Delta Magazine July/August 2022 by Delta Magazine

Delta

JULY/AUGUST 2022

Hot Crappie

Fishing at our nationally ranked lakes

Inspired Historic Renovation with Home Designer Frank Tindall

Maude Schuyler Clay A Delta Odyssey

The Delta Cocktail Trail

blazing fast 5G, in the palm of your (one free) hand.

DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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4 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

OPEN THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2022

Mississippi’s own country music legend, Marty Stuart, is partnering with the Two Mississippi Museums in an exhibition exploring his life and his legacy of collecting country music’s stories. The World of Marty Stuart features hundreds of items never shown before in the state, including Marty’s first guitar, Hank Williams’ original handwritten manuscripts, guitars from Merle Haggard and Pops Staples, costumes from Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, personal items from Johnny Cash, including his first black performance suit, and much more.

Tickets and exhibit information: mdah.ms.gov

DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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Delta m

Publisher: J. Scott Coopwood Editor: Cindy Coopwood Managing Editor: Pam Parker Contributing Editors: Hank Burdine, Maude Schuyler Clay, Lea Margaret Hamilton, Jim “Fish” Michie, Brantley Snipes, Roger Stolle Digital Editor: Phil Schank Consultant: Samir Husni, Ph.D. Graphic Designers: Sandra Goff, Maggi Mosco Contributing Writers: Jim Beaugez, Maude Schuyler Clay, Lea Margaret Hamilton, Chatham Kennedy, Sherry Lucas, Mary Lee McKee, Joshua Quong, Angela Rogalski, Kelli Williams, Wade S. Wineman, Jr. Photography: Amber’s Photography, Dwayne Bratcher, Abe Draper, Andy Lo, John Keen, Maggi Mosco, Anna Satterfield, Taylor Square Photography, Holly Tharp, Rob Walker Account Executives: Joy Bateman, Melanie Dupree, Cristen Hemmins, Kristy Kitchings, Wendy Mize, Ann Nestler, Cadey True Circulation: Holly Tharp Accounting Manager: Emma Jean Thompson POSTMASTER: Send all address changes to

Delta Magazine, PO Box 117, Cleveland, MS 38732

ADVERTISING: For advertising information, please call (662) 843-2700 Delta Magazine accepts no responsibility for unsolicited materials or photos and in general does not return them to sender. Photography obtained for editorial usage is owned by Delta Magazine and may not be released for commercial use such as in advertisements and may not be purchased from the magazine for any reason. All editorial and advertising information is taken from sources considered to be authoritative, but the publication cannot guarantee their accuracy. Neither that information nor any opinion expressed on the pages of Delta Magazine in any way constitutes a solicitation for the sale or purchase of securities mentioned. No material in Delta Magazine may be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the publication. Delta Magazine is published bimonthly by Coopwood Magazines, Inc., 125 South Court St., Cleveland, MS 38732-2626. Periodicals postage paid at Cleveland, MS and additional mailing office. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Delta Magazine, PO Box 117, Cleveland, MS 38732-0117. Delta Magazine (USPS#022-954)

Delta Magazine is published six times a year by Coopwood Magazines, Inc. EDITORIAL & BUSINESS OFFICE ADDRESSES: Mailing Address: PO Box 117, Cleveland, MS 38732 Shipping Address: 125 South Court Street, Cleveland, MS 38732 E-mail: publisher@deltamagazine.com editor@deltamagazine.com

6 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

from the editor

Big City Dreams don’t know exactly what it is about New York City that’s always been such a draw for the young. But what I do know is that it has held a constant allure for decades. Some go to pursue careers in fashion, design, the arts, or finance. Some go to further their education. And some go to escape small-town life, if just for a time, to experience the energy of a big city. I was not immune. When I was about sixteen, my best friend Sonya Kimbrell and I promised ourselves we were going to move to New York. Sonya and I met upon entering seventh grade and through the years we spent hours and hours reading Seventeen and Cosmopolitan for fashion inspiration, which we thought qualified us for the journey. Well, actually, I only read Seventeen; Sonya read much more mature periodicals which exposed her to a lot more than fashion, trust me. And much to my delight she shared her expanded knowledge with me—but I digress. We thought we would drive ourselves there in my ancient Chevy Chevette, which had a deer antler as a shift stick thanks to my father’s ingenuity. (And in case you’re wondering ... yes, that kept me humble.) However, we failed to consider how or where we would live, or how we might support ourselves. “I think that fantasy was dashed by forgetting our money the first time we got to drive to Pizza Hut by ourselves,” Sonya reminded me recently. But we could still dream! Suffice it to say, the first time I traveled to the Big Apple was when Scott and I had been married about a year—and I was blown away. I was trying very hard to rock my inner early-nineties Andie McDowell, and can still remember exactly what I wore for most of that trip. This issue proves my point exactly. Photographer Maude Schuyler Clay’s story is no different. She left the tiny hamlet of Sumner in the early seventies to pursue what she hoped would be a career in fashion, and as often happens, one thing led to another, and her career as a photographer emerged from the experience, page 58. Then, on to the Hayes family of Clarksdale—Paige and daughters Kate and Mary Claire have opened Edward Avenue Antiques with locations in Clarksdale and New York where both girls live and have established careers in the interior design industry. You’ll also read about Emma Pittman, who was raised in Batesville and Oxford. She has followed her dreams, and now her star is rising on Broadway as she just portrayed Roxie Hart in Chicago this June, page 31. In fact, our Final Word editorial by Lea Margaret Hamilton, details the experiences she and several Delta friends recently had as they went to see Emma in Chicago. Connecting the dots even further, Greenville native Savannah Engel, who is Ran into Lea Margaret Hamilton, owner of SoDelta Candles at her booth at Double proudly making her mark as a Mississippi Delta girl in the New York Fashion PR Decker! We’re excited to welcome her as industry, helped them with reservations and other plans. You’ll read more about her in a new Delta Magazine contributing editor! our fall issue, coinciding with New York Fashion week. There’s no denying summer is here, and it is HOT! Travel is harder for many these days but we are fortunate to have endless options for family fun activities and getaways right here at home. A favorite past time for many Mississippians is fishing for crappie in our nationally ranked lakes. Writer and fishing guide Joshua Quong shares his thoughts on the topic on page 66. Plus you’ll love our bruschetta and tart recipes using fresh summer produce, page 114. We hope you enjoy this our Nineteenth Anniversary Issue. It’s been a pleasure to bring you the stories of the Delta all these years—and we are not slowing down! If you are not a subscriber please consider subscribing today, and if you are a currently signed up, remember a subscription to Delta Magazine makes an excellent gift. We Scott and I in our seventies best. We were greatly appreciate your support! DM

thrilled to be included for Morgan Freeman’s 85th birthday party where Scott was the master of cermonies!

Cindy Coopwood Editor @cindycoopwood | editor@deltamagazine.com

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DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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contents Volume 20 No. 1

JULY/AUGUST

TAYLOR SQUARE PHOTOGRAPHY

departments 34 BOOKS Reviews of new releases and ABE DRAPER

what Deltans are reading now

66 DWAYNE BRATCHER

117

52 58 74 66 100

DAVID RAE MORRIS

ANNA SATTERFIELD

100

SHOPPING

ART

MUSIC

HOME

114

FOOD

126

HISTORY

Celebrating a Milestone The Delta’s own Morgan Freeman turns 85

Delta Odyssey: Around the World and Back The lifetime journey of photographer Maude Schuyler Clay

Summer Fun Special Advertising Section What to see and do in and around the Delta this summer

Hot Crappie Fishing in the Delta’s nationally ranked crappie lakes

Willie Morris The good ole boy who came home

ON THE COVER: A nod to summer, one of the scores of colorful birdhouses in the garden yard of Suzie Cranston of Jackson. Photo by Abe Draper. 10 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

Summer Lovin’: Beat the heat with these fun summer accessories HALEY FARRIS Greenwood artist’s work is exploding with color and gaining recognition PARKER BROTHERS BAND This Coahoma family was deep in the mix of the birth of rock ’n’ roll Labor of LOVE: The renovation of the historic Lovelace home by designer Frank Tindall A Bounty of Peace, page 106 Summer Tarts & Bruschetta Fresh recipes using summer produce The Delta Cocktail Trail, page 122 The Greenville Bends The formidable stretch of the “crookedest river in the world”

in every issue 14 Letters 22 On the Road Where we’ve been, where we’re going next

26 Off the Beaten Path Roaming the real and rustic Delta

30 134 138 144

Hot Topics Events Delta Seen The Final Word by Lea Margaret Hamilton

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LETTERS Lester Mitchell from Greenwood is one such fisherman. He owns a lifetime of bass fishing knowledge, technique, and experience, not to mention a collection of bait that puts most to shame. The classic bait, the trendiest, the winners, the rare, the newest, and even the craziest of concoctions—he’s got them all. And even then, Lester is still looking to better his odds. “A bass fisherman will buy anything to get an edge,” he says. “Every single time he’s thinking, ‘This is the one is that’s going to do it!’” Still going strong at seventy-nine years young, Lester spends nearly every day thinking and doing bass fishing. When he isn’t on the water, Lester is in his shop building lures and other specialty bait. He’s been at it for better than fifty years and has handmade tens of thousands of lures. Each one is unique and tuned to perfection, always designed to catch that next feisty hawg. It’s more than a passion. For Lester, it’s life.

Lester Mitchell in the workshop where he hand makes bass baits, a craft he’s perfected over five decades.

HUNTIN’ FISH How a passion for ﬁnding the perfect lure for the elusive bass became a lifelong hobby

The Formative Years Lester caught his first bass when he was about six years old. He and his dad, Marvin, were fishing on a lake bank in Texas “I caught it on a Lucky 13,” Lester recalls about the bait he was using. “Dad came running over and helped me drag that big ol’ bass up on the bank. From that day forward, I was hooked.” Sadly, a year later his father passed away. “My father was one of those people who had the knack for catching bass—he was a natural,” Lester says. “I would have loved to have been able to fish a lot more with him.” Lester was born in Picayune, just over

Take a look at Lester’s tricks of the bass fishing trade. He’s even made a few of those rods— ones he’s used to catch tens of thousands of fish over seven decades.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KATIE TIMS

SECRETS LURK JUST BELOW THE SURFACE. A few are deep

and out of sight. Others skim along the top or dart this way and that. Sometimes they catch a fish, most of the time not. Those fish can be tricky and unpredictable. A bass fisherman counters with strategy and system—his own secrets—and clutches those cards close to his vest. His is a hand seldom tipped, never fully revealed. As for bait, well, that’s a whole different game. What works best? What catches the most fish? This lure, that plastic worm, those jigs— what’s hottest right now? Experienced fisherman love to talk bait—always looking to better the odds of catching a fish.

Above Lester’s work bench hangs (second from left) an original Fred C. Young “Big O” lure.

Fred C. Young “Big O” lure.

66 | MAY/JUNE 2022

Once the lure is carved, line tie and hook holder inserted, bill epoxied in, and belly weight attached, Lester seals the lure multiple times and then paints it white. At this point he tests the lure to make sure it runs correctly. “I have to tune the lure before I paint it because if it doesn’t run correctly and I have to adjust, then it’s going to be noticed. The fish won’t bite it. Of the last fourteen lures I made, one of them had to be tuned. I pretty much know what I’m doing after all these years.” DELTA MAGAZINE 2022 | 67

What a great job Katie Tims did telling the story about my fishing lures in the May/June 2022 issue. She really nailed it. I remain blown away by her extensive research to professionally write the article. Delta Magazine stands out as a high-quality product focused on what your customers expect. My wife, Carolyn, and I find that you have not failed, and we enjoyed the time that you graciously spent with us. Lester Mitchell Greenwood, Mississippi

Magnolia Chain. The tradition endures and has spread to other institutions. Greenville High School—Miss Pohl’s alma mater—still employed the tradition in 1975 when I graduated. If I had to guess, Deer Creek School employed a graduate of MSCW who valued the tradition and wanted to share it with her new school. It’s lovely that it’s still observed. It’s always interesting to discover tidbits of history in the Delta region. Melanie Mitchell Tucker Lookout Mountain, Georgia

Metamorphosis of the Monarch Each year when the Monarch butterflies pass through the Delta traveling thousands of miles from Canada to Mexico, they receive a warm welcome by Linda Hiter of Merigold

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The Magnolia chain tradition was and still is celebrated at schools across the state and the South. Forest Hill High School, Jackson circa 1980-81.

The Magnolia Chain LINKING OLD AND NEW, THIS DECADES OLD TRADITION MARKS A NEW BEGINNING, AS AN IMPORTANT CHAPTER OF LIFE IS CLOSING BY SUSAN MARQUEZ • PHOTOS CURATED BY LEA MARGARET HAMILTON

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In my favorite magazine, Delta Magazine, there was an article about the Magnolia Chain. I graduated from Leland High School in 1944. At that time, it was an old tradition. I didn’t realize other schools had it and am so glad it has carried on. Peggy Cannada Madison, Mississippi I read with interest the recent Delta Magazine article about the Magnolia Chain tradition at Deer Creek School. It’s a lovely tradition that actually originated at the Mississippi University for Women, formerly Mississippi State College for Women (MSCW). Greenville native Emma Ody Pohl originated the first “daisy chain” in 1910 at II&C (and what later became MSCW and then MUW in Columbus, Mississippi); within a couple of years it evolved into the SEND COMMENTS AND LETTERS TO:

Many heartfelt thanks to Delta Magazine for the article in the May/June 2022 issue featuring my simple efforts to improve the Monarch population. I was a little nervous and wasn’t sure my ecological “hobby” was worthy of a feature, but Sherry Lucas’s enthusiasm and interest put me at ease and after several hours of talking, looking at pictures, and explaining the process, I felt like my story was one people would enjoy. When the magazine arrived, I was overwhelmed at the beauty and length of the article. I was so impressed with the layout and accuracy of all of the information. I immediately went to the Delta Magazine offices and acquired extra copies to send to family and friends. Since then I have had a lot of people contact me interested in learning how to attract various butterflies to their yards or bring their children or grandchildren to learn about the life cycle of butterflies and hopefully release one. I hope my enthusiasm is catching and people realize even the smallest of things like planting butterfly-friendly gardens can help our ecosystem. My numbers of released Monarchs has doubled this spring! Makes me wonder if they read the article too! Linda Adams Hiter Merigold, Mississippi

editor@deltamagazine.com or Delta Magazine, PO Box 117, Cleveland, MS 38732

14 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

Y’all Said

SOCIAL MEDIA COMMENTS @deltamagazine

We Asked... For those who fish: Which fries up the best… bass, crappie, or catfish?

