In the issues to come, we’ve got big plans. I would love nothing better than to see this magazine grow and become a true embodiment of what this community means. But I need your help. I’d love to hear what you would like to see in the magazine. Whether it’s a home or garden you think we just have to feature, or a hidden artist whose talent should be better known, please let me know. It’s my goal to serve this community in the best way I know how: telling stories. Julia V. Miller is the Associate Editor of Brookhaven Magazine. She can be reached at Julia.vanstory@ gmail.com.
Brookhaven Magazine 7
8 July/August 2021
Brookhaven Magazine 9
FOOD
& DRINK
SUMMER’S BOUNTY
Farmers market provides fresh offerings for favorite recipes BY EMMALINE WOLFE PHOTOS EMMALINE WOLFE, SUBMITTED
10 July/August 2021
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Most of the time, farmer’s market goods are overlooked due to the convenience of grocery stores. It is easy to grab a handful of tomatoes from a Wal-Mart bin, especially if they are needed that night for dinner. However, if health is the goal - then local produce is the way to go. The initial response to grocery store produce is the presence of pesticides. In industrial farming, pesticides are encouraged when growing food on a mass scale. One of the best treasures that the farmer’s market brings is raw honey. The summer months are the prime time for bees to produce honey. Local beekeepers bring their stock to the market and swear by honey’s nutritional benefits. In order to produce a pound of honey, bees have to visit almost two million flowers. A typical bee creates only a twelfth of a teaspoon in its 21-day lifespan. There are thousands of bees visiting flowers throughout the county to gather the pollen and nectar needed to create the natural sweetener. “It’s just like when they give you allergy shots. They give you small doses of something to build up your immunity. Honey is the same way because it has so much and a selection of pollen and all those things have visited.” says Jeff Kellum, owner of Brookhaven Honey Co. Jollean Smith of Smith’s Nature-Friendly Farm also pitched in on the value of raw honey from local bees.
“I think one thing that would be good for you is, go to Wal-Mart, you know the little honey bears? Look at the ingredients on the honey bear. You won’t find honey. You’ll find corn syrup, and a lot of people don’t recognize that,” she said. Eggs are another produce item that farmers believe is better when taken from local farms. “The most interesting thing is that there are a lot of studies on fresh farm eggs. They have tested a ton of organic eggs, store-bought eggs, versus your local backyard farmer. Organic eggs and grocery store eggs have the same nutritional value. I think in many cases you can actually apply that to your vegetables, depending on how they’re farmed, and they’re all farmed differently,” said Smith. Smith encouraged the research of eggs for consumers to figure out for themselves what the best option would be. Another farmer at the market mentioned that eggs in the store are old, which attributes to nutrition loss. “The eggs you get in a store, they’re about a month old when you get them. So that’s why they don’t last long as a fresh egg. I can take a fresh egg, and bring it out of the chicken yard, don’t wash it, put it in the fridge, and it’ll last about two months,” he said. A local farmer selling at the downtown market expressed his concern for the potential damages of pesticide-covered foods.
Brookhaven Magazine 11
RECIPES
CORN SALAD WITH TOMATO AND LIME From smittenkitchen.com 1/2 a small red onion, thinly sliced 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar Slightly heaped 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 6 medium ears corn, shucked 1/3 cup sour cream 1/3 cup mayonnaise 3 ounces (heaped 1/2 cup) crumbled cotija cheese 1 lime, halved Tajín seasoning or chile powder Handful of fresh cilantro leaves Combine red onion, red wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons cold water, salt, and sugar in a bowl or jar. Set in fridge until needed. Onions will be very lightly pickled by the time you’re done assembling the salad, but if you can give it 1 to 2 hours in the fridge, they’ll be moreso. Heat a grill to medium-high. Lightly oil grill grates and place corn cobs directly on them. Cook corn until charred in spots all over, turning as often as needed. Transfer them to a cutting board to cool slightly. Don’t have a grill? I have often charred corn directly over the gas flame on my stove (be careful; it will crackle and spatter a little). You oven’s broiler, should it be more robust than mine, might also work for the task. While you’re grilling your corn, combine sour cream, mayo, and cotija cheese. Spread on the bottom of your serving plate. Cut corn corn from cobs with a sharp knife and heap it over the cheese spread on the platter. Squeeze the juice of half a lime all over, then scatter the corn with pickled onion rings from the fridge. Generously shake Tajín or chile powder all over; if you’re using plain chile powder, season with salt and an extra squeeze of lime, too. Top with cilantro leaves. Cut remaining lime half into wedges and serve alongside. Eat right away — while the dressing is cold and the corn is hot.
12 July/August 2021
“The taste of fresh vegetables is going to be way better than what you get in the store, and it’s because these tomatoes were grown in the open. The ones you buy in the store are climate controlled. Everything is controlled. These are all natural. The taste is way better. I haven’t sprayed them at all this year with anything,” he said. The wide selection of tomatoes on his table were picked the afternoon before the market to ensure customers that they were the freshest option. Another Lincoln County farmer also mentioned the value of flavor in local vegetables. “If it is grown in California, it is pretty well going to be picked green. It doesn’t have the natural sunlight or anything
that is required to make the sugars develop and give it the flavor it needs,” he said. The Brookhaven Farmers Market only is available in the summer months. However, there are other places to get local produce throughout the year. Brookhaven Market Basket is an excellent alternative to convenience stores. Local farmers also sell year-round at different locations. They highly encourage the town to consider the benefits that farm food brings. One farmer said, “For me, I know what goes on with the stuff in the stores, and I won’t buy it. I just can’t do it. I either grow it or buy it from somebody I know because I want to know where it comes from.”