Actually catfish fries up the best. It gets crispier for some unknown reason. I still prefer crappie. Its my favorite, but it will not get crispy like catfish. – Tom Janoush Crappie – Lambert Lynn Marshall Number one is crappie, number two is farm-raised catfish! – Billy Fisher Crappie – James Wiygul It is all the same with the same seasonings, it would be personal preference. But I love fresh cold water crappie, but then again I love some yellow cat belly meat. – Jimmy McClellan Whole fish—crappie…filets—catfish! – Carol Cashion Doolittle Crappie – Donald Bradshaw Crappie!!! – W. Stacey Gillison Bream – Joel Little

READER RESPONSE deltamagazine.com

May-June Issue 2021 Nitta Yuma by Katie Tims ~ Summer 1960 I checked cotton there as it was among the many accounts of my very able entomologist employer from Greenville. Then the office there was on south side of Deer Creek. Have always been fascinated with the residence on the north side of Deer Creek, that the Creek was once navigable, and recall when the other “old” residence needing attention was brought to front Hwy 1. All now destination quality. – Albert J. Kossman Such an incredible article. I went to elementary school in Rolling Fork and my grandparents lived in Leland, so we were through Nitta Yuma constantly. My father was a Mississippi Highway Patrolman for that area. My husband lived and went to school in Hollandale and was great friends with the Castellis. Thank you for the article. – Nancy Wells Jackson DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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TIME IS THE SAME FOR EACH LOCATION. SHREDDING WILL BEGIN AT 10 AM, ACTUAL LENGTH MAY VARY. IF THE SHRED TRUCK IS FULL BEFORE 2:00 P.M., THE REMAINDER OF SHRED DAY WILL BE CANCELED.

16 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

YOUR LIFE...STYLED

F U R N I T U R E Inside Miskelly Pearl & Miskelly Madison | 601.939.6288 | Miskellys.com

Fields of Green

PHOTO BY KAREN GIESBRECHT

The growing season is well underway and all is right with the world—but it’s always somewhat of a gamble. In a nod to the everpresent cycle of nature, which sometimes interjects its own whims, this stunning bean field in Leflore county was completely flooded for most of the summer last year and unable to be replanted. However, this season after what must have been a much needed respite, it has produced a gorgeous crop now waiting to be irrigated. Such are the whims of Mother Nature! DM

Touching lives Powering the future The communities we serve are the communities we call home. We stay active and involved – because we know our responsibility reaches beyond the power grid. So, we invest in education and industry, while developing new solutions to power tomorrow. As a community, our successes fuel each other. entergymississippi.com

20 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

ON THE ROAD

where we’ve been, where to go next

BELEN BAY ST. LOUIS

The Partee family commissary, built in the late 1800s, still stands along with the family home in Belen—a testament to the late Charles W. Partee, Sr., a leading citizen of the time. – JABY DENTON

Mural at 100 Men Hall saluting the Chitlin Circuit.

– CHARLES A JOHNSTON

ARKANSAS

PHOTO OPS MERIGOLD

The Baptist church steeple soars to the sky above Helena. – LARRY HENDERSON

GUNNISON

Founded in the 1960s, the Delta’s beloved Po’ Monkeys closed in 2016. It was one of the last rural juke joints in the Mississippi Delta. – DELTA MAGIZINE Fishing for days and haven’t caught a thing. – NANCY FRANKLIN

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TUPELO HATTIESBURG

Road trippin’ to Elvis’s birthplace!

– MY TUPELO

OXFORD

The Hattiesburg Pocket Museum and Alley is a mustsee when traveling to South Mississippi! – HATTIESBURG POCKET MUSEUM

& FUNKY STOPS ARKANSAS On my honor: Farmstead Florals’ self-serve flower stand is a delightful sight on the square. – CINDY COOPWOOD

STARKVILLE

Oldie but goodie: Vintage Buster Brown neon sign, downtown Helena. – LARRY HENDERSON

Instagram users, follow @deltamagazine

Housed on the Mississippi State University campus, the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library is a must-see for all history buffs. – LARRY HENDERSON

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A COMMUNITY YOU CAN COUNT ON

MEMBER FDIC

24 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

OFF THE BEATEN PATH roaming the real and rustic Delta

NOBILE FAMILY FARMS Big Things are Happening at this Small Town Farm in Holcomb

ROM SUMMER CAMPS FOR KIDS TO AUTUMN CORN MAZES, Nobile Family

Farms has a full calendar of fun for the entire family. Plus fresh vegetables, homemade canned goods, and fields that are full of sweet, delicious strawberries. Andrew Nobile and his wife, Mary Britton Nobile, own the farm located in Holcomb. Along with acres of fresh produce and beautiful flowers, it has its own onsite store which features many of the farm’s offerings. “We have grown exponentially in the last year,” Andrew Nobile says. “We have a butterfly release annually and this year it was even bigger. People purchase a butterfly and release it honor of a loved one. And this year, we probably had 500 people at the farm releasing butterflies. It was beautiful. We have field trips for students who come out and pick strawberries and learn all about farm life. “In May, we had our strawberry festival where local vendors came and sold their arts and crafts and it was a great success. We host a tomato festival at the end of June with live music and vendors. This year will be our first summer day camp, where children ages five to twelve can come and spend the day with us for a week. We’re having hands-on activities that are fun, but also educational. They’ll learn that food comes from a farm originally, not a grocery store. We also host birthday parties and movie night with our own outdoor movie screen.” Nobile adds that in the fall, there will be corn maze fun and they’re already making plans for a colorful Christmastime filled with holiday activities at the farm. 10560 Highway 8 West, Holcomb 662.417.8954 Facebook and Instagram: @nobilefamilyfarms

From fresh vegetables, fruits and canned goods to custom bird houses and children’s events, Nobile Family Farms has turned a small-town destination into a hot-spot for a multitude of activities. 26 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

TOM’S ON MAIN Yazoo City’s Unique Homestyle Restaurant

F YOUR PALATE IS IN THE MOOD FOR A DELICIOUS HOME-COOKED LUNCH, then

Tom’s on Main in Yazoo City is the place to bring it. From a wide selection of meat entrees to vegetables, salads, and desserts, Tom’s on Main offers its customers some of the finest downhome cooking around and a unique array of sandwiches and salads. Owner Tom Johnson says the restaurant has been open for nine years in its present location at 219 South Main Street and serves plate lunches every day, from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. The restaurant is closed on Saturdays. “Six days a week we serve our plate lunches,” Johnson says. “We’re also open for dinner one night per week, and that’s on Friday from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. and we do steaks and seafood and things like that then. But our specialty would have to be our plate lunches and unique sandwiches that we serve for our lunchtime crowd.” And when the plate lunches consist of deliciousness such as hamburger steak, country fried steak, chicken tenders, and red beans and rice, which are only a few of the meat choices you might have on any given day, plus an assortment of fresh veggies, desserts, and salads, not to mention the signature sandwiches they serve which are named after Yazoo City streets, the menu is not to be believed. “We generally have three or four entrée choices each day, and about ten or twelve sides to choose from,” Johnson says. “But in addition, we have about forty other items on the menu for customers—sandwiches, salads, burgers. And our sandwiches are unique, such as the “Main Street” and the “Mound Street.” We created a special sandwich for many of the streets here in our great town. We also like to experiment with new sandwiches, things you wouldn’t typically find here in the Delta, such as the chivito, which is a specialty of Uruguay, and is very popular with customers.”

You can’t miss noticing the colorful pink facade of Tom’s on Main located in Yazoo City. And, you shouldn’t miss stopping in for one of the most delicious plate lunches you will find in this cusp-of-the-Delta town.

219 South Main Street, Yazoo City 662.716.0505 Facebook: @toms.onmain.9 Instagram: @tomsonmain219

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For more information, call 662.227.7000.

28 | JULY/AUGUST 2022 ummc_DM_specializedmed_7.125x4.75.indd 1

6/10/22 10:25 AM

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HOT TOPICS EDWARD AVENUE ANTIQUES Over the past two years, Edward Avenue, Clarksdale’s new antiques and gift store has grown from an idea on pen and paper to a brick-and-mortar storefront on Delta Avenue. The doors opened to the public April 23rd, the same weekend as the town’s beloved Juke Joint Festival. Owner and curator Paige Hayes, who has a deep love for interior design and notable flair for entertaining, said the opening of Edward Avenue exceeded expectations. “I’ve had a great response so far. In fact, we were nearly out of inventory within the first few days of opening!” With furniture, art, and antique items sourced from vintage markets across the globe, it should come as no surprise that the storefront became an instant success. But one might be surprised that the store’s logo lists both Mississippi and New York. Based out of New York City and run by Paige’s daughters, Kate and Mary Claire—Edward Avenue’s online market caters to a slightly different crowd. The sisters both have a foot in the interior design industry, and with a sharp eye for design and access to unique sources, have carefully curated a collection of art and accessories which can be found on the website. And while the site boasts interesting items for everyone—a primary inspiration for the online space is to bring back the art of the wedding gift, which too

AUSTIN BRITT PHOTOGRAPHY

A family affair from Clarksdale to the Big Apple

often lands in a couple’s kitchen cabinets and is forgotten about. Kate and Mary Claire aim to restore the treasure of giving a truly memorable wedding gift. A true family affair, Paige’s third daughter, Olivia, also works behind the scenes, helping with the business and technology aspects of the endeavor—and this is how the vision behind the brick-and-mortar store and online shop intertwine. According to their website, their mission is to create “a platform for all of these interests to come together—to find and share beautiful treasures for people all over.” Mission accomplished. (Chatham Kennedy) 149 Delta Avenue, Clarksdale edward-avenue.com; Instagram: @edwardavenue_

WOMEN IN BLUES FESTIVAL Female blues artists take center-stage at inaugural festival

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took center stage behind Shared Experiences newly established headquarters. “We had women [artists] of all ages, races, and styles,” says Buyers. “Older women who say, ‘I had a dream that I abandoned and seeing you [the artists] on stage makes me believe that one day I can make my dreams come true too’ makes this entire event worth it.” The success of the festival stemmed from an outpouring of love from the community and a need to have female blues artists’ voices heard. The date for next year’s Women in Blues Festival has been set for May 19-20. Until this anticipated weekend arrives, patrons can visit Ground Zero Blues Club Biloxi throughout the month of October to enjoy the voices of female blues artists. “I’m proud this is now becoming an annual festival—and expanding to connect us across the state, putting women center stage more than once a year,” says Buyers. (Chatham Kennedy) DAVID RODWIN

The Mississippi Delta is defined by a myriad of sounds, each competing for space in the air: the humming of cicadas, the rustle of wind through the branches of cotton, the soothing white noise created by the rumble of excavator engines. Perhaps, the most iconic sound comes from the clamor of symphonic blues. Buried deep within the alluvial plain are the resounding songs of Son House, Howlin’ Wolf, and Muddy Waters. These voices have helped shaped the Delta’s cultural landscape. However, female blues artists like Lady Australia, Lala Craig, and DieDra Ruff have begun making their mark on Mississippi soil thanks, in part, to Clarksdale’s recently established Women in Blues Festival. Co-founded by Colleen Buyers and Libby Rae Watson and hosted by Shared Experiences USA, this three-day inaugural festival kicked off with a VIP wine and cheese pre-party at Cutrer Mansion. The event was followed by a women’s jam night at Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero Blues Club. On Friday and Saturday, blues music echoed throughout Delta Avenue as women

womeninblues.org Facebook: Shared Experiences USA Instagram: @sharedexperiencesusa

MISSISSIPPI BOOK FESTIVAL Panel of authors includes The Color Purple author Alice Walker Three years ago, almost ten thousand people gathered on the State Capitol grounds in Jackson for the Mississippi Book Festival. This summer the festival will return in-person on Saturday, August 20, after two years of virtual events due to the global pandemic. Among the list of noteworthy panelists is renowned author Jennifer Egan, who will attend as a guest of the Eudora Welty Foundation, a longtime partner of the festival. Alice Walker Egan was a guest of Lemuria Bookstore and the Welty House in 2017, when she gave a reading of her last book, Manhattan Jericho Brown with his collection, The Beach. The best-selling book was longlisted for the National Book Tradition; Newbery Medalist Matt de la Peña Award and her work as a whole has been dubbed “metafiction” by with his children’s picture book, Milo Imagines many critics. Her other books include The Invisible Circus, Look at the World, and Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell Me, The Keep, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Visit from the with their nonfiction graphic novel, Run. Goon Squad. She will return to Jackson to talk about her newest The festival will host local booksellers where book, The Candy House, which was released in April of this year. attendees can purchase books to be signed by Jennifer Egan Also attending is author Alice Walker, as this year commemorates featured authors. The day will be filled with the 40th anniversary release of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The plenty of fun for young readers on the Capitol lawn, and local Color Purple. She was the first African American woman to win the award in 1983. Walker will be in conversation with Jackson native and vendors and food trucks. The Mississippi Book Festival is August 20, 2022, on the State Capitol grounds in Jackson, from 9 a.m. to 5 Carnegie Medalist author Kiese Laymon, who joined as a panelist for p.m. Admission is free and open to the public. the virtual festival in 2021, following the reissue of his debut novel, Long Division. msbookfestival.com Facebook: Mississippi Book Festival; Instagram: msbookfestival Other visiting authors for this summer include Pulitzer Prize Poet

EMMA PITTMAN TAKES ON BROADWAY How the Batesville native won the iconic role of Roxie Hart in Chicago

hundreds of self-tapes and chose the top ten finalists. From here, the top three contestants were chosen by a national vote. Pittman was honored to be one of the lucky three women who made it to the final round in The Search for Roxie! These women were invited to NYC to participate in a “Roxie Boot Camp” led by the late choreographer Ann Reinking. A five-part web series produced by broadway.com documented the audition process, allowing the world to watch everything from the first rehearsal to the final audition. “It was like an unreal dream had actually come true,” said Pittman. “I was in New York City with my fellow contestants, and the team behind the table was full of Broadway ICONS. To have been chosen by them was unbelievable.” It goes without saying that Pittman made her mark on the Great White Way in her debut performance as Roxie Hart. She took her final bow June 19th, receiving incredible reviews for her performance in what is the secondlongest running show in Broadway history. Standby for what’s next from this rising star! (Chatham Kennedy)

PHOTOS BY JEREMY DANIEL PHOTOGRAPHY

The name on everybody’s lips is gonna be Emma. Mississippi native Emma Pittman made her Broadway debut on June 6th at the Ambassador Theatre by joining the cast and crew of Chicago for a two-week limited engagement as the famed Roxie Hart. Raised in Batesville and Oxford, the twenty-six-year-old is a theatre graduate of Wagner College in Staten Island, New York. Pittman secured the coveted role mere months before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, causing her debut performance to press pause for nearly two and a half years. In May of 2022, she received the call that she would finally don the signature blonde wig and take the stage as Roxie Hart. Her journey to the stage began in 2019 when broadway.com hosted a nationwide competition to find Chicago’s next leading lady. The Search for Roxie! began in fall of 2019, inviting any actress over the age of twenty-one to submit a video audition, which required her to perform the iconic song “Roxie,” execute a Emma Pittman dance routine, and deliver a monologue from the musical. Casting directors, producers, and former Chicago stars reviewed

Facebook: Emma Pittman Instagram: @emmapittmanofficial DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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BOOKS