Brookhaven Magazine 13
14 July/August 2021
Why you should become a Mississippi Farm Bureau® member! Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation is the largest general farm organization in the state whose mission is to create an environment in which Mississippi farmers, ranchers, and Farm Bureau® members can have a better life and make a better living. A membership with Farm Bureau offers county, state and national level programs, and a variety of over 200,000 member benefits and discounts that can help make your money grow. As a member you can enjoy some of these exclusive benefit partners and so many more. For details visit:
www.msfb.org/discounts.
Call Lincoln County Farm Bureau and join today!
601-833-3571
Brookhaven Magazine 15
16 July/August 2021
HOME
& GARDEN
HOW HER GARDEN GROWS
Brown’s foray into permaculture yields rewards for earth, family BY JULIA V. MILLER PHOTOS BY JULIA V. MILLER
Brookhaven Magazine 17
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The thing about gardening is you can never learn all there is to know. At least that’s what one local gardener insists as she cares for her seventh summer garden. Jayne Brown’s journey began somewhat spontaneously. She saw a social media post a fellow yogi made that motivated her to begin growing her own food. “When I started gardening, my intent was to feed us foods that didn’t have chemicals, foods that didn’t have GMOs,” she said. “Just something healthier because practicing yoga you get to know your body more. You become more aware of certain things. You start to become aware of certain effects they have on your body.” So one day in May, Brown made a decision and pushed herself to dig an 18-foot-by-18-foot hole 8 inches down. “I put it in the wrong place,” she laughed. “There was so much drainage. I got one cucumber out of the garden.” She let her husband, Sam Brown, have the cucumber because he had been so frustrated about the hole she had dug into their yard. One taste though, and he had changed his mind. “He said, ‘Wow that doesn’t have that chemical taste you get at the store,’” she recalled. So the next year, they moved the garden and produced a head of lettuce and a handful of zucchini and squash. By the third year, they had moved across the county, and Jayne decided to dream big. With the help of her dad, she created two separate gardens, and soon the produce was pouring in.
18 July/August 2021
“Last year, when I had the CSA, it was fantastic,” she said. “I had a ton of produce, but I literally about worked myself to death.” By the end of the growing season, she knew she was going to have to make a change. She had spent the summer talking with Jeffery Kellums, another farmer, about permaculture and food forests, and Brown began to think that might be the solution she was looking for. So at the end of the year, she did nothing. She let her old plants reseed themselves in the garden. After the frost came through, she cut back everything that had been killed and let it rot back into the ground to replenish it. “I have noticed we have had fewer pests this year and fewer disease this year,” she said. “I have not had to use any chemicals. This next year I’m going to be growing comfrey, chicory, and sorrel to kind of make a compost to feed the ground.” By moving toward a permaculture model, she has found it becomes easier to manage the produce that is ripe. “What I’ve found I really like about the permaculture this year is things come up when they’re naturally supposed to,” she said. “It provides at different times instead of everything coming in at once. I probably had 12 different bok choy plants this year, but I’d get a harvest off of one. A week later, maybe two weeks, a harvest off of another. It gave you enough to eat.”
Brookhaven Magazine 19
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Since she doesn’t weed her garden anymore, she’s found that the root systems of her plants are stronger. “I looked at my cucumbers the other day, whereas my cucumbers normally would have already played out this close to August,” Brown said. “Having not disturbed the roots by keeping them weeded all the time, I’ve got runners that are still trying to look for things. I may have a whole other batch of cucumbers come in.” It’s also helped Brown learn that waste isn’t always a bad thing. In May, she attended a yoga retreat in Raymond with the Mississippi Yogi, Anna Davis. Davis’s husband is a farmer, and so all the meals were made from Ayurvedic diets. “[The food] was just so good for the body,” she said. “By the second day though, I had had so much good stuff for my body I couldn’t Gardner eat anymore.” She began feeling guilty that she wouldn’t be able to finish her meal, but the leader read her mind. “ She was like, ‘It’s OK we waste nothing,’” Brown recalled. “You can give it back to the land.” Brown carried her leftovers around to the chickens and fed it to them. “It felt like an offering to something that had given to
I can feel this earth becoming sacred to my body because I’m putting this earth into me. The earth is healing my body and I am in turn healing the earth. Jayne Brown
20 July/August 2021
me,” she said. “I’m much better about understanding these days if you have an eggplant fall and rot on the ground it’s ok. There are things in your garden you are feeding that are helping take care of your garden.” As she has grown in her understanding of the power of her garden, she has begun turning to herbal medicines. She has begun focusing her herb garden on those things that can help heal different ailments. She is particularly interested in the ayurvedic diet because of its healing capabilities. This has pushed her into growing her own cumin, cardamon, and fennel in an effort to lead a more cleansing lifestyle. She also has learned a lot about the medicinal powers of different plants from Davis, who also owns New Earth Apothecary. Last year really pushed Brown to begin exploring this field. “[The take a pill] mentality works great when society is functioning properly, but this past year there were two medications that because of the pandemic were more difficult to get a hold of,” she said. “While we didn’t go without them, it creates more anxiety.” This led her to learn about alternatives particularly in regards to anxiety and pain management. And while the herbs and tinctures may be helping, she has also learned the act of taking care of the earth has it’s on healing value. “I can feel this earth becoming sacred to my body because I’m putting this earth into me,” she said. “The earth is healing my body and I am in turn healing the earth.”
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21
READ THIS BOOK
BOOKS FOR SUMMER Recommendations from
STACY GRANING
General Manager, Brookhaven Magazine
This edition’s summer reads offer a mix of thoughtprovoking essays and page-turning thrillers deisgned for weekends at the beach or by the pool.
The Heathens (A Quinn Colson Novel #11) By Ace Atkins Sheriff Quinn Colson and his former deputy Lillie Virgil find themselves on opposite sides of a case for the first time after a woman is found dead and three delinquent teens go on the run.
The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You: Stories By Maurice Carlos Ruffin (Grisham Writer in Residence 2020-2021) A collection of raucous stories that offer a panoramic view of New Orleans from the author of the “stunning and audacious” (NPR) debut novel We Cast a Shadow
Bring Your Baggage and Don’t Pack Light: Essays By Helen Ellis In these twelve gloriously comic and moving essays, Helen Ellis dishes on married middle-age sex, sobs with a theater full of women as a psychic exorcises their sorrows, gets twenty shots of stomach bile to the neck to get rid of her double chin, and gathers up the courage to ask, “Are you there, Menopause? It’s Me, Helen.”
The Turnout By Megan Abbott Bestselling and award-winning author Megan Abbott’s revelatory and mesmerizing new novel set against the hothouse of a family-run ballet studio.
What Strange Paradise By Omar El Akkad From the widely acclaimed, best-selling author of American War, a new novel--beautifully written, unrelentingly dramatic, and profoundly moving--that looks at the global refugee crisis through the eyes of a child.
22 July/August 2021
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Brookhaven Magazine 23
46th
A u a l
Ole Br k Festival
October 1 & 2, 2021 D O W N T O W N B R O O K H AV E N Live Music • September 30, October 1 & 2 Food Vendors • October 1 Flea Market • October 2 For vendor info, visit us at www.BrookhavenChamber.org
24 July/August 2021
ARTS
& CULTURE
MADE IN MISSISSIPPI
Arts School graduate heads back to Brookhaven to kick off tour BY JULIA V. MILLER PHOTOS SUBMITTED
Brookhaven Magazine 25
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One of Mississippi School of the Arts’s own is putting together the final plans to kick off her first tour beginning right here in Brookhaven. Destiny Stone, a 2015 graduate from the vocal discipline, will be performing Thursday, September 30 on the first leg of her Made in Mississippi Tour. Stone released her first song her senior year at MSA, and since then has released more than 25 original songs as an independent artist. Her most recent song, “If Love had a Home,” released June 11. “For the tour, I will definitely be performing original music,” Stone said. “I do covers, and covers are fun, of course, singing something everyone knows. But I really enjoy singing my own music because I wrote it for me. If I sing a Whitney Houston song, they didn’t write that song for me, they wrote that song for Whitney. Or if I sing a Michael Jackson song, or if I sing a Stevie Wonder song. Those songs were written for those artists. I really like singing my own songs because those songs are written for my voice.” The song writing process for Stone always starts with the music first before adding her lyrics. She tries to cover a variety of topics in her music from things that frustrate her, anger her, or make her sad to love songs or things that make her feel on top of the world. “I don’t consider myself to be a gospel singer, but my faith definitely comes into my music,” she said. “One of my favorite songs is called ‘99’,” and it’s based on the story where Jesus is telling about how the shepherd had 100 sheep and lost one. He went to go find it even though he had 99 more. I understand we’re human beings and we feel different emotions, so I try to tap into all of it.” Stone’s primary instrument is the piano, but she also picked up guitar in college. “I like to say I play one and a half instruments because I don’t play guitar as well as I play the piano,” she said. MSA Roots As the 2021 alumni of the year, Stone had the opportunity earlier this year to reflect on her time at MSA in preparation for giving the commencement address during this year’s graduation ceremony. “One of the things I mentioned in my speech is not only have you accomplished regular courses, whether it’s biology or your math courses or English courses, you also have to do your discipline courses,” she said. “It taught me how to study. It taught me how to be a leader.