Buzzworthy Comments

Daffodil Hill by Jake Keiser (Penguin Random House) Daffodil Hill, a memoir about Jake Keiser’s experience buying a farm in the Mississippi hills outside Oxford is tender, emotional, and eye-opening. Keiser is living in Tampa, suffering from stress over her work, grief from tattered relationships and miscarriages, and discontent with the surfacelevel interactions of her social life. Her secret habit is hypothetically shopping for chickens online. She cannot stop thinking about owning her own farm, and so on a whim, she buys one. What follows for Keiser is an intense learning experience and communion with nature, stirring her to conquer her trauma, loneliness, and anxiety. At times hilarious and witty, Jake Keiser and at others, awe-inspiring and hopeful, this memoir is an affectionate, vulnerable story about the healing power of nature and the resilience of animals—and humans too—as an integral part of the natural world. (Liza Jones)

We asked Facebook friends and Delta Magazine fan page group members to share with us a book that they read more than once. o Jimbo Richardson, musician Rankin, Mississippi

Woman on Fire by Lisa Barr (Harper Collins) If your taste leans toward historical fiction with notes of the thriller genre, then you will enjoy Woman on Fire by Lisa Barr. The heroine, Jules Roth, is a journalist who wins the project of a lifetime: to research a painting stolen during World War II. She is hired by Dan Mansfield, a friend of the rightful owner of the painting. But Jules and Dan aren’t the only characters who want to find the painting. Margaux de Laurent, a gallery owner who comes from a fortune made from art dealing, also wants the painting. Between shifting timelines, a rollicking plot unfolds, filled with rich characters and a dash of romance. This novel checks every box of a good summer read: sophisticated writing, engaging characters, and page-turning intrigue. (Liza Jones)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I always enjoy the savage journey this book takes you on. o Beth Stevens, executive director of Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce Greenwood, Mississippi

Lisa Barr

The Book Woman’s Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson (Sourcebooks Landmark) Kim Michele Richardson is incredibly talented at transporting readers to the beauty and thrill of Kentucky Appalachia, and she does so again in The Book Woman’s Daughter, which is a sequel to her bestselling novel, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. Even if you never had the chance to read the first book, this is an excellent novel to read. Honey Lovett is the daughter of the original Book Woman, a packhorse librarian named Cussy Carter Lovett, who is blue-skinned due to a rare gene and is jailed with her husband for miscegenation. Following in her mother’s footsteps, Honey becomes a packhorse librarian and must learn how to survive on her own in the rugged hollers of Kentucky, while also concealing her own blue skin. Richardson imbues every character and place with energy and honesty. Reading both of her Book Woman novels is strongly encouraged, but either one is a great use of time. (Liza Jones)

I’m generally not a repeat book reader, but I’d have to say The Help. I think I’ve read it three times. When a movie is filmed in your town, you go back and read the book AGAIN, especially when you know who all the characters are. Having been involved in the movie/filming process, I felt like the movie gave life to those book characters. Re-reading it takes on a whole new meaning. o John Cox, attorney Cleveland, Mississippi

I read North Toward Home by Willie Morris once a year. Willie’s journey from Yazoo City to Texas to England to New York City is a great story by itself. But, I think I read it over and over again because my parents gave it to me when I was thirteen. Reading it reminds me of them and how they encouraged my love of reading and writing.

Kim Michele Richardson

For the Record Books Delta Magazine fans are currently reading o Melba Cunningham Detlefsen The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

o Leslie Smith Shellman The Secret to Hummingbird Cake by Celeste Fletcher McHale

o Margaret Mallette Where I Come From: Stories from the Deep South by Rick Bragg o Dots Campbell Run, Rose, Run by Dolly Parton and James Patterson 34 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

o Linda Castleberry Showah Apeirogon by Colum McCann

o Ray McDaniel The Longmire books by Craig Johnson

o Alan Lamastus The World’s Largest Man by Harrison Scott Key

o MaryGay Stover It All Comes Back to You by Beth Duke

o Peggy Willingham Killing the Killers: The Secret War Against Terrorists by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard

o Ricky Stevens The Gospel According to Abraham: From Delta Boy to Tour Manager by Paul Abraham

o Tom Xerri Sharpe's Fury by Bernard Cornwell

Murder in High Cotton, by Kay Pritchett (The Wild Rose Press) The first in the Mosey Frye Mystery Series, Murder in High Cotton by Greenville native and former University of Arkansas professor, Kay Pritchett, is a true page-turner, keeping the reader in suspense. “Delta folk ought to read Murder in High Cotton,” the Fayetteville author jokes, “if for no other reason than to see if they figure as the culprit or the victim.” Pritchett's foray into the mystery genre, after publishing three academic volumes, must be deemed a success. The protagonist in Murder in High Cotton, Mosey Frye, a begrudging real estate agent, has a proclivity for listing houses where somebody has been murdered. Mosey soon learns that, for her, ultimately solving the murder committed in the house outshines making the sale. But, “Dang it, in a little Delta town, good luck getting the police chief to pay you any mind, especially if you’re a long-legged, rosycheeked blonde.” Pritchett’s novel draws, in large part, upon people, settings, and events she knew as a child growing up in Greenville, but she sets her novel in the fictitious Hembree, Arkansas, river community. Pritchett makes her fictional characters as true-to-life as she can by modeling them on what she considers a prime Delta trait: minding one’s manners but, likewise, speaking your mind should the occasion arise—which it often does. Deltans, and all readers of good mysteries, will be drawn into Prtichett’s characters and style. (Jack Criss)

Deer Creek Drive: A Reckoning of Memory and Murder in the Mississippi Delta, by Beverly Lowry (Penguin Random House) WHO done it? WHY done it? And with WHAT done it? Deer Creek Drive, A Reckoning of Memory and Murder in the Mississippi Delta is a riveting recounting and retelling of one of the most gruesome and publicized murders in Mississippi’s history. Followed daily by Hodding Carter’s Delta Democrat Times and carried by the Associated Press to newspapers all over the country, this horrific story of matricide consumed the Delta, Mississippi, and beyond our borders for weeks. “Mix together a bloody murder in a privileged white family, a false accusation against a black man, a sensational trial, and a punishment that didn’t fit the crime, and you have the best of Southern Gothic fiction. But the very best part is that the story is true,” comments John Grisham. With ten books under her belt, Greenville’s own acclaimed author Beverly Lowry now recounts the daily suspense that gripped the most affluent neighborhood in Leland and held the Delta and Mississippi by a thread. The hot, sweltering, and packed courtroom, filled with bumbling testifications of evidence and the crime scene, bound together by expert lawyers, and to the beliefs that “it’s just not supposed to be that way,” makes Deer Creek Drive a spellbinding book that should be in every reader’s bookcase. (Hank Burdine) DM

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SHOPPING

Summer Lovin’

Why try to beat the heat when you can fully embrace all the fun that comes with warmer temps! Throw in the Towel Send a message that you are living your best life with these adorable quick-dry towels—no matter what body of water you are in! Cleveland Fresh, Cleveland Instagram: @clevelandfresh 662.441.0500

Cute Jute What looks like a jute beach bag is actually a zippered cooler! Extra points for function and style. Viking Retail Store, Greenwood Instagram: @thevikingcookingschool 662.451.6750

Summer Spirits Elevate your poolside cocktail game by infusing your own drinks! Simply add alcohol to the bottle and it’s ready to enjoy in a few days. Montage Marketplace, Greenville Instagram: @montagemarketplace 662.332.1195

Eye-deal Fun Who says eye protection doesn’t have to have a bit of ﬂair? Sparkle up swim days all summer long with these adorable goggles for the kids, and the new round frames from parent-favorite Babiator.

Young Ideas, Indianola @young_ideas 662.887.5539

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Punkin’ Patch, Cleveland Instagram: @punkinpatchcleveland 662.843.0434

Chill Out Perfect for keeping your wine cool on those hot summer nights. Osmanthus 662.477.1028 Instagram: @osmanthusmarket

Chiming In Create a backyard oasis of your own with these chic decorative stone bells that come at a great price point. Perfect for gifts as well! Mimi’s on Main, Senatobia Instagram: @mimisonmain 662.562.8261

Stylish Sips Don’t stress about broken glass around the beach or pool with these fab Juliska acrylic wine glasses. Perfect for enjoying a glass of vino and a view! Rosson Co., Cleveland Instagram: @rossoncompany 662.843.3986

No Salt Needed Who says you need to have a drink in hand to feel like you are on vacay? This margarita candle is the perfect way to bring the tropics to you!

Turnrow Book Co., Greenwood Instagram: @turnrowbooks 662.453.5995

The Lily Pad, Oxford Instagram: @thelilypadoxford 662.238.2900

Cotton Row Bookstore, Cleveland 662.843.7083

Top It Off Binge-worthy Books Whether lounging in the sand or sun, nothing beats a good read. Check out these two favorites recommended by our beloved independent book stores in the Delta!

Stay shady in the best way possible with this bright take on a traditional Panama hat. Super stylish and incredibly useful to play keep-a-way from the rays. Mod + Proper, Cleveland Instagram: @modandproper 662.400.3111

Sun-kissed Savior We’ve all felt the effects of turning a bit pink from too much exposure and searching for some relief! This after-sun aloe spray is the perfect way to help sooth sore skin. Anthropologie, Ridgeland Instagram: @anthropologie 601.898.1201

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ART

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Haley Farris The Greenwood artist’s ever-evolving creations are exploding with color and gaining recognition

BY MARY LEE MCKEE • PHOTOGRAPHY BY TAYLOR SQUARE PHOTOGRAPHY

ecessity is the mother of invention … and sometimes art. At least that’s how it happened with artist Haley Farris of Sumner.

“When I envision something, I have to have it. And if I can’t ﬁnd it, I will bring it to life. That’s how the painting started.” In 2012, Haley was working on a home project for Malouf Furniture and Designs in Greenwood. She knew what she wanted for a certain space but couldn’t ﬁnd it anywhere. So, determined and industrious as she is, she decided she would paint what she had in mind. Why not? The piece was perfect, and it launched what would eventually become her full-time career. Not long afterwards,

she started to receive regular requests for commissioned pieces, which, ten years later, make up the majority of her work. Her canvases hang in homes throughout the South. “Abstracts are my mainstay. But I’m a Delta girl and love landscapes.” The two years she spent preparing to transition from full-time employment with beneﬁts to a full-time, self-employed artist required immense focus and long hours. And a lot of prayer. She still gets up most mornings before dawn to do just that. “It’s been a ride for sure. And scary. Plenty of times I have held my breath. I’m completely self-taught, so every day I feel there is something to learn.” Haley was always artistically inclined,

possessing an appreciation of color and beauty and design as well as organization and order. “I’m a good balance. I like order, but I can also let loose.” She remembers loving home magazines in high school and being aware that diﬀerent rooms could have their own unique personalities within a home or building. Even then she relished the way walking into a beautiful space could make her feel. Now she ﬁnds immense joy in contributing her own work to enhance the beauty of a home. But not without cost. Does this full-time mom love painting day in and day out? Yes. Is it easy? By no means. It requires persistence, determination, and a willingness to learn. Every day. DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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An inspiraton board of ideas, photos, and colors rests beside Haley’s easels. 42 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

“I love what I do and feel very blessed. I give 100% to every piece. But sometimes I hear people comment, ‘Wow. I wish I could paint all day.’ When I hear that I can’t help but wish they knew how hard this is. It is exhausting work. Standing on your feet all day painting. There’s back pain, and you have to stretch. It’s not just fun and games.” Too, there are many days when it is difficult to find motivation. Painter’s block. On those days Haley might pull out any of her favorite coffee table books, especially her favorite wallpaper books, the hand-painted papers by de Gournay. She is also inspired by fashion. “Any season’s fashion week and I am glued to the internet. I love the European fashion weeks because they are more modern and avant-garde.” Most critically, perhaps, she has developed a community of fellow artists who inspire her and help her grow. Haley’s studio mate, Shawn Hodges, is not only a friend and talented watercolorist but a constant source of inspiration. Haley and Shawn share a studio in Greenwood where

Haley does most of her work. “I have a small home studio, but I do better working away from home. I come into that space, and I am there to focus.” Like any discipline, it is helpful when there is another person working and dedicated to a similar task. In this case, there is synergy in the companionship, and Haley is developing artistically as a result. “The dynamic is perfect. We are very diﬀerent, aesthetically and in our ideas. But we are learning so much from each other. It makes every day a blessing.” Additionally, she has discovered a tremendous artistic community through Instagram, full of fellow travelers willing to help one another grow. “These are people I’ve never met, and yet it’s a world of inspiration. I follow so many artists and designers I can learn from while sitting in the carpool line. It’s a community of people all in the same boat—people cheering you on and wanting to help you out. And you learn to give back to them too.”

Decorative pillows made with one of Haley’s custom patterns.

Haley credits Shawn with helping her to develop a more ﬂuid motion and to move towards more color. “I used to be mostly neutral, subtle lights and grays. And then kids,” (she has two: Sam, age seven, and Hinton, age three), “you have to edit that.” She says she has come out of her shell, as far as color goes. Now she is “deep in the color story.” In fact, that’s her next collection, A Color Story, which goes live on her website in July. “I like to release a collection on my website three to four times a year. In A Color Story, I want to evoke joy.” Her last collection was exhibited at Cleveland’s Cotton House Hotel and was full of earth tones. Her new collection is bright, in line with the changing of the seasons. “I want to scream joy and sunshine and being outside and the sun on your face.” A very welcomed season, especially as it wasn’t that long ago that the

sun was hidden, and joy seemed far away. In the winter of 2019, rounding out the busiest year Haley had enjoyed thus far, she was in a car wreck that shattered her right arm in four places and broke her

wrist. She had a ﬁve-year-old and oneyear-old, needed six months of therapy, and didn’t know if she would be able to use her arm again. Her painting arm. Then a tornado ripped oﬀ half of their home’s roof. It was a dark time. Yet she made herself go to the studio, saying to

herself, “You can’t give up.” Haley stood before her canvas, attempted to use her left hand, cried, and then went back the next day and the next. Eventually, she learned to paint with her left hand. And, eventually, the canvas came back to life. Then COVID hit, and life shut down. But like so many others, Haley encountered an opportunity to slow down and reset. For two years, she had been thinking about creating fabrics and wallpaper but had no time to pursue those interests. COVID aﬀorded the opportunity to investigate and implement such plans. “Had the wreck and COVID not happened, I would never have been forced to slow down enough to accomplish these goals. You can’t give up.” As a result, she has entered another season of growth and learning curves while establishing the fabrics and DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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Colorful and useful, coasters are a popular gift.

wallpaper side of her business, which is growing steadily. It was a lovely affirmation when one of her first fabric clients also happened to be one of her favorite artists. Nashville artist Hillary Howorth reached out to Haley to let her know how much she admired her fabrics, which she used for a Roman shade in one of her bathrooms. “That was a huge compliment.” Her successes are accruing, and she continues to cross new thresholds. Last year, she had the honor of working with The Scouted Studio out of Charleston, South Carolina, which seeks to promote emerging artists and to make business coaching available to them. The coaching has been a great help to Hayley while she is building her business, and the two virtual shows she did, one of which sold out, have opened doors for her. What’s next for Haley Farris Fine Art? Haley is looking forward to seeing just how far she can go with her textile line. In the meantime, she is eager to apply to and be accepted by prestigious art shows while continuing her seasonal shows that expand her artistic development. “When I do get to free paint, like with this [latest] collection, it comes out so strong because it’s ME getting to do what I want to do.” Haley’s newest collection, A Color Story, goes live on her website (haleyfarrisfineart.com) July 17. You may also find her on Instagram @haleyfarrisfineart. DM 44 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

M Y L A G O S M Y W AY

C AV I A R C O L L E C T I O N S

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MUSIC

Parker Brothers Band How the Parker family of Coahoma were deep in the mix at the birth of rock ‘n’ roll aura Jane Giaccaglia vividly remembers the night of Conway Twitty’s July 2, 1982, homecoming concert at Crumpton Field in Clarksdale.