26 July/August 2021
I think I already had natural leadership abilities, but it really brought it out more.” Ironically though, Stone was not immediately interested in attending MSA as a 10th grader, but her mother insisted it was the right opportunity for her teenage daughter. “I didn’t want to leave my friends. I’m sure a lot of people probably have that initial thought, but my mom really wanted me to get exposure to different people and different experiences. Once I figured out she wasn’t going to budge I decided I might as well just hop on the train because she’s not going to change her mind.” Now, eight years later, Stone couldn’t be happier her mother pushed her to go. She was able to create enduring relationships with other artists, and even learned about the college she would go on to attend. During a meeting with Suzanne Hirsch, MSA’s executive director, Stone outlined her goals for the future, and her primary goal career wise was to be a songwriter. “I still wanted to do music, but I didn’t want to do the traditional classical music degree,” she said. Hirsch told her about another MSA student who had attended Catawba College in North Carolina, and as it turned out, it was the perfect fit for Stone. Made in Mississippi Stone first remembers performing when she was just 5 years old, and she put together her first show at age 15. Now, she’s learning the ropes of planning a three-day tour throughout Mississippi. After Brookhaven, Stone will be traveling on to Mississippi State University and then her hometown of Holly Springs with The S Band. As an independent artist, she doesn’t have financial backing from any record label, so she’s had to learn other ways to finance the tour. With each of her stops, she was able to find a sponsor to help offset some of the costs associated with touring. “As an independent artist, I have to get really creative with how I do things,” she said. “I contacted over 20 people to be sponsors, so I’m always learning to just not be afraid, to just go for it. The worst thing they can do is say no, and I’ll never know if they might say yes unless I ask.” Brookhaven’s show is being sponsored by the Brookhaven Tourism Council, and other sponsors of the tour include MSU’s Black Student Association and Holly Springs Tourism Bureau. Tickets will go on sale August 2 at destinystonemusic.com.
Brookhaven Magazine 27
ALL ABOUT THE BLUES
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Mississippi’s rhythm and blues heritage is usually thought of in terms of sound and musical performance, but a new interactive art exhibition in Brookhaven has added a visual element, as well. “‘The Mississippi Garden of Rhythm & Blues’ is a collection of Mississippi artists who have come together expressing the different ways that they feel and the different things that they feel from Mississippi blues artists and the history. They took that and they have transferred it into wonderful, beautiful pieces of artwork,” said organizer visual artist Derek Covington Smith. The interactive art exhibition is presented by The Little Yellow Building art studio in Brookhaven and hosted by The Mississippi School of the Arts. The Little Yellow Building is the creative studio of Smith, a Mississippi native who moved back to his hometown of Brookhaven in 2018. Smith originally opened his studio to teach, but during COVID, he quickly shifted to working with contemporary Mississippi artists to create virtual exhibits. “MSGR&B” is the third show the Little Yellow Building has produced and the first physical one. Separated into three parts, the show explores some of the places and players of the Mississippi Blues movement and its effect on Mississippi’s visual artists today. “We have ‘The Soil,’ and it represents all the places and the things that made up ‘the making of the blues,’” said Smith “We have ‘The Roots,’ which are all the blues artists and the influence that they have given. And then we have our influence, ‘The Blooms,’ what happens when artists are inspired by the lives and the music and the next generations.” The exhibit invites guests to use their smartphones and learn about the music and history behind each work of art. Author Claire Ishi Ayetoro provides narration. “We invite you to experience what happens when Mississippi visual artists are under the influence of Mississippi’s rhythm and blues heritage,” Smith said. “Bring your headphones and a smart device to discover the world behind the art.” The show features work from 31 visual artists from all across the state and will run until Aug. 13. The exhibit is open weekly, Thursday to Saturday 2-8 p.m. and is open to the public. For more information, visit TheLittleYellowBuilding.com.
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ARTS
& CULTURE
A NEW HOME
Singer/songwriter finds inspiration as she settles into Brookhaven BY BRETT CAMPBELL PHOTOS SUBMITTED
Brookhaven Magazine 29
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Singer, songwriter and multiple-instrument musician Avery Landrum has only lived in Brookhaven for less than a year, but has found the city to be one of the most welcoming she’s ever been. “I’ve never been in a community where as soon as I got there people really welcomed me, and said, ‘You’re a musician, let me help you out,’” Landrum said. “It’s super inclusive and it feels like we’re one big family.” Landrum, 19, and her boyfriend moved to the Home Seekers Paradise from St. Francisville, Louisiana, in September 2020 to live with her mother. “My mom met somebody out here and we moved out here with them,” she said. “My mom is a traveling nurse and they’re in Colorado right now, so we’re watching the house and the dog.” Landrum said she has been playing music and writing songs for her entire life, and wrote her first song at age 7. Starting with piano, she has taught herself to play several instruments, including guitar, soprano and baritone ukulele, mandolin, bass and
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drums. “I also played trombone in high school band,” she said. “But I don’t count that because I didn’t teach myself.” “I was lucky enough a few times to go to one or two (music) lessons, and would benefit a lot from, like, one guitar lesson,” she said. She plays by ear, and learned a lot from practicing with a book of chords. When she performs gigs — like she did recently at The Shack at 550 and the Overbrook Songwriters Festival — it is usually just her and her guitar, sometimes adding a ukulele. “I do a lot of classic rock, basically — stuff by The Eagles, Red Hot Chili Peppers (my favorite band) — all the good stuff,” she said. Living just a few minutes’ drive from downtown, Landrum said she would love to see more “cool shops,” venues for live music and art, like the murals by local artists Don Jacobs and Derek Smith. Landrum is a people person who loves to talk. “I think Brookhaven has been such a good opportunity for me and I don’t think I’ve ever been around so many good people,” she said. “If you see me on the street, come up and talk to me and I’ll talk to you for an hour.” Though her passion displays itself primarily through music, Landrum says she will probably attend Copiah-Lincoln Community College with a goal to be an English teacher. “I love to read, and I love to write and my songwriting and English go handin-hand,” she said. “And you know change starts with education.”
FEATURES
FORGING THEIR OWN PATH FOR MANY, THE PATH TO BECOMING A DOCTOR IS LONG AND DIFFICULT. THESE TWO FORMER BROOKHAVEN HIGH STUDENTS CHOSE A PATH LESS TRAVELLED. BY JULIA V. MILLER PHOTOS SUBMITTED Brookhaven Magazine 31
The traditional path to becoming a doctor is arduous. Four years of medical school. Three years or more of residency. Countless long nights, tests to study for, and anatomical terms to memorize. But for some medical students, they choose to take a path just a bit longer with a goal of ultimately earning both a medical degree and PhD. Two former Brookhaven High School students chose to take the path less travelled and enroll in the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s MD/ PhD program, which required them to suspend their medical training after three years to switch gears and focus on medical research. Hannah Rice Turbeville, a 2009 graduate of Brookhaven High School, just graduated from the program this spring before transitioning to an ENT residency at the University of Michigan. Jamarius Waller, who spent his first two years of high school at BHS before transferring to join the class of 2011 at Mississippi School for Math and Science, has just entered his final year. Both Turbeville and Waller began doing research in undergrad, and as they began looking into medical schools learned there was a way to keep that part of their minds active on top of completing the traditional doctor’s educational path.
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It gives me options to do things that just an MD wouldn’t be able to do, specifically in the realm of branching out in discovery. Jamarius Waller
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“What [the program] really does is it gives you options,” Waller said. “It gives me options to do things that just an MD wouldn’t be able to do, specifically in the realm of branching out in discovery.” For many doctors, he explained, once you get into a field of medicine, you tend to stay in and focus on that field. With his PhD completed and the accompanying research background, he will maintain some freedom to branch out and discover. “I didn’t know how much I loved discovery until my last couple years of undergrad. I always thought it was doctors that were the ones who make medications, but it’s really the researchers who take that step out on the ledge,” he said. “You get the ability to step out and do things that aren’t even remotely in your field, but because you have the training of a PhD you have the required prerequisites to take risks that other people can’t.” For Turbeville, the research component has allowed her to use more of the creative side of her brain. “The thing that really cinched it for me was meeting with the current MD/PhD students after my MD/PhD interview, and they just really felt like the kind of people I wanted to surround myself with and become like,” she said. “They were this really neat blend of people who are committed to patient care, but they also had this creative side they got to explore in graduate school. Getting to come up with your own question and figure out how to get to the answer just sounded very exciting to me. I had no idea how I was going to put the two of
those together into a career. I just knew that this was the group of people I needed to be in, and this is the place I needed to be at.” Studying preeclampsia in rats Both Waller and Turbeville ended up doing research on preeclampsia in pregnant rat models. Turbeville looked at the long term effects preeclampsia has on both the mothers and the offspring. “For years and years and years, it’s been thought that preeclampsia really ends when you deliver the baby, and that’s really been prescribed as a cure for preeclampsia,” she said. “If a woman becomes too preeclamptic, we deliver the baby. She gets better. Everything’s over, right? Well, some of the more recent evidence is showing there are some health risks that exist 20, 30 years after that delivery for the mother and the baby.” She began her work by looking at the kidney functions of rats after having one or more preeclamptic pregnancies, and then shifted her focus toward the effects on the offspring of preeclamptic pregnancies. “It’s been shown that children delivered from preeclamptic pregnancies show higher blood pressure earlier on in their lives as compared to children born from normotensive pregnancies. I looked at seeing if we could use a therapeutic, mainly sildenafil, which is commonly known as Viagra to improve that blood pressure increase, improve that future kidney function as they age. The spoiler alert is that no we were not able to do that using Viagra, but it was an interesting study that allowed me to look at the different aspects of kidney function, blood pressure, vascular biology.” As for Waller’s research, he primarily looked at ways to help prevent medicinal treatments from Brookhaven Magazine 33
crossing the fetal-placental barrier, basically working to ensure the medicines given to treat the mother are unable to cross over and affect the unborn child. “Ours was a big, long protein that helps drugs stay in the circulation for longer,” he said. “We used different combinations of therapeutic peptides in combination with our drug delivery vector in order to find different ways to treat pre-eclampsia. We kind of had the idea that if we used this large drug delivery vector we could attach it to smaller molecules and test to see how well they worked.” For Waller and his team, they did ultimately get the result they were hoping for, but they learned sometimes that’s not quite enough. “I thought the point was to discover, but the point is to discover in a way that is more effective than what already existed. That was eye-opening to me in my final year of writing my dissertation,” he said. “My mentor said this is great but it may not go anywhere because it’s not that much better than what already exists. You didn’t make a groundbreaking discovery even though you did get a couple publications out of this.” The point of the three years of research was not to