What made the biggest impression wasn’t the country music superstar’s performance, though; it was what happened when she followed her father backstage. Amid the bustle of the scene, she watched as her father extended his hand to Twitty, who grew up in nearby Friars Point. But the words he spoke—”Hello, Harold,” 46 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

in a deep voice Giaccaglia approximates over the phone—just didn’t add up to her. Was this star, Conway, really a Harold? she thought. “That was such a big deal to me,” she recalls. “I remember going back to school and telling all my friends, ‘My Daddy knows Conway Twitty so well, he called him Harold!’” Giaccaglia later learned that Twitty, born Harold Lloyd Jenkins, was actually a cousin of the Parkers, and he and her father, Brad

BY JIM BEAUGEZ

“Sonny” Parker Jr., went back a long way. When Sonny performed on KFFA radio in Helena, Ark., with his father, Brad Sr, and his brother Gene, Twitty’s father was the ferry operator. Twitty lived in Helena at the time and would play on the radio with them occasionally, along with steel guitar player John Hughey. Down the road a few years, their paths would diverge—Twitty to the twinkling lights of stardom, the Parkers to a more modest level of regional success. For

Seated: John Hughey, pedal steel; Sonny Parker, guitar; Gene Parker, fiddle. Back row: Pee-Wee (last name unknown), trumpet; Brad Parker, upright bass; Eddy (last name unknown), drums.

Giaccaglia, though, her father was always larger than life. When she was a young girl, Sonny would bring her onstage at his performances to sing duets on the Hank Williams classic “Hey, Good Lookin’” and Twitty’s 1975 hit “Linda on My Mind.” “I wanted to be like my daddy, and he would practice with me and tell me what I was supposed to do and what I was supposed to say [onstage],” she says. “I remember having the mic and not giving it back to daddy at the instructed time I was

supposed to.” Instead, using all the showmanship she had picked up from watching him, she ad-libbed, “Now, heeere’s Sonny Parker!” Sonny just smiled and took the mic. Brad Parker, Sr., arrived in the Coahoma community in 1926. Laura’s greatgrandfather, Arthur Jackson Parker, and

great-grandmother, Annie Jenkins Parker, brought the family over from Banner, Mississippi, in Calhoun County. They traveled in a covered wagon with five children, two mules, two cows, one calf, and some household goods to Quitman County three years earlier, then settled in what was then Mississippi’s fifth-most populated DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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Left, Sonny, Brad and Gene Parker performing on the WREC radio station in Memphis. Above, Barbara Mandrell and Sonny Parker at the Panola County Jamboree in Sardis. Below, Sonny Parker and the Lone Star Pickers, Reggie (last name unknown), Sonny Parker, Sammie Sue Parker, Forrest Parker, Hank (last name unknown), and Danny Fitzgerald.

county. The family’s musical roots date animosity or jealousy there. Daddy loved back at least to her great grandfather to tell his story of how he got paid more Arthur, who played banjo, but the family money than Elvis one time when they trade was farming. played on the same show,” she laughs. In the 1950s, when Sonny was a teenager and Gene just a child, they began performing around the Delta with their father as the Parker Brothers, playing “Western swing music,” as one newspaper reported, from Clarksdale to Helena to Memphis. All three sang, but Sonny was the main vocalist while Gene was a natural multi-instrumentalist who mastered at least seven instruments by ear, including fiddle, saxophone, drums, piano, and guitar. Their mother, Susie Harrelson Parker, made sure they dressed the part. The Parker Brothers shared bills with many up-and-comers, including a young Elvis Presley, who Giaccaglia says her father didn’t like much. The tension Sonny, Brad, and Gene Parker. likely arose when her mother, Sammie Sue Huddleston, would tell the story of As their profile grew, the Grand Ole riding around with Elvis and his band Opry came calling with an opportunity to members when they came to perform in step into the hallowed circle, when the Clarksdale. “I think there was some Opry was still held at Nashville’s Ryman 48 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

Auditorium. As with so many other starts in the Parker family’s musical tree, they never got their chance. “My granddaddy took my daddy and uncle Gene, but when they arrived, they found out they were supposed to play on a Saturday night. My granddaddy did not have the money to spend the night, so they had to come back home.” Sonny followed his father into farming after he married but never walked away from music. He was a fixture throughout the region with his own group and even put out a few records that earned local airplay in the 1970s. He kept a regular gig on Saturday nights at a jamboree in Sardis for many years. Once, Barbara Mandrell and her band opened for him wearing matching blue-and-white stage outfits, Giaccaglia recalls. Other performers included Bill Anderson, Ernest Tubbs, and Ace Cannon. Sonny also appeared in a 1940s movie called Mountain Capers. Gene stayed the course and brought his musical talents to Memphis, where he was

Above, Gene Parker Quintet playing at the Vapors Club in Memphis: Gene, unknown, and Duff Dorrough. Below, Sonny Parker with daughter, Laura Jane, performing at the Panola County Jamboree in Sardis.

one of very few white musicians who played on Beale Street. Those gigs, as well as the ones he landed with famed bass guitarist Donald “Duck” Dunn at Lil Abner’s Rebel Room and Hernando’s Hideaway, led him to join The Mar-Keys, the first house band at Stax Records, then a rising soul and R&B label based in south Memphis. As a tenor saxophonist at Stax, Gene played with hit-making artists like Booker T and the MG’s and Otis Redding, appearing on Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul, Redding’s final album, in 1966, and The Great Memphis Sound by The Mar-Keys, the same year. Today, Gene, who passed away in 1994, is remembered for his work as a member of The Mar-Keys and the Memphis Horns in an exhibit at the Stax Museum in Memphis, and included in the 1997 book Soulsville, USA: The Story of Stax Records. Sonny kept performing music for audiences long after he retired from farming. He spent his last years in Heber Springs, Ark., where he shared his talents

with residents of the Southridge Village retirement home. Sonny was a favorite, even drawing people from town to watch

him perform. He also entertained at the Jitterbug Coffeehouse and local festivals until he passed in 2007. But the Parker family’s musical tree hasn’t stopped growing. Laura’s brother,

Forrest Parker, is a steel guitar player who learned from Hughey, who played with Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, and Vince Gill after his days in Helena. Forrest, like his father, uncle, and grandfather, learned to play by ear and doesn’t read sheet music. “I remember so vividly my brother falling in love with the steel guitar,” she said. “John brought his steel to our house and taught my brother a few licks. Forrest stayed up all night trying to master what he had been taught. To this day, when my brother plays his steel, he is playing on a steel that belonged to John Hughey.” Giaccaglia keeps memories of her family’s musical legacy alive through the newspaper clippings, show handbills, and other memorabilia she has framed on her walls. “The stories of how a musician got their start seem to get lost in the shuffle,” she says. “I often wonder where my dad would have ended up if he had followed his music and not married my mama. One thing I do know, if he had made that choice, I would not be here to share this story.” DM

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Celebrating A Milestone Morgan Freeman Turns 85 52 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

BY ROBERT MCFARLAND, JR. • PHOTOGRAPHY BY AMBER’S PHOTOGRAPHY

n June 4, friends and family of Delta resident and Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman gathered in Oxford to celebrate Freeman’s 85th birthday. “A Return to the 1970s” was the theme of the evening and guests did not disappoint with their groovy styles. Former member of Kool & The Gang, Al Paris, and his band from Memphis played the iconic songs of the ‘70s to an audience that never left the dance floor.

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“There’s one thing about turning 85,” Freeman said to the audience. “The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve realized how important friends are. The ones we love and those who love us … that’s what’s important. Everything else is just not as important.” At one point during the evening, Freeman, dressed as Jimi Hendrix, joined the band singing Al Green’s song, “Love and Happiness.” Actor and comedian, Dave Chappelle surprised Freeman by attending the celebration. “I wouldn’t have missed this for the world,” Chappelle said to Freeman as the two sat in front of the stage telling stories. “And, Mr. Freeman, I can’t tell you how much you mean to me! I love you my brother!” Chappelle then introduced French harmonica great, Fred Yonnet who had flown to Oxford with Chappelle. “And now we have something very special for you,” Chappelle told Actor and comedian Dave Chappelle with Freeman. Freeman. “Instead of singing happy birthday to you, Fred is going to play that into a few songs before playing “Happy song for you on his harmonica.” Birthday” to Freeman. Yonnet, who has performed with Freeman’s career spans over five decades. Prince, Stevie Wonder, Justin Bieber, the Along the way he has received many Jonas Brothers and many others, launched accolades including an Academy Award, 54 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

two Screen Actors Guild Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. Freeman spent a large portion of his childhood and teen years growing up in the Greenwood area. After graduating from high school, he entered the military and then launched an acting career, a passion that had been with him since his childhood. During the 1980s, he began visiting his mother in Mississippi and by the early 90s, he decided to move back. Since then he has owned a home outside of Charleston, and now one of his great pastimes is playing golf at the Bayou Bend County in Sumner. During the birthday celebration, Bayou Bend club President Sykes Sturdivant presented Freeman with a special award, “The Greatest Golfer In Human History” of which Freeman laughingly accepted on the stage. Toward the end of the night, Freeman said goodbye to the crowd so he could “get a good night’s sleep” because he was the caller for the bingo game that next day at Bayou Bend! DM

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VISITMISSISSIPPI.ORG

DELTA ODYSSEY Around the World and Back BY MAUDE SCHUYLER CLAY

grew up in the 1960s in the Mississippi Delta during a turbulent and completely segregated time.

There were two separate worlds in place, one black and one white, and, in my charmed life, these worlds infrequently collided. Until 1968 and the sanitation strike in Memphis, which culminated with the assassination of Dr. King, I was almost unaware there even was a “movement.”

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There were hushed hints of it, such as my parents being concerned that Jab and Lizzie Flowers, two of the “hands” on our “place” (my father owned a large cotton farm), had been rumored to have been fraternizing with Fannie Lou Hamer in nearby Drew, Mississippi. The “problem” was that Mrs. Hamer was “agitating the farm workers” by encouraging black people to register to vote. I recall going over to Lizzie and Jab’s on one of my frequent forays by horseback around the farm—their house was right next to my aunt Ann May Eggleston’s—to check out the “trouble” for myself. Lizzie greeted my brother and me, as she always did, with big, sweating glasses

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Maude’s mother, Minnie Maude May, in the 1940s.

Ann May Eggleston in Sumner, Mississippi, in the 1930s.

Maude modeling in New York in the 1970s.

Maude in the 1970s in Mississippi. Maude and Bill Eggleston in the 1970s.

Maude’s grandmother, Minnie Maude McMullen May, with Minnie Maude May, circa 1920. Lucille Fleming and Maude. Fleming raised Maude when growing up. 60 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

An engagement photograph of Maude for The New York Times. This photo was rejected for being “too suggestive.”

Langdon Clay and Maude in Times Square in New York in the 1970s.

Maude at the Eggleston Home in Memphis in the 1970s.

of sweet tea and homemade cookies. Our nosy questions about Mrs. Hamer were as deftly dodged by Lizzie as they were by my parents: one simply did not talk about such things before children. Lizzie knew any garrulous, glib talk about serious matters by us to our parents could get her in some very dangerous trouble. Lizzie’s house was magical: she had taken one of our old cylindrical Scotch picnic coolers and topped it with a red checked oilcloth square to serve as a bedside table. I also saw remnants of my brother’s old pj’s and miscellaneous scraps of fabrics from old torn tablecloths and my mother’s cast away cotton house dresses in Lizzie’s hand stitched quilts. Lizzie’s house was an inspiration, as she used the few things available to her with great flair. Even the walls were fascinating: abstract paintings and Mondrian-like painted woodblock sculptures that my first cousin, the photographer Bill Eggleston, had done in high school and left behind; newspapers (the Sunday funnies, which were in bright, vivid colors) were used as wallpaper; somber blackand-white portraits of Jab and Lizzie’s antecedents, some taken by my grandfather, who had enthusiastically embraced the taking of photographs of all his workers using a 5 x 7 view camera and glass plate negatives. For a house belonging to two poorly paid farm workers, the Flowers place was the forerunner of “shabby chic.” My other world consisted of my mother and aunt in their genteel world of rules and in their many outfits for every part of the day:

quilted pastel colored robes at breakfast, afternoon cotton voile or silk tea dresses, fitted wool or linen suits with matching gloves, shoes, purses, and hats for going into town, and nifty pants and boots for “working in the yard,” which mostly consisted of telling some long-suffering but very patient yardmen what to do. Both my aunt and my mother had lived in New York in the 1930s and early 1940s. Aunt Ann May Eggleston attended Columbia summer school, where she lived with Mrs. Ford, the mother of artist Charles Henri Ford and his sister, the actress Ruth Ford, for whom Faulkner later wrote Requiem for a Nun. My grandmother was said to have been frantic about Ann’s “living in the West Village with gypsies,” as she, in her rather bourgeois fashion, thought of the amazingly artistic, resourceful, and talented Fords. Many years later when I visited Ruth Ford at The Dakota, where she had not one but two apartments in New York, she showed me pictures of herself from this period taken by everyone from Man Ray to George Hoyningen-Huene. My mother went from Sophie Newcomb College in New Orleans, now Tulane University, to the Barbizon Hotel for Women (with a senior year at Ole Miss to please her father, a state senator, who said, “What would it look like to the voters of Tallahatchie County if both of my daughters did not go to the University?”). In 1940 in NYC, she went to the John Robert Powers School and managed to snag a job at Hattie Carnegie modeling

hats. The pictures from that era show a lot of partying, with the accompanying dresses, hats, and jewelry; there was even a story of meeting Errol Flynn at the Stork Club. Her friend Bill Duff was a business man with connections to China, and he gave her all these gorgeous Chinese silks that I keep and have actually worn. (*See “Anna as Chinese Princess” in one of these jackets from my Mississippi History book, published in 2015.) All this history was delicious fantasy in my world of the Delta in the sixties. Mama had hardly ever thrown away a thing, and the booty was neatly stored in a pale peppermint pink walk-in hall closet. Once serving as my grandfather’s darkroom, it was made over into the ultimate closet, replete with high pullout drawers and quilted hanging bags. My sister and I spent long hours in there, trying on clothes and shoes and pretending we were models in New York. Our mother collected fashion magazines. The ones I remember were Flair, Harper’s Bazaar, and Vogue. Long-necked models like Lisa Fonssagrives and Suzy Parker of the fifties Dior look had given way to hip Veruschka and Jean Shrimpton, and we were ripe for the revolution. We made frequent trips to Memphis to stores such as Mamselle, Minor Frances, Helen of Memphis, and Levy’s, where we actually saw Priscilla Beaulieu Presley, who was wearing over-theknee-length boots, a white lace mini dress, and a fur coat. She had long raven hair that was teased high and half upswept; she wore a ton of black cat’s-eye makeup, and she was DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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Maude and Langdon in St. Mark’s square in Venice, Italy, in 1980.