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specifically get a yes on their hypotheses. Instead, it was to learn how to be effective scientists from conducting research, to writing grants, and to submitting to scientific journals. For many of the doctoral students, their field of research while obtaining a PhD does not translate to their ultimate career. Neither Waller nor Turbeville had any interest in the OB-GYN specialty despite choosing to study a disease that is most closely related to that field. “I was hesitant about doing pre-eclampsia research because I wanted to do internal medicine or pediatrics initially,” Waller said. “I was like if I don’t want to be an OB GYN there’s no need in me doing this. One of my mentors told me it’s not about what your research is, it’s about learning how to do research and how to do research effectively. If you master that, you could have not gotten a single publication, but you’ll be a great scientist.” Turbeville agreed stressing that the people you surround yourself with is more important at that stage. “It should be based on the mentor that’s going to give you the best training and best mentorship you can find,” she said. “And that may be in a field that you won’t have
interest in once you finish your PhD, so I picked a mentor who could not only teach me to be a good scientist, but who could teach me how to build that with education and mentorship and leadership within my field.” Studying through a pandemic For both of them, their education was also augmented by the unique situation of being medical scientist students in the midst of a global pandemic. Neither of them are experts in epidemiology or virology, but there were lessons they were able to glean watching scientific discovery play out in a very public way since the onset of COVID-19. “America has watched the scientific process unfold from start to finish,” Waller said. “I think it throws people off.” He went on to explain that in research you initially start with a hypothesis. There is a limited amount of data to go off of, so the scientist makes an educated guess based on the most likely scenario. “Similar to the mask situation,” he said. “At the beginning, you didn’t really need it because it may not be respiratory, but as you learn more, things change. Your actions change.” Watching other scientist communicate with the public has taught Waller strategies that he will tuck away for further in his career. “I have an understanding of how to convey things outside of the medical field. I’ve observed how things have been conveyed,” he said. “I’ve really learned that you have to find creative and informative ways to tell people about what you’re doing and why it’s good. And be honest about the limitations of the science because all science has limitations. I’m keeping it in the back of my head because I know in five or 10 years when I’m deep into it, I’ll have to get some information out to either my patients or just the public in general.” For Turbeville, on the other hand, the experience was humbling and helped her empathize with those who were confused about the science behind different directives and suggestions. “To a certain extent, a lot of us with a science and research background became the spokesperson or interpreter of some that information for our friends and family,” she said. “I was having to look at the data, look at the things I was reading, and really work to understand them as well. So, if someone with the level of education I have, not saying I’m an expert yet, but I have quite a lot of education, and I’m still struggling to understand or figure out that yes or no, what’s the real takeaway here, how much more of an issue is someone with much less science education having interpreting that same information.”
Next steps Waller still has one year left before he graduates, and he will be spending that time getting as much clinical experience as he can and applying to residencies. He plans to continue working in the space between medicine and research, and his goals in the future include working in internal medicine, and ultimately, he’d like to move into cardiology, so that he can work to create a better understanding of cardiovascular diseases at the molecular level.
“Cardiology is such a field that is so tepid because changing things can be life or death because the heart is so critical,” he said. “I really want to fill the gap to understand the molecular level that causes the diseases to happen.” This route in research often takes much more time, but he hopes it will lead to better solutions. He gave an example of a new heart medication that was initially created for diabetics, but they found out through clinical trials that it works really well for heart failure. He explained that this is how a lot of new medicines are made. “We don’t know how it works, but it works,” he said. “I kind of want to have a better understanding of the Brookhaven Magazine 35
mechanism of things, so that you can not only make better treatment but counter certain effects before they happen.” Waller is also interested in introducing youth, especially underrepresented youth, to the idea of research. “I feel like so many kids are interested in scientific discovery, and they’re like I don’t know what to do with this,” he said. “I love to find things and discover things, but how do I make money out of that, how do I make a career out of that. I just want to try to open it up to as many people as possible.” Waller also added one of the many perks of an MD/ PhD program is that they are usually fully funded meaning those who graduate don’t carry those exorbitant student loans with them. As for Turbeville, she has settled on otolaryngology (better known as ENT) and began her residency this summer. When it was first suggested to Turbeville that she might pursue this specialty, she was skeptical. “I was like I don’t think that’s for me,” she recalled. “I think they’re way too smart. I don’t know that they would look twice at someone who did as poorly on the head/neck part of gross anatomy as I did.” But a friend of hers wore her down, and from her first day of shadowing the ENTs at UMMC, she felt an immediate connection. “They were just really welcoming in how they reacted with each other and with the staff that worked in the office and with their patients,” she said. “It was very collegial. It was like everyone was on the same team, and the team’s goal was to benefit the patient. It didn’t feel to me that there was any ego at play. Everyone wanted to work together for the benefit of the patients.” Turbeville also hopes to stay in research to some degree, and she believes the University of Michigan will foster both the rigorous training for surgery as well as providing the space to explore some of the unknowns, whether that is looking for better understanding of how the inner ear works to finding better, more effective treatment plans.