accompanied by a couple of hefty bodyguard types, i.e., the “Elvis Mafia.” Shopping was something we all did with a passion. Years of dissecting Vogue magazine and listening to my mother and aunt’s New York City fashion stories had hyped me to the hilt! (*See accompanying 1967 picture to the right.) I embraced clothes with passionate dedication, and because of it, I considered myself the belle of many a Delta ball, mostly local dances at the Elks Club in nearby Greenwood, or at the Clarksdale Country Club, or the annual Delta Debutante Ball in Greenville. This was also the era of the very last vestiges of the dances at the Rosedale Courthouse, where the Red Tops played and many a Delta liaison was forged. We were so lucky to have the means to buy all those clothes. Now I look back and wonder how we could have been so unaware of the war that was raging around us then. To my eternal regret, my main memory of the sanitation strike in Memphis in 1968 was that the downtown area was closed because of all the “turmoil,” thus making it impossible to go there to shop. When I moved to New York in the fall of 1974, I was twenty-one years old, had just gotten out of the Memphis Academy of Arts, and had vague aspirations that I might want to do something in fashion. Yet I had no real connections in the world of fashion. There were a few near disastrous “modeling job/gosees” arranged by friends of friends, including one featuring a sleazy, mustachioed photographer who claimed that he “did the Estee Lauder ads” while trying to mount me and me being too naive to realize that Skrebneski was the photographer who did 62 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

Maude and her brother, Adyn Schuyler, at Christmas dinner in Sumner, Mississippi, photographed by William Eggleston.

the Estee Lauder ads. I schlepped my ridiculously hopeless “book” (portfolio of modeling pictures) to Eileen Ford who, with a weary, forced politeness, told me that at five foot six, I was not going to make it as model. That, in addition to saying that my curly, dark-haired “look” was much too commonplace and I needed to either go blond and straight or get a new set of teeth, preferably both, was her advice.

1967 picture of Maude attempting the “mod” look with over-the-knee boots, cap, belt, and mini skirt, which, by the way, are back in fashion.

These were the days of looking in the classified section of the New York Times for jobs. Desperate for rent money, I typed a miraculous, adrenaline-fueled fifty-five words a minute (thank you, Mrs. Thompson of high school typing class!) to find gainful employment as a secretary in the advertising department at Oui Magazine. Oui, a division of Playboy Enterprises, was located in the totally cool, modern, spacey building at 747 Third Avenue, complete with silver padded elevators. This was the golden age of liquor and cigarette advertising in magazines. The

advertising department of Oui Magazine was chock full of macho, sexist, alcoholfueled ad salesmen. Three-martini-lunches were very common, often with a trip to the Blackstone Hotel for a tryst with the waitress or some other victim. These were guys who would literally snatch one into an office to “take a letter,” i.e., chase you around the room. (Think Mad Men in the freewheeling seventies.) The ironic twist and saving grace about the Oui job was that my boss was gay. Thanks to Alfred J. Hewitt III—he wanted me to call him “Uncle Al”—I learned to properly answer phone calls (never say what your boss is actually doing; just say that he’s either “not available” or you will have to check to see if/when he is available); how to write a decent business letter; how to make up an expense report (and I mean that quite literally, though Al was better about keeping receipts than others); but best of all, I learned how to file and staple. On my first day of work Al called me into his office to teach me how to properly staple: zealously—on the top left-hand side and with a slant. I was so damn relieved he was not interested in my “taking a letter” in the conventional sense of Oui Magazine that only later did I realize just how much grief he must have actually taken for being “on the other team.” After I left Oui, Al and I kept up with a few sporadic lunches. We were really quite fond of each other, and he was fascinated by all things Southern. He later moved to Austin, Texas, but by the time I looked him up on the internet around 2012 to get in touch again, I only found his obituary—he had died just a few weeks before.

Maude’s daughter Sophia Maude McMullen Clay in Maude’s Betsy Johnson mountain dress.

Maude’s mother, Minnie Maude May, in Sumner, Mississippi, in the 1930s.

Maude in her high school beauty review. She placed as a runner-up.

Around this same time of my Oui Magazine era, I was sporting a vintage coat of my mother’s: a white cashmere swing number that had a (real) leopard skin hood. One Sunday, after attending Easter services at St. Bartholomew’s, I ran into some PETA people who were convening for the Fifth Avenue parade. These were the throwing-redpaint-on-fur-coat days by animal rights activists, and I literally had to run away from them to jump on the bus as I shouted to no avail, “But this leopard was killed in the 1930s!” In addition to my vintage treasure trove, I was also a huge supporter and wearer of Willie Smith, Kenzo, Dorothee Bis, Cacharel, the original Betsy Johnson fabulous knits (see picture above of daughter Sophie in her mountain dress), and a few more I can’t recall. In 1976, I acquired a Park Avenue boyfriend whose mother gave me her amazing castoffs that were, after I came along, no longer destined for the high-end thrift stores: Jean Muir, Zoran, Calvin Klein, Bill Blass, Geoffrey Beane. I have a simple Halston black leather zipped collarless jacket that I have had relined twice and am still wearing to this day. Mrs. B bought most of her clothes in the designer department of the old Henri Bendel, Bergdorf Goodman, and other swank places like the original Halston on Madison and 68th Street. These were some kind of wonderful clothes, and she was a generous, loving person to have given me so many priceless gems. She was also the person who invited me to, among countless other great parties of the seventies, Halston’s birthday party for Liza Minelli at Studio 54, complete with thousands of red rose petals falling from the ceiling when Liza walked in,

and to a Malcolm Forbes party where I met Elizabeth Taylor. Sadly, Mrs. B later lived a kind of Brooke Astor-existence in the same Park Avenue apartment where she once so generously offered me the maid’s suite to live when I was between apartments; she died at the age of ninety-nine in 2013. My only real connection to big time fashion came when I went for a job interview with Anna Wintour, who was then at New York Magazine. Henry Post, grandson of Emily and now deceased—one of the AIDS epidemic’s first casualties—had given me the recommendation. I had foolishly dressed to the nines, no doubt in one of Mrs. B’s designer creations with possibly a little vintage thrown in for flair. It really was a little like The Devil Wears Prada, especially when Ms. Wintour declined to hire me, saying something to the effect of “I like you, but I don’t think you look like you could be the slave I need to work for me.” I should have worn the casual Norma Kamali sweat suit? It was a quasi-tragedy then—I could have followed her to Vogue if she’d hired me—but it became water under the bridge when I later landed a job as the art assistant to Lloyd Ziff, the art director of the justrevived Vanity Fair. I was not only able to observe Alexander Liberman in full, late swing but met many writers and artists with whom I am still friends, and I managed to experience three editors of VF—Richard Locke, Leo Lerman, and Tina Brown. I quit that (pretty stressful and demanding) job when my husband got a job for Geo Magazine to wander around Spain and France photographing Romanesque churches. Who wouldn’t have left?

Though I moved back to Mississippi in the fall of 1986 when I was pregnant with my first child, I always thought I would go back to New York. We did keep our loft there for a few years, but the Delta became more and more of a “giant magnet” for me. As a photographer all my work was being made on trips back home to the Delta. Between having babies (there were eventually three) and driving the endless Delta roads, I embarked upon a rather ambitious landscape project, work which later became the book Delta Land (Univ. Press of Miss., 1999.) After that came three more books: Delta Dogs, Mississippi History, and Mississippi, a collaboration with poet Ann Fisher-Wirth. My husband Langdon Clay and I had a joint show called Two Lives in Photography in Oxford at the University Museums in September 2019 (soon to be an accompanying documentary film made by Thad Lee.) If and when things ever get back to “normal,” the University says they will publish a book of this exhibition. I still love to take photographs, and I still love to dress up! Having passed down some of my clothes to our two daughters, seeing the clothes have a second life makes me very happy. I continue to try and leave a photographic record of what the Delta looks like. There will be a “retrospective” of my work at the Mississippi Museum of Art opening October 29. 2022 until March 5, 2023 (my Delta Land show there was in 2000). I hope all my Delta friends will make plans to come to Jackson and see it. DM DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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A Mississippi slab harvested at Enid Lake!

Hot Crappie ’Tis the season for ﬁshing in some of the best crappie lakes in the nation—all right here in north Mississippi BY JOSHUA QUONG

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We in the ’Sip know about heat.

Loaded down truck tailgate after a great crappie trip.

Setting the hook at Enid Lake.

DWAYNE BRATCHER

COURTESY OF ALLEN TINDLE

DWAYNE BRATCHER

The oppression is real during the long humid days when the air inhaled feels hotter than the air exhaled, and we sit on porches swatting mosquitos wondering what happened to those milder temps. This is when folks turn their attention to the water. The sweet relief of quick dips in the lake accompanied by watermelon and iced tea on piers and boat docks marks the beginning of summer. This is also about the time when most crappie fisherman put away their rods and reels, jig poles, and dreams, conceding the water to skiers and tubers. But the spring spawn is just a precursor. There are still summer crappie to catch, and though Mississippi is blessed with a number of great inland fisheries, here are five of the heaviest hitters in the game that draw in tournament anglers, weekend warriors, and local fisherman alike!

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COURTESY OF JOSHUA QUONG THOMAS COOPWOOD

Crappie guide Aaron Barton of Barton Outfitters holding a couple of slabs caught on Enid Lake.

Full stringer of Crappie caught among the cypress trees at Sardis Lake.

The Fab Four Crappie enthusiasts from all over know that at any given time of the year Arkabutla, Sardis, Enid, and Grenada Lakes are among the top ten crappie lakes in the nation. These lakes are located in the northcentral part of Mississippi along I-55 from Hernando to Grenada. After the Great Flood of 1927, these lakes were constructed mainly as flood control reservoirs. As a collateral effect, these new reservoirs provided fantastic habitat for gigantic crappie, which in turn has grown into a healthy and thriving outdoor economy for the state. In fact, people come from all over the US and abroad to catch trophy crappie in our lakes. All four lakes profess prolific spring spawns as fish use river channels to make their way from the main lakes to shallow stands of backwater cypress trees. Here among the hanging Spanish moss, anglers wade with poles in hand and dance marabou jigs like marionettes to entice nesting fish. But once the spawn is over, these slab crappie head back out into the depths and suspend off points and underwater humps waiting for the right bait to swim by. These four lakes are managed by the US Corps of Engineers and provide swim beaches, playgrounds, and numerous camping opportunities for primitive tent campers as well as those looking to take their travel trailers and RVs out for a few nights away.

DWAYNE BRATCHER

These crappie anglers have it made in the shade.

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DWAYNE BRATCHER

Early morning fishermen at Enid Lake are sure to get on the water for the daylight bite.

Guiding Lights In his story “When It’s Crappie You’re After,” Havilah Babcock recounts a time where all of his ﬁshing know-how and tackle weren’t enough to help him catch a mess. He “espies” a woman sitting in a boat with a large stringer of crappie. She had caught them all right under her boat because ﬁsh like “dark, sinful places.” Babcock then employs the same technique, catches his mess, and tips the old lady for her advice. There’s a lesson in this anecdote.

COURTESY OF JOSHUA QUONG

The Jade Gem of the Delta If the massive expanses of Arkabutla, Sardis, Enid, and Grenada Lakes seem a bit daunting, then there is a lake in the heart of the Mississippi Delta where massive slabs lurk in the depths of jade green waters. Lake Washington is an old oxbow lake located in the southernmost portion of Washington County just a stone’s throw west of Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge. Unlike the “Fab Four,” this recurved pool was cut and formed by the Mighty Mississippi River hundreds of years ago. But like her big sisters, Lake Washington is also among the nation’s top ten crappie fisheries. The small communities of Glen Allan and Chatham are nestled on Lake Washington’s banks. The residents there refer to crappie as “white perch” and use jigs and minnows to catch the paper-mouthed fish while sculling through cypress knees in aluminum Jon boats or sitting atop five-gallon buckets from the bank. Though there are no designated camping areas, visiting anglers can rent cabins and RV hook-ups through Roy’s Store, which has locations in both Chatham and Glen Allan.

It’s all smiles for author Joshua Quong for a Sardis Lake slab selfie.

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Long-pole trolling is sure to pay off for these fishermen.

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time. I usually run eight B'n'M rods from eight to sixteen feet long on the rear of the boat. We use line counter reels to know how deep the crank baits are running, and we troll at about 1.8 miles per hour. When we run through a school of suspended fish, you can have a fish on each pole. It’s fast paced, and younger children really enjoy it.” “I think crappie fishing is so popular because they B.J. Simmerman after a successful day are, in my opinion, the best on Arkabutla. tasting freshwater fish, and they are plentiful,” Tindle adds. And as far as timing? “Right now, the summer bite is on, and it’s one of my favorite times to fish. If you want to catch quantity and quality, now until November is a good time to book a trip!” “Crappie fishing has always been a true passion of mine,” says B. J. Simmerman, a member of the Delta Valley Outdoors team and independent crappie guide operating out of Crowder, Mississippi. “Whether I’m scouting, guiding, or fishing tournaments, I love being on the water. It’s a passion I love sharing with others.” Guide or no, nothing speaks more to summer in the South like a fish fry. Whether it be a plate full of fillets or stacks of whole fried B.J. SIMMERMAN

COURTESY OF ALLEN TINDLE

For those who are ready and willing to brave the heat at a chance to catch a Mississippi slab but still aren’t quite sure on where, when, or how, the best bang for your summertime buck is to hire a guide. These professionals have spent countless hours on the water figuring out as best as humanly and fishily as possible the optimum conditions where anglers can hook-up. Aaron Barton, who owns and operates Barton Torch Tindle with an impressive catch. The big boys love crank baits! Outfitters out of Oxford, Mississippi, notes that “spending thousands of hours now on these larger lakes where we guide, you gain an appreciation for all the nuances that you still haven’t figured out. Most of them relate to water levels, temperature, winds, and timing, but they can all have a major impact on your safety and success.” And there are several methods to catch crappie as well. Longlining and crank baiting are common, but you can also live scope, spider rig, power troll, and single pole to catch crappie. Allen “Torch” Tindle, who operates Torch’s Guide Service out of Cleveland, has tried them all. “I started fishing crappie tournaments in the late nineties and have been guiding twenty-eight years part

COURTESY OF AARON BARTON

DWAYNE BRATCHER COURTESY OF ALLEN TINDLE

Crappie guide Aaron Barton’s children and their friend had a great day on the water.

Fishing guide Torch Tindle uses crank baits that are custom painted by Fred Pittman of Pearl.

Jigs Tindle uses to longline for crappie.

DM To book a trip with a guide contact the following: Aaron Barton of Barton Outfitters 469.763.1885 or Instagram @bartonoutfitters B.J. Simmerman, crappie guide and Delta Valley Outdoors pro staffer 662.444.3137 or Instagram @bjsimmerman8 Allen “Torch” Tindle of Torch’s Guide Service 662.515.0175 od Facebook: Torch’s Guide Service

COURTESY OF JOSHUA QUONG

fish for those more refined diners intent on “crunchin’ them fins,” the almighty white perch pleasures the palate like no other piscis. So if you’re looking to satisfy your appetite for a crappie, slather on the sunblock, don a wide brim hat, and pack a cooler full of cold drinks because the summertime bite is as hot as the Mississippi sun.

These anglers, who came all the way from Michigan, pose after a successful morning charter with Barton Outfitters. DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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Sunﬂower 34.45 Ac Tallahatchie 504.4 Ac Lamar 82.10 Ac Rankin 74.5 Ac Carroll 103.6 Ac Madison 103.9 Ac Marshall 217.25 Ac Lafayette 130 Ac Webster 191 Ac Attala 195 Ac Holmes 538.81 Copiah 222 Carroll 669.5 w/Cabin Holmes 247.25 w/Cabin Washington 152 Rankin 110

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Camping at Grenada Lake Photo courtesy of visitgrenadams.com

Summer family fun ith gas prices sky rocketing, flights that are constantly delayed, and inflation soaring, summer travel seems daunting for many families. If there was ever a time to re-think your annual summer trip, this is it. Luckily our region of Mississippi is chock full of fun options that will make a perfect getaway for you and your family. We hope you’ll take a minute to browse through the following pages for ideas to plan your next in-state trip. Whether, water recreation, fishing, camping, festivals, or exploring museums and historical sites, the options are endless.

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Labor of LOVE This stunning renovation of the Lovelace home, one of Oxford’s oldest structures, pays homage to three centuries, melding old and new, thanks to a meticulous reimagining by residential designer Frank Tindall BY SHERRY LUCAS PHOTOGRAPHY BY ABE DRAPER

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The original windows with wavy glass nod to the home’s historic roots, while contemporary touches inside embrace the passage of time.

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The Lovelace’s expansion of Lindfield took the formerly one-bedroom home (left) to a four-bedroom profile. Cedars out front were planted at the same time as those at nearby Rowan Oak.

indfield House in Oxford has a foothold in three centuries but is anything but stuck in the past. A freshly modern renovation and expansion seamlessly meld respect for its history with an embrace of twenty-first century comfort and style. The porticoed Greek Revival cottage dates to 1832, according to a sign out front nestled in the shade of a half dozen cedars, planted at the same time those at nearby Rowan Oak went into the ground. One of the oldest houses in Oxford, it’s believed to have been built for David Craig, a relative of one of Oxford’s three founders who purchased the land from the Chickasaws’ Princess Hoka. Another nineteenth century owner was the local jeweler Edward Hustace, a Brit whose nationality saved his home and his store on

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Figure drawings, picked up at Ole Miss student art sales, add timeless appeal to a wall in the parlor. The original heart pine floors were remilled and reinstalled in a herringbone pattern for the entry hall.

the Square from being burned by the Union Army during the Civil War, one story goes. Dee and Katie Lovelace settled on the one-bedroom house after a several-years search in the popular college town, won over by its location and charmed by a family friend connection. “We wanted to be close to town, and I’ve always loved this house,” says Katie, noting that previous owner Tommy Lamar was the uncle of artist Nicole Lamar, one of her best friends. After his passing, they bought the house from the estate in 2018 and moved in early 2020. Frank Tindall, originally from Indianola, designed the remodel, more than doubling Lindfield’s living space and quadrupling its bed and bathroom count. “The challenge is keeping the old, but adding the new—keeping the integrity of the front rooms of the house, and then we step it up in the back,” he says. They worked with Oxford Historic Preservation Commission guidelines, for an expansion that

complements the original structure. “I appreciate the efforts of the Commission to keep this historic district looking as it should.” Lindfield’s parlor, dining room, central hall (once an open gallery), and the front bedroom are all original. Old, hand-rolled glass in the seven-foot windows adds a cool ripple to the view outside, as if little time has passed in its nearly two centuries on South Eleventh Street. In the redo, the Lovelaces re-milled and re-installed the heart pine floors (reclaiming wood from other areas of the house as needed) and added a herringbone design in the front hall to boost visual interest. A zebra rug adds zing. Fresh white walls take full advantage of classic twelve-foot ceilings, enhancing that wide-open feel. In the parlor, a cowhide rug and furnishings anchor the room with contemporary style. A floral abstract by Nicole Lamar holds the spotlight above the preserved original mantel. “The way she does her colors is amazing,” Katie DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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The refurbished original chandelier, fresh white walls and more bring the dining room into the 21st century, while the antique mirror and artworks carry forward an appreciation of the past.

Hearts are a common theme throughout the house in many of the paintings, dishes, and objets d'art. A favorite of Katie’s, they are a subtle nod to the Lovelace surname, and her Valentine’s Day. 88 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

says. Additional art—nude figures from Ole Miss art sales, a work by Katie herself, and two by her friend Jessica Perkins—adds more wall interest. The inviting taupe velvet sofa and coral-patterned side chairs came from Dee’s stepmother Susan’s interior design store, Lovelace Interiors, in Destin. The baby grand piano was a gift when Dee’s dad, the late Sparky Lovelace, and Susan downsized. An eighteenth century carved mirror from Louisiana—“I’ve been on the prowl for it,” Katie says of the recent purchase—finds a perfect home above the dining room mantel. The oval dining table, another gift from Sparky and Susan, is a classic fit, and the antelope patterned rug underfoot adds a dash of contemporary decor. A pair of large Asian ancestor portraits flank a dining room window. Purchased by Oxford artist and designer Lucius Lamar (Tommy Lamar’s nephew) on his travels, they once decorated the home’s

This stunning bar anchors one end of the open kitchen area. The collection of hand blown Wauhatchie glassware adds pops of color to the display.

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The open kitchen/breakfast area brings a breezy vibe to the expansion.

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The pair of sculptures from Rod Moorhead’s “Fury” collection are a compelling focal point in the kitchen.

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The plush teal velvet headboard flanked by modern gold-leaf mirrors, provides a rich focal point for the master bedroom.

The Lovelace’s son Witt’s room combines marine blue and crisp white hues, inspired by the trophy sailfish he caught while in college. 92 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

original mantels. “We bought them with the house because we loved them,” Katie says. The historic home’s refurbished chandeliers now twinkle and shine with their original glory. Before their return to Oxford, the Lovelaces lived in a midcentury modern house in Jackson, “which I loved, with all the glass,” Katie says. She wanted to pull in that modern aesthetic, and the expansion delivers with big windows across the back and in the kitchen that send light streaming in. The eight-foot ceilings of a former add-on were removed and the historic height extended for an expansive, airy feel. “We have this nice, full, original lot that stretches between Lamar and South Eleventh — in Oxford it’s rare to find the space that lets you spread out a little bit and have enough room to do what you want to do,” including add the pool, Tindall says. “Even as it’s right in the middle of town, it has great privacy.” The Lovelace’s two children are now adults on their own, but guest bedrooms carry stylish nods to each. The home’s sole original bedroom became daughter Kathleen’s, its parlor entry walled off and

His and hers areas in the master bathroom make the most of the space.

Their daughter Kathleen’s room, adorned with pink touches, Nicole Lamar heart art, and LOVE accent pillows, pays tribute to the Lovelace surname and more.

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Artwork by Tony Mose (Esom Art), Nicole Lamar and Paul Edelstein (left) add contemporary intrigue to the roomy den.

its fireplace converted to a closet. Now a bedroom for Kathleen and her husband Sam Morrison, its harmonious details weave a message of love—LOVE throw pillows, Nicole Lamar heart art, a 1989 Yves St. Laurent poster (a find in France), and heart-shaped ottomans. They also subtly salute the Lovelace surname, Katie’s Valentine’s Day birthday, and the year she and Dee wed. A whimsical Kate Spade chandelier casts a classy, contemporary light on it all. Son Witt’s room is dominated by the sailfish he caught on college spring break in the Dominican Republic. Pillows, rug, and drapes pick up the marine blue hues, offset nicely by crisp whites. Old and new find a happy mix. Katie’s grandfather Harlou Lamb’s writing desk reminds her of their close connection, with memories of his nightly routine writing letters and paying bills. Acrylic bedside tables 94 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

Favorite pieces in Katie’s cozy office include paintings by Nicole Lamar, her prized burlwood desk, and an antique pine chest from Dee’s father.

The powder room’s Schumacher Feather Bloom wallpaper picks up the blue grays and gold veining in the marble countertop.

and desk chair dodge visual clutter and pull in modern accents. Adjoining bathrooms with each room wed classic, old-school tile with white walls and streamlined, luxe gold hardware for a clean, timeless look. The open kitchen-breakfast-bar area is a spacious oasis for entertaining, anchored at either end by compelling visual magnets. A pair of Furies by artist Rod Moorhead draw the eye immediately to the kitchen’s large island in Calacatta Gold marble. At the other end of the room, the large bar/cabinet’s counter picks up on that marble. The bar is an all-purpose hub for drinks any time of day, with a small fridge, ice, wine cooler, and coffeemaker right at hand. That solved a space problem, too, when the Lovelaces nixed the idea of a double refrigerator in the

kitchen and opted for another window instead. A long snake rug at the foot of the bar adds a fun, irreverent touch. The bar’s soft bluish black hue (Farrow & Ball’s Railings) and metallic grasscloth are an appealing backdrop for the dreamy rainbow lineup of handblown glasses by Wauhatchie Glassworks of Chattanooga. “We use them for everything,” says Katie, ticking off a long list that starts with cocktails and ends with candy dishes. Estelle purple coupe glasses add an elegant note, and a painting by Tony Mose (Esom Art) is another fun diversion. The kitchen’s white leathered marble countertops gleam in the abundant natural light, and Wolfe Studio birds add pops of color along the windowsill. “I wanted the biggest windows we could get,” Katie says. Art on a partial wall includes a nod to the style of Theora DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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The gorgeous fossil shell limestone that surrounds the pool was chosen because it stays cool even when the weather is hot.

The vintage McCarty beaded mobiles, as well as the beautiful table settings are family heirlooms—with a few modern elements thrown in, of course! 96 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

Hamblett by James Becker and cow paintings that charm by Lucius Lamar and by Lee Harper. More art perks up the big den, including a Paul Edelstein piece that makes splashy, colorful impact, another painting by Nicole Lamar, and a pair of crowned figures from Tony Mose’s Coronation series that face off on either side of the big-screen TV. Relaxed comfort lies in the sofa, saddle leather easy chair, and tufted ottoman, all from Lovelace Interiors. In the master bedroom, a teal velvet upholstered headboard and cream bedding are both restful and radiant. An old bench recovered in bouclé adds textured charm. The spacious master bath has his and her sides, including a walk-through shower with a door at either end. Tindall crafted the design of the tub’s marble backsplash, adding visual

An expansive back porch offers a breezy welcome with plenty of gathering options and a lovely view.

appeal. He’d probably have framed the big mirrors over Katie’s sink, he says, but now loves her no-frames, clean-lines result. “This is so great. … It gives you that contemporary edge.” Sherwin-Williams Downing Slate makes Katie’s study a classic, cozy retreat, where her burlwood desk is a statement piece. Paintings by Nicole Lamar and Susan Woodward bring in contemporary color, while an antique pine chest from Dee’s dad adds a touch of the past. The brick back porch has the height to catch a breeze and the space to accommodate parties, whether gathered around a table or lounging around the TV. Hydrangea blooms add a pretty floral top note to a delightful setting in blues, greens, and heirloom charm— Dee’s grandmother Pearl Lovelace’s china, Katie’s maternal grandparents’ cabbage leaf bowls, Estelle emerald glasses, and Katie’s Chantilly sterling.

Lavender, petunias, lamb’s ear, olive trees, thyme, gardenia, geraniums, and lantana fill the planting boxes. McCarty Pottery mobiles—some with fish, others with beads—come from Dee’s mother’s collection, adding movement, whimsy, and artistic flair to the scene. The porch’s joint pine ceiling, with a stain atop heavy pickling, suits the breezy setting, and the pool makes as cool a view as it does a retreat. Its surrounding fossil shell limestone stays cool, too, even when the weather’s hot. “I wanted the Hamptons look— I wanted it all sleek,” Katie says, with a seamless flow for pool and hot tub and a refreshingly modern feel. It’s the same approach that weds historic rooms with a modern expansion inside—living areas united by white dove walls, high ceilings, and an airy, open flow. Room to hold onto the past, relax into the present, and welcome a comfortable future. DM DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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Stuckey Family Dentistry is proud to serve Greenwood and the Delta for 30 Years in family dental services. Beautiful results and a healthy mouth are a few appointments plan for a healthy mouth together. Call us today!

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Willie Morris The Good Ole Boy who came home

JANE RULE BURDINE

Willie Morris at the Metcalfe mausoleum next to the levee at Chatham, Mississippi. Willie spoke of his impressions of home, “I like the way they sell chicken and pit-barbeque and fried catfish in the little stores next to the service stations. I like the way coeds make themselves up for class. I like the way strangers on the Square or the Jitney Jungle finish your sentences for you, the unflagging courtesy of the young, the way they say ‘Sir’ and ‘Ma’am.’ I like the way white and black people banter with each other. I like the intertwining of old family names. I like the way people remember their dead.” BY HANK BURDINE

efore Willie Morris’s first birthday in 1935, his family moved from Jackson to Yazoo City, where he was raised with one foot in the hills and the other foot in the swamplands and cotton fields, “on the edge of the Delta, straddling that memorable divide where the hills end and the flat land begins.”