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Getting to come up with your own question and figure out how to get the answer just sounded very exciting to me. I had no idea how I was going to put the two of those together. Hannah Rice Turbeville
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BROOK-HEAVEN
Anecdotes of the early 20th Century in the Homeseekers’ Paradise BY BRETT CAMPBELL PHOTOS SUBMITTED Brookhaven Magazine 37
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Brookhaven historian Matthew Ard collected much information and published many articles of the area’s past and residents. His writings are in the possession of the Lincoln County Historical and Genealogical Society, which has shared their contents with the editors of Brookhaven News Media. The following information comes from a Jan. 9, 1958, article published in The Lincoln County Advertiser, entitled “Old Homes and Interesting Folks in Brookhaven Recalled by Many.” “Well do we recall Mr. and Mrs. S. J. Carpenter whose home in Brookhaven was the old Warren, later the Bloom, home on the high embankment on the West side of the railroad at the overhead bridge and more recently demolished when many made a scramble for the large antique bricks which had been made many years ago at the Seavey Brick Yard. “The Carpenters likewise moved north where Mr. Carpenter died, Mrs. Carpenter living for many years at the Hotel Chatham in New York City. Well do I remember the night when with Ellen Johnson, now Mrs. Sherry Kane, we were being driven down Park Avenue in Mrs. Carpenter’s limousine with her liveried chauffer at the wheel to the Metropolitan Opera where the Met’s liveried doorman assisted us out, and Ellen whispered to me, ‘If Brookhaven could only see us now!’” “Dr. Van (Watts), our local Will Rogers of that day and still a legend often quoted for his witty and pungent sayings during his long legislative career when represented this section in our state legislature. In those days the candidates often held joint debates arguing their position on questions of the moment from the same platform. It was at one such debate that [Page Abi Cohn while] asking for the audience’s votes remarked that his life was an open book. “It then came time for Dr. Watts to speak. I can see his long, lanky form unfolding as he arose to answer Abi with, ‘Aye, aye, ladies and gentlemen, his life is an open book, but it’s written in Hebrew, and who in heck can read it?’” In referring to an unnamed man who was dying, Ard wrote, “Brother Purser, the father of the late R. W. Purser, long affiliated with the Mississippi Power and
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Light Company and before that with the locally owned electric plant, was our Baptist Minister here, and he called on the departing brother, who informed him that he was not afraid to (die), that in fact, he had seen the chariot a coming!” At the time, “there were but two automobiles owners in town … O. B. Brown of Pearlhaven and Hiram Cassedy with his one seater Maxwell, and whose home was the present Brookhaven Funeral Home.” One woman was sure the dying man had not seen a chariot at all, but one of the two automobiles come to cart his body to the funeral home. This good brother did depart shortly afterwards and the funeral in the old Baptist Church was one for the book, and the talk of the town, for one reason it was the first funeral in Brookhaven in which other than white flowers were used. This was just 50 years ago, in 1907.” “As I have written, I have thought of many others, people as well as anecdotes, some of them interesting and highly amusing, as for instance the old time Brookhavenite who years ago making his first trip to New Orleans, was asked when he returned as to where he had stopped in the Crescent City and replied, ‘I reckon it must have been the Push Hotel as “Push” was printed on the door!’ He was ever after known as ‘Push’ – this nickname having followed him to his grave.” These stories were included in an article which – despite its name – was intended as a listing of recipes to be included in an upcoming cookbook and the names of contributors to that book. “The new edition could have the distinction of incorporating not only the best of the old recipes of these old Brookhaven residents but, in a number of instances, those of their daughters, granddaughter and great granddaughters as well. This could further incorporate the top recipes of your weekly Cook of the Week feature – a combination both unique and hard to beat.” Ard concluded the article by saying he would be glad to do anything for the betterment of Brookhaven, “for you can write me down as one who loves BrookHEAVEN, as the boys in uniform referred to our town in the late world war.”
Brookhaven Magazine 39
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Brookhaven Magazine 41
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OUT & ABOUT
GIRLS NIGHT OUT PHOTOS BY Brookhaven Chamber of Commerce
The Brookhaven Chamber of Commerce once again hosted the popular Girls Night Out shopping event in June. Hundreds of shoppers took part and dozens of merchants participated with open houses, special sales and events.
Brookhaven Magazine 43
OUT & ABOUT
BROOKHAVEN LITTLE THEATRE CAMPS PHOTOS BY Eddie Cagle Photograpy
The Brookhaven Little Theatre hosted two drama camps for youngsters this summer, culiminating in productions of “High School Musical Jr.” and “Willy Wonka Kids.” 44 July/August 2021
OUT & ABOUT
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OKATOMA KAYAK TRIP
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PHOTOS BY Fr. Andrew McLarty
The youth of the Church of ther Redeemer celebrated the new school year with a trip to the Okatoma.
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John Kelly Perkins, Kelly perkins, Andrew McLarty, Dorothy LeBlanc, Kate LeBlanc, Sara Rodgers Smith, Sloane Smith, Aerin Eubanks, Emily Derrick and Veronica VanVuren.
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Vernoica VanVuren and Emily Derrick
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Kate LeBlanc and Sara Rodgers Smith
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Sloane Smith, Dorothy LeBlanc and Andrew McLarty
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Sara Rodgers Smith, Kate LeBlanc, Dorothy LeBlanc and Sloane Smith Brookhaven Magazine 45
OUT & ABOUT
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ENGAGEMENT PARTY
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PHOTOS BY BILL PERKINS
The engagement of Devon Kelly to Stone Underwood was celebrated at “The Homestead” Saturday July 24th. Entertainment for the evening was performed by the band “Dr. Jazz”. The leader of Dr Jazz, Dr. Russell Steele, now of New Orleans, was the leader of a band almost 40 years ago called “The Docs of Dixieland” which consisted of pediatricians at Arkansas Children’s Hospital who entertained the young patients at the hospital. Stone’s mother, Sarah, was employed by that hospital at the time Stone’s dad, Don, became engaged. The Docs played for their wedding reception. It was a thrill for Dr Steele’s new band, Dr Jazz, to play at Stone and Devon’s engagement party. Hosted by many friends, the chairmen of the party were Melinda Said and Celeste Lowery. Jennifer Jackson created the charcuterie table.