Willie was 100 percent pure Mississippi. He grew up like most Mississippi boys did back in the early forties, running around with the neighborhood kids, pulling pranks when he could, and playing baseball. He had a little fox terrier dog named Skip that some folks thought could drive a car. Skip could grab a football by the loosened lace and make a touchdown when told to do so, and no one could catch him. Skip later had a best-selling book and a hit movie made after him. Willie did well in school excelling in history, algebra, biology, Spanish, and Latin. For three years he studied English under 100 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

Omie Parker, whom he called the best writing teacher in his life. “I memorized the rules of the language, but my own prose style was like a Mack truck churning up mud. I did not understand my own intelligence, and even if I had, I would not have known what to do with it.” Well, he must have learned what to do with it because he graduated in 1952 from Yazoo High School as valedictorian of his class and went on to the University of Texas becoming the editor of the school newspaper, The Daily Texan. “It took me years to understand that words are often as important as experience, because words

make experience last, but here, in the spring of my freshman year, there were men who were teaching me those things.” Willie became somewhat controversial with the Board of Regents for his scorching attacks on segregation and censorship. After graduating from the University of Texas as a member of Phi Beta Kappa in 1956, Willie was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University and left Texas for New College, Oxford, England, staying and studying for a rare four years. Willie earned his B.A. in history then took tutorials in the history of the American South before the Civil War and American-British diplomacy before WWII. During his Oxford years, Willie had married, and with a new son, David Rae, in tow, he was ready to come home and get on with his life, whatever that may be. Willie

Willie Morris, Dr. David Sansing, Professor Emeritus of History at Ole Miss and acclaimed author William Styron having lunch in a cemetery where Willie Morris told his friend Bill Styron, “I’m going to take you on a picnic at the grave of one ‘James Crow.’”

WALT MIXON

The New York Years Willie hit the ground running in New York at Harper’s, reading and analyzing for publication unsolicited manuscripts while occasionally being sent out to visit with known writers, possibly soliciting articles. The mid-sixties was rife with civil rights issues, the Vietnam War and young people revolting in every movement imaginable from gay and lesbian rights, the extremely unpopular war, women’s rights, and the sexual revolution. “Make Love Not War” stickers were plastered everywhere. The associate editor at Harper’s began making the rounds of “three-martini lunches” and attending cocktail parties joined by the top tier literati of New York City. In a biography by Teresa Nicholas, WILLIE: the Life of Willie Morris, she noted “he found it hard to break into the New York literary world, which he described as ‘harsh’ and ‘cliquish’ and ‘mean as hell’ but soon enough he worked his way into its redhot center.” Willie became friends with William Styron, along with other contributors to Harper’s, Walker Percy, Robert Penn Warren, Norman Mailer, Arthur Miller, James Dickey, C. Vann Woodward, Louis Lomax, and close friend of William Alexander Percy, the poet Langston Hughes. By April of 1966, Willie was made executive editor of Harper’s and on July 1,1967, was named editor-in-chief of Harper’s Magazine. “Willie was only thirty-two, the youngest editor of the oldest magazine in America, and only the eighth editor in its history.” His new book North Towards Home had just been published. The young editor led

JANE RULE BURDINE

corresponded with Hodding Carter II about going to work at the Delta Democrat Times in Greenville, but there was no position available at the time. He was offered the editorship of the Texas Observer, and in 1960 he eagerly accepted the job. By 1962, Willie was firmly ensconced in his job as editor of the Texas Observer when a letter came asking him to come to New York and take a position as associate editor of the oldest literary and very well-respected magazine, Harper’s. On a dark spring night in 1963, Willie Morris, from Yazoo City, Mississippi, boarded a Greyhound bus in Austin, Texas, on his way to New York City and a soon to be dynamic explosion of his literary career. Willie had just turned twenty-eight years old.

Larry and Dean Faulkner Wells invited Willie Morris to Oxford for a football weekend prior to his moving there. Tailgating in the Grove with them was Sen. Thad Cochran, artist Bill Dunlap, federal Judge Grady Jolly, and other local luminaries. After a post-game cocktail party and catfish dinner at Taylor Grocery, the three ended up at midnight at Rowan Oak, home of Dean’s uncle William Faulkner. Larry Wells recounts, “We toasted Mr. Bill Faulkner with Mr. Jack Daniels. Willie loved it!” Willie’s friend Adam Shaw who accompanied him to Mississippi told him, “If you don’t come here, you’re crazy. These people are great!”

Harper’s into a period of relevancy— reflecting the turbulent times with a truly national focus, and showcasing the vast social and political issues facing the nation. Willie was driven by social conscience, speaking truthfully and honestly about matters that concerned him. Jack Bales wrote of his days in New York, “Willie, at

various times wrote with outrage, with humor, with sadness and with affection— but always with passion and candor.” According to executive editor Midge Decter, “Under the editorship of Willie Morris, a Mississippi boy bred on the love of serious literature, Harper’s had virtually overnight been turned into a writers’ magazine and was in the process of becoming what is called in the trade a ‘hot book.’” However, the success Willie gave the literary side of the magazine and the bitterness with the corporate owners over the bottom-line caused him to resign the helm of Harper’s. When Willie left, so did most of the magazine’s most important contributing editors. Reeling after walking away from Harper’s and the devastating effects of a grueling divorce, Willie retreated to the small town of Bridgehampton on the east end of Long Island. The bar tables of Elaine’s in Manhattan were replaced by the piano bar at Bobby Van’s. Willie began sleeping late in the morning, writing in the afternoon, and retiring to Bobby Van’s, “the watering hole that served as a kind of club for the country’s best-known writers.” More than just a few drinks were spilled there with fellow writers John Knowles and Truman Capote, Joseph Keller, Kurt Vonnegut, Jean Stafford, and Irwin Shaw, among others. James Jones, author of From Here to Eternity became one of Willie’s closest friends. The local town dog, a black Labrador retriever DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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JANE RULE BURDINE

DAVID RAE MORRIS

Willie at work in the close quarters of 16 Faculty Row, University, Mississippi. Pete was never far from him at home, at class, or…out on the town. Pete was Willie’s constant companion.

DAVID RAE MORRIS

named Pete, adopted Willie and moved in with him. They became inseparable. Over the next few years, he published several books, including Good Ole Boy and James Jones: A Friendship.

DAVID RAE MORRIS

Just released is Love, Daddy David Rae Morris’s book of photographs, letters and recollections of growing up under the aura of his late father Willie Morris. Jim Dees has said it is a very brave book, sometimes brutal in its realization of the ability to communicate or not. “I have been able to use my camera as protection when we couldn’t, or wouldn’t, converse.” And yet, “My father always told the truth; he spoke the truth honestly and openly. His stories are not always pretty, you can’t sanitize history. History is a part of us all. My father would be appalled at the effort to try and whitewash history.” “Sometimes in spite of, or, because of problems, some of us have left Mississippi, but Mississippi always draws us back”

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Coming Home In 1977 Willie’s mother passed away, and the health of his neighbor and best friend James Jones was quickly deteriorating. Going home was much on Willie’s mind when he wrote, “It grew upon me that a man best be coming back to where his strongest feelings lay.” Willie had met Larry Wells and his wife, Dean Faulkner Wells, niece of William Faulkner, who owned the small publishing company Yoknapatawpha Press. A possible position at Ole Miss was discussed, and soon Wells and Evans Harrington, chairman of the English Department, assembled funds for Wille to become writer-in-residence on the Ole Miss campus. Mississippi literature was about to change. Willie and Pete moved into spartan housing at 16 Faculty Row and set up shop. Larry Wells remembers, “When he went to meet his first class with Pete, students ran ahead of him. His arrival on campus created genuine excitement at Ole Miss. I had never seen that kind of passion for belles lettres. When he got to the auditorium in Bishop Hall, the place was packed. Pete lay down on the stage and Willie started to teach. Thus began a new era at Ole Miss.” As writer in residence, Willie encouraged many ambitious young writers, Donna Tartt and John Grisham included. Richard

Willie Morris and great friend Masaru Inouey, preeminent Japanese Faulkner scholar who has attended most all Faulkner conferences. It wasn’t always Willie that pulled pranks.

Howorth, proprietor of Square Books in Oxford recalls, “Willie was critical in the literary renaissance in Mississippi. I met Willie in the Spring of 1980 soon after opening Square Books. He told me his coming home was to try and do some good for Mississippi. He would bring authors such as Kurt Vonnegut, Winston Groom, Bill Styron, and others to Oxford. And he did just that, plus many more.” Malcolm White, executive director of the Mississippi Arts Commission states, “When Willie came home to Mississippi, he brought café society with him. He was the ‘Culture Club’ everywhere he went, and we all followed him and hung on every word. He taught us to be honest and proud of this ‘strange and beguiling’ place called Mississippi.” Jim Dees, writer, emcee of Thacker Mountain Radio, and friend, remembers Willie as “having the mind of a Rhodes Scholar and the heart of a good ole boy, equally at ease with presidents and dishwashers. He was a consummate editor, including editing his own life. When his dog Pete died, Willie arranged to have him buried in Oxford’s human cemetery. Willie wouldn’t answer his phone, but he’d write you a five-napkin letter of encouragement at dinner. He was the best ‘explainer’ of Mississippi to Yankees and the similarly clueless we’ve ever had. He possessed an ‘elegantly furnished mind,’ as his friend William Styron said at his funeral. Indeed, we won’t see the likes of Willie Morris ever again.” Artist Bill Dunlap reiterates, “Willie Morris is absolutely crucial, crucial to

anyone who ever wanted to be an artist and crucial to anyone who is from Mississippi.” And so from the mahogany tables at Manhattan’s Upper East Side Elaine’s to the piano bar at Bobby Van’s in Bridgehampton to the linoleum and coke crate tables of the Hoka in Oxford, and especially the round kitchen table of Larry and Dean Faulkner Wells, Willie Morris held court. During his ten years in Oxford, Larry Wells said, “He began to write about Ole Miss and Oxford and brought the University and town to the attention of people throughout the nation. Willie was a single-handed literary machine. He brought panache and style to Oxford.” Wille was reintroduced to and married Delta girl JoAnne Prichard, the pretty and imaginative editor at University Press of Mississippi in 1990. They moved to Jackson, and Willie slowed down and began writing in earnest, pumping out New York Days, My Mississippi, My Dog Skip, The Ghosts of Mississippi, My Cat Spit McGee, and his long due novel TAPS, among other publications. The side table at Hal and Mal’s became his favorite watering hole with a telephone jack installed for his own personal use. After returning from New York City for a preliminary screening of the forthcoming movie My Dog Skip, Willie Morris, the good ole boy from Yazoo City, had a heart attack and died on August 2, 1999. Bill Moyers had prophetically remarked years before, “In the end it will be the quality of his life that is the real contribution Willie. . . made to our times.” Willie Morris became the first writer in Mississippi history, and only the third person, to ever lay in state in the Rotunda of the Old Capital in Jackson. Prior to his death one afternoon, Teresa Nicholas noted that he and JoAnne had invited Eudora Welty, the doyene of Mississippi letters, for a ride up to Yazoo. Following his usual route down the steep hill of Broadway, out Main Street and back by the Methodist Church and Ricks Library, through Glenwood Cemetery and the witches grave, past Willie’s boyhood home on Grand Avenue, they ended up overlooking the Delta. Soon they were deep in Yazoo County with Miss Welty riding shotgun, and at the crest of a hill came to an intersection. Willie said, “Eudora, I’m going to make a left and drive down Paradise Road.” She replied, “We’d be fools if we didn’t.” DM DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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Clarksdale Home of the Blues

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A Bounty of Peace What began in heartache decades ago is now an oasis overﬂowing with joy, bursting with color, and ﬁlled with scores of birdhouses and turtles BY SHERRY LUCAS PHOTOGRAPHY BY ABE DRAPER

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Turtle-shaped stepping stones offer a subtle reminder. Right at the gate of Suzie Cranston’s front yard garden in Jackson, turtle-shaped stepping stones offer a subtle reminder. Take it all in. Know comfort in its beauty. Delight in its details. Such messaging is key here, where the white picket fence and a whopping 150plus birdhouses boast big-picture impact. But look closer, beyond that up-front, eye-candy wow. Many more turtles are tucked in here and there—symbolic of the son she lost and the recovery she found in this space. Countless other charmers await, too, rewarding each discovery. Suzie was born in Clarksdale and grew up on Refuge Plantation in Greenville, after her father Sonny Spragins bought the property around 1956. She was just sixteen when she met her intended, Philip Cranston of Leland, on a blind date and married him two years later. His radiology career brought them to Jackson. They’ve been settled fifty-one years on Avondale Street, where her front yard garden has been known to entice passersby off Old Canton Road for a closer look. When the Cranstons lost their son Peck twenty-nine years ago, his eight-month-old son Hunter became theirs to raise. The white picket fence defined Hunter’s play yard, and the mandevillas Suzie Cranston planted along the fence line marked the start of a project that grew bit by bit, bloom by bloom in the years since. “Peace begins in the garden,” reads the sign her best friend gave her after Peck’s death. Cranston took it to heart. “I dug my yard up,” she says, “and peace really does begin in the garden.” When her gardening transitioned away from annuals, she saw it as a turning point. “I’ve started to plant perennials, because now I know I will live,” she told her grief counselor.

“I dug and dug and dug, and then I got one birdhouse. If one was good, then 152 was better,” she says. That’s the outdoor count. Several more decorate inside. Peck was their middle child. “We always called him ‘the Middlest,” she says, recalling his many happy days with grandparents at Refuge—”Heaven to him.” He’d loved turtles so much he’d bring them back to the house every summer he spent there, before her dad’s death in 1982. Now, the creatures are symbolic reminders. “Like with birdhouses, if one’s enough then two hundred is not quite enough. “I have turtles all over the house, all over the yard, turtle jewelry, turtle everything. We love turtles. Had a couple of live ones, but they just won’t stay put. They tend to wander off.” A special birdhouse, replica of the house where she grew up at Refuge, occupies a corner of her sofa table. The front porch features a boy astride a giant tortoise; yet another turtle eyes the house’s front steps like a destination. “Everybody brings me turtles,” Cranston says, “and there’s not a turtle I’ve ever had that I don’t love.” Outside, her yard’s concentration of birdhouses—a dense neighborhood of cute houses, churches, shops, and more on spindles, cedar posts, and two-by-fours— ensures visual impact and year-round color, even in the dead of winter when nothing’s abloom but the pansies. In spring, the flowers only enhance their jaunty hues. White gaura, commonly known as beeblossom, sways gently in front of the fence—a find on vacation in Florida twenty years ago. Roses and petunias punch up the

Suzie Cranston’s cat Lily finds a good perch in her colorful garden. The garden’s many turtles are symbolic reminders of the son she lost.