1. Hunter Harrison, Caroline Harrison, Alexis Pittman, Joshn Chermaine, Blaise Braden, Gray Holland, Devon Kelly, Stone Underwood, Dewey Stalley, Blair Benton, Ruffin Oberschmidt, Reagan Pepper, Drew Jones, Gabe Wilson, Nic Ricerri and Jillian Ricerri
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2. Chuck Keyes, Janie Keyes, Mark Lingle, Pam Lingle, Sarah Underwood, Don Underwood, Beth Breeland, Tyler Batton, Richard Batton, Steve Lingle, Larry Barry 3. Ashley Reymundo, Healther Foley, Polly Gill, Sarah Underwood and Trudy Price 4. Stephen Dotz, Meghan Kelly, Don Underwood, Sarah Underwood, Stone Underwood, Devon Kelly, Tim Kelly and Connie Kelly 5.
Devon Kelly, Stone Underwood, Michael Kavitz and Amanda Paris
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Heather Foley, Ashley Reymundo and Celeste Carty
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Connie Kelly, Meghan Kelly, Mike and Malinda Said
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Ellen and Jack Gratwick
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Sam and Heather Silveri
10. Stephen Dotz and Meghan Kelly 11. Kim Leary and Tony Mullen 12. Lori Perkins 13. Jillian and Nic Ricceri
Brookhaven Magazine 47
OUT & ABOUT
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BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS
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PHOTOS BY BILL PERKINS
Betty Ann Perkins began celebrating her 91st birthday on July 16. However, toasts and celebrations continued throughout the rest of July at different venues with various friends.
1. Sandra Hall, Betty Ann Perkins and Renate Huntington 2. Betty Ann Perkins with Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson 3. Shelly Harrigill and Betty Ann Perkins 4. Marlene Chmieleski and Betty Ann Perkins 5. Sherry Powell and Betty Ann Perkins 6. Betty Ann Perkins with a birthday bouquet 7. Betty Ann Perkins blows out the candle on a birthday dessert 8. Betty Ann Perkins with one of her many celebratory cakes 9. Theresia and Don Perkins with Betty Ann Perkins 10. Paula Blackmon, cousin George Malvaney, Betty Ann Perkins, Bill Perkins and cousin Sam Malvaney 11. Betty Ann Perkins with Karen and Art Vingello 12. Betty Ann Perkins, Phyllis Spearman, Racine Reardon and Kay Calcote 13. Dr. Ted Dear, Sam Malvaney and Betty Ann Perkins
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Brookhaven Magazine 49
WHY I LOVE BROOKHAVEN
IT’S REALLY ALL ABOUT THE PEOPLE A newcomer shares her insight on the joys of simply living life in Brookhaven
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BY STACY GRANING
Indulge me a moment, please. When Julia Miller and I were brainstorming content for this edition of Brookhaven Magazine, we talked about reviving the “Why I Love Brookhaven,” a feature we both love and want to continue. And we had a thought … let’s share a new perspective to a feature that typically highlights prominent residents sharing why they love the community in which they’ve lived, worked and volunteered for many years. So here I am, a relative newcomer marking six months in my new-to-me hometown, talking about “Why I love Brookhaven.” And the reasons are many. From the hometown charm to the “get things done” attitude of civic and community leaders, Brookhaven has much to love. We have a thriving retail base; a friendly, hometown culture that welcomes newcomers and natives alike; a fantastic arts community, from the Brookhaven Arts Guild to the Mississippi School for the Arts to festivals such as the perennial favorite Brookstock; and a calendar filled with so many diverse activities that you can always find
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something to pique your interest. But the biggest reason I love Brookhaven? It’s the people and their stories. I love being stopped after church on Sunday to visit with someone who has an idea, or welcoming a new face who stops by the office to offer a suggestion for a story. I relish the opportunity to tell the stories of 100-year-olds who gladly share their secrets to a long, love-filled life (spoiler: keep busy and love God and your family) or community members whose death leaves a void in not only the fabric of their family, but in the community as a whole. I smile each day as I drive to work in our downtown office, and back home again in the evening, wondering in awe as I pass 100-year-old homes and imagine the stories those walls could tell. I’ve become a bit of an Old Towne voyeur (in the nicest sense of the word) traveling streets in search of homes for sale and watching with interest as remodeling and renovation projects bring new life to historic homes. And I proudly brag on my new hometown to friends and family who will listen. Just recently a neighbor stopped by for a quick moment. “I was thinking about something the newspaper ought to do,” she said. “I don’t know if you do this, but I took a picture of the Sones out riding their bikes through the town the other day. It was just such a nice moment to see people out and doing things in our town, and it’s such a good thing to see,” she said. “Is that something you could do? Show pictures of people enjoying our town?” And isn’t that really what I love best about living here in Brookhaven?
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