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Beyond blooms: Cute birdhouses and fanciful creatures turn Suzie Cranston’s front yard into a year-round visual feast.

scene with red and pink highlights, and showy amaryllis add more pops of color. Daylilies pull in pretty shades of peach and more, phlox adds lavender-tinged highlights, and irises offer velvety purple depth. Impatiens color a shady fence line, as violet blooms cascade over pots’ edges like cups brimming with happiness in this magical setting. When Cranston had her house painted two years ago, maintenance extended to the birdhouses. Her painter and pal Manny Frank put new bases on those that were falling apart, and Cranston added a fresh coat of paint to them over the winter months. Frank became such a fan of the scene— ”Just a wonderful oasis,” he calls the yard—that he’s the go-to for hanging them in tree branches and even contributed some to the mix. “It would not look like this if it were not for Manny,” Cranston insists. 108 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

One birdhouse was a rescue from another job. “There’s no place like gnome,” says the sign he made for it. A garden gnome grills burgers on the front porch while several others enjoy the swing. More gnomes hang out around the corner, in a barn room and a hay loft. “Then, I found all the little animals to go with it,” Cranston points them out, “and I fought the spider webs until somebody said, ‘Oh, Charlotte’s Web!’” Then, she had a reason to leave them. Frank brought her another favorite, made from a Vietnam War-era box once labeled Violet Smoke. Cranston turned it into a manger, bringing out her Fontanini Nativity figures for the transition. “Baby Jesus, the squirrels get every now and then,” she says, poking around in the leaf litter to see if she can find the babe. She’s spent decades collecting birdhouses, from the Canton Flea Market and other outlets. Her friend Doug Turner built a lot

Suzie Cranston is eager to share her passion for gardening with her new great-granddaughter Delilah Jane, as she gets older.

The delight is in the details, with touches of whimsy both on the ground and up in the trees. DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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The inviting setting is sometimes irresistible to passersby.

Inside, a birdhouse replica of the house at Refuge Plantation is a reminder of her Delta childhood, and the summers her children enjoyed there. 110 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

of them. A suite of driftwood birdhouses by Carter Driftwood Creations suspend from branches of her live oak out front. The driftwood birdhouses so captivated Cranston that, on a camping trip, she called on the creator in northern Alabama, “and I filled my truck up with birdhouses!” But her favorite story about those big, gnarly-branch structures is a Halloween tale. As she waited for trick-or-treaters, she could hear children gathered at the gate but not venturing past it. “C’mon in the yard, I’ve got candy,” she told them. “Your yard scares me,” she heard a little girl yell from the street. Cranston hollered back, “Well then, send one somebody.” One brave soul ventured forward and got a stash of candy for them all. Cranston’s birdhouses are more for decor than nesting. “I have three cats for one thing,” she says. For another, nesting birds can be very territorial. “I’ve been told it’s because birds don’t like to live in houses that close together. . . . But the damn squirrels will move right in.” She’s not a fan of those tenants and particularly not happy with the way they eat the hole to make it bigger and bigger “until they can fit their fat bodies in.” She does remember one bird that braved a fencepost birdhouse; Cranston battled her cat daily to keep it away. Eventually, the cat won. Feathered friends learned the lesson and haven’t repeated the mistake. Visitors on the fly will dip in for the bird bath, however, and visit the bird feeder Cranston positioned right at her front window. “If they’re going to eat my birdseed, they have to come look at me eye to eye. . . . I love seeing the birds.” Her garden’s appeal has enticed the eye of artists (Wyatt Waters has painted it twice), gardening experts (Felder Rushing included it in his book Maverick Gardeners), and more. She appreciates the joy birdhouses bring, the same way she revels in the flowers each season offers. “Why would you want something dull when there’s pinks and greens and yellows and reds and

Birds may not make a home in the many birdhouses, because of the density of the collection and several onsite cats, but garden gnomes have no such qualms.

oranges? . . . Nothing about me or my house or my yard will ever be neutral. That will never describe me.” Birdhouses hold the garden spotlight, but other elements shine as supporting players or near-hidden delights—bird baths, Poor Julia sculptures, statuary, wind chimes, Pickenpaugh Pottery flowers, and a flock of flamingoes, all different interpretations of the striking pink bird. On the planting end, “I don’t have any law or order. I just stick stuff in,” she says,

pointing out amaryllises from Christmas scattered here and there. “My daughter is so orderly. She’s a CPA, and everything in her garden is very orderly, and everything in mine is chaos,” she says gaily. “I can’t even call it organized chaos.” But she can call her garden a happy place, bursting with interest and color any time of year. It continues to be a work in progress. Both of Cranston’s grandmothers were wonderful gardeners, she says, and her childhood memories of Clarksdale include

getting pansies wrapped in newspaper and gently unwrapping the young seedlings to plant in the garden. She wants to share that passion with grandson Hunter’s new baby daughter, Delilah Jane. Delilah Jane is already getting a strollereye’s view of the landscape that pays tribute to her grandfather Peck and has made her great-grandmama a neighborhood favorite. Cranston can’t wait to get her digging in the dirt right alongside her. “We’re going to plant as many things as she wants.” DM DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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FOOD

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Summer Tarts & Bruschetta BY CINDY COOPWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNA SATTERFIELD

Complemented with fresh herbs and cheeses, garden vegetables are the centerpiece of these simple dishes avory and light, you will love these recipes for tarts and bruschetta highlighting our favorite summertime produce. Practically any combination of veggies, herbs, and cheese may be used, so feel free to substitute ingredients to your liking. Best of all, they are versatile and may be served as an appetizer, with a tangy salad for a simple meal, or as a side when grilling out.

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TOMATO BASIL GALETTE 1 1 2 to 3 3 to 4

refrigerated pie crust cup mozzarella cheese, shredded tablespoons chopped fresh basil tomatoes, sliced Salt and pepper ¼ tablespoon olive oil 1 egg yolk splash water

Tip: If cheese is difficult to spread, a little milk or cream may be blended into cheese mixture. SUMMER SQUASH TART 1 ½ ½ 1 2 1 1

refrigerated pie crust pound zucchini, unpeeled and sliced ⅛-inch thick pound yellow squash, unpeeled and sliced ⅛-inch thick teaspoon salt tablespoons olive oil, divided 8-ounce package goat cheese, at room temperature teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves thyme sprigs for garnish

Toss squash slices with salt and place in a colander for 30 minutes. Spread the squash out on paper towels, roll it up, and squeeze gently to remove some of the liquid. Put the slices into a bowl and toss with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Mash together the goat cheese, thyme, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper and set aside. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll the dough out on a floured board to about an 11-inch circle and place on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Spread the goat cheese mixture over the dough, leaving about a ½-inch border. Lay the zucchini and yellow squash slices in tightly overlapping circles. Continue overlapping circles of squash until the whole tart is covered. Drizzle with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle with pepper. Bake for approximately 40 minutes, until the dough is golden brown. Garnish with fresh thyme sprigs and cut in wedges. Delicious served warm or at room temperature. 116 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll the dough out on a floured board to about an 11-inch circle and place on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle cheese in center of dough, leaving a border of an inch of crust around the edges. Layer tomatoes on top of cheese and sprinkle with basil. Drizzle with olive oil; season with salt and pepper. Fold the edges of the crust in over tomatoes leaving the center open. Beat together egg yolk and water and rush along edge of galette crust. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, until golden brown.

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TOMATO BASIL BRUSCHETTA 1 ¼ 1 2

french baguette, sliced ¼-inch thick cup olive oil pound fresh tomatoes, chopped tablespoons chopped fresh basil salt and pepper ½ cup grated or shaved Parmesan cheese

In a large skillet over medium-heat, drizzle olive oil and brown bread slices until slightly brown on each side. In a medium bowl, toss together the tomatoes, basil, salt, pepper and 1 tablespoon olive oil. To build the bruschetta, spoon tomato mixture on each baguette slice. Sprinkle with parmesan before serving.

Tip: A dash of salt on the bread as it sizzles adds extra flavor! 118 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

The hot honey drizzled over this peach brushetta gives it an amazing punch of flavor.

PEACH BRUSCHETTA WITH HOT HONEY 1 ¼ 1 2 ¼ ¼ 1 1 4

french baguette, sliced ¼-inch thick cup olive oil pound peaches, pitted and chopped tablespoons chopped fresh basil teaspoon salt cup honey teaspoon apple cider vinegar teaspoon hot sauce, or to taste ounces goat cheese

In a large skillet over medium-heat, drizzle olive oil and brown bread slices until slightly brown on each side. In a medium bowl, toss together the peaches, basil, salt and remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil. For sauce, whisk together the honey, vinegar and hot sauce in a small bowl, adding more hot sauce to taste. To build the bruschetta, spread each baguette slice with the goat cheese, spoon on some peaches and drizzle with the honey mixture.

A dash of salt on the bread as it sizzles adds extra flavor!

Tip: If you prefer a milder cheese, ricotta or burrata cheeses, are great substitutes for at the goat cheese.

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Commercial Banking | Treasury Management | Capital Markets | Wealth Management © 2020 Regions Bank. All loans and lines subject to credit approval, terms and conditions. | Regions and the Regions logo are registered trademarks of Regions Bank. The LifeGreen color is a trademark of Regions Bank.

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Delta Cocktail Trail CELEBRATE THE REGION’S SIGNATURE COCKTAILS BY KELLI WILLIAMS AND CINDY COOPWOOD

THE CROP DUSTER. THE LUCILLE. THE CATFISH. Delta folks have always been a thirsty bunch and appreciate a good pour, so we’ve curated a collection of uniquely crafted signature cocktails that are redefining happy hour in bars and restaurants from Memphis to Vicksburg. Inspired by their namesakes, these libations are a must for your summer bucket list. So … raise your glass and say Cheers!

Clarksdale

THE CROP DUSTER – Levon’s 1 1 1 1

ounce Bristow Gin ounce Maraschino Liqueur ounce Creme de Violette ounce fresh squeezed local lemon juice

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with one candied black cherry. The Crop Duster is our take on a classic cocktail, the Aviation. The “original cocktail is named for the cocktails color, it being reminiscent of the sky in its pale blue and purple hues. We named ours the Crop Duster because when looking at the Delta skyline, you are likely to see a crop duster or two. Bristow Gin is Mississippi made and truly complements.”

 Jonathan King, mixologist

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Cleveland

THE CATFISH – Bar Fontaine 1½ ounces Cathead vodka 2 ounces lemon flavored soda 2 ounces champagne

Combine all ingredients in a glass. Add ice and give a couple of stirs. Garnish with a basil leaf and a lemon wheel.  Cole Ellis, chef and owner

Vicksburg

RIVER BREEZE – 10 South Rooftop Bar & Grill ½ 1 ½ 4

ounce Malibu Rum ounce Bacardi Superior Rum ounce peach schnapps ounces pineapple juice Grenadine splash blue curaçao splash

In a tall glass filled with ice, first add the rum and Schnapps followed by the pineapple juice. Then to achieve the layered look pour in the Grenadine, which is thick and sugary and will sink to the bottom, then top off with the blue curaçao which will float at the top!

Memphis

THE LUCILLE – The Peabody Lobby Bar 1½ 1 1½ ½ 5

ounces Pepe Lopez or preferred tequila ounce triple sec ounces lime juice ounce simple syrup blackberries

Muddle berries in a 16-ounce pint glass and then add rest of the ingredients. Add ice, shake 10 seconds, double strain. Pour into martini glass and garnish with a lime wedge. margarita is inspired by B.B. “KingThisandblackberry his famous black guitar.”

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Starkville

AZALEA MARTINI – Magnolia Social 1¼ vodka splash of lemon juice 3 ounces pineapple juice splash of cherry syrup

Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice for at least 20 seconds. Strain into a coupe, garnish with a lemon slice and enjoy! For Syrup 1 cup sugar 1 cup water 2 cups cherries

Bring all ingredients to a boil in a medium saucepan. Allow to simmer 8 to 10 minutes, mashing and stirring cherries to get color and flavor. Strain, cool and use in your favorite cocktail. Martini the week of The Masters. “WeWedidn’tservedwantthetoAzalea do something as basic as an Arnold

Tip Store bought grenadine syrup is a great substitute for the cherry syrup.

Palmer and this martini was perfect going into Summer!”

 Ellen Rogers, owner and mixologist

Greenwood

THE GREENWOOD 75 – Giardina’s ½ ounce Wonderbird gin ⅓ ounce lemon juice 1 ounce osmanthus and honey syrup Veuve du Vernay sparkling wine expressed lemon peel garnish

Add first three ingredients into a shaker tin with ice. Shake and strain into an 8-ounce coupe glass. Top with sparkling wine. Express lemon essential oils over glass, rim, and add garnish to glass. Serve and enjoy!

Osmanthus and Honey Syrup 16 ounces Greenwood honey 8 ounces water ⅓ cup loose osmanthus tea

Combine ingredients in a sauce pan. Bring to a light simmer, stir, strain, and refrigerate.

The Greenwood 75 is full of local products, such as the syrup made from local “Greenwood honey and osmanthus tea, which also shares a name with one of our local stores owned by Brantley Snipes. The ingredients are a conversation starter to help promote some of our local businesses.”

 Andy Borbely, cocktail creator and manager of Giardina’s

Oxford

THE SEERSUCKER – Snackbar

Greenville

THE MAGNOLIA – Downtown Grille ½ ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice ¾ ounce house syrup made of honey, cane sugar and agave 2 ounces pineapple juice 2 ounces Hendrick’s or your favorite gin drizzle of pomegranate syrup

2 ½ ½ ¾

ounces Hendrick’s gin ounce lemon ounce Cointreau ounce honey thyme syrup

Mix all ingredients. In a rocks glass, pour over ice and top with soda. Garnish with a fresh thyme sprig. Honey-Thyme Syrup 16 ounces water 24 ounces honey 1 handful or around ¼ ounce thyme

Mix together first four ingredients and pour in a tall glass filled with ice. Lastly add a splash of pomegranate syrup, made from pomegranate juice and cane sugar, which will add color to the bottom. Garnish with a lemon and orange twist.

Simmer the water, honey, and thyme in a pot over medium heat until the honey desolves. Cool and refrigerate. (Makes 32 ounces)

 Maranda Haik, bartender and originator

 Derek Baker, bartender and manager

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HISTORY

The Greenville Bends THE MOST FORMIDABLE STRETCH OF “THE CROOKEDEST RIVER IN THE WORLD” BY WADE S. WINEMAN, JR

magine a rookie pilot as he steers his paddlewheeler upstream on a great, roiling watercourse. Continue to Imagine as the young helmsman discovers he has encountered a contorted reach of twisting, tortuous bends in the stream. As his boat labors upstream against the unrelenting torrent, It suddenly dawns on him that he has happened upon the most-convoluted stretch of river that he has ever seen. The watercourse with which our imaginary young pilot contends is, of course, the Mighty Mississippi, the stream so colorfully described by Mark Twain in his work, Life on the Mississippi, as, “the crookedest river in the world.” Twain further illustrated the Mississippi’s meandering form by writing, “If you

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will throw a long, pliant apple-paring over your shoulder, it will pretty fairly shape itself into an average section of the river.” The Mississippi is not only “the crookedest” river in the world but also one of the largest—the first or second-longest in North America, depending on which authority one trusts. Its drainage basin is the world’s fourth largest, draining all or parts of thirtyone states and two Canadian provinces, extending east to the Allegheny Mountains and west to a point deep within the Rocky Mountains and covering approximately 1.2 million square miles—over 40 percent of the area of the continental US. From its source at Lake Itasca, in Minnesota, the primary channel of the Mississippi flows approximately 2,500 miles, to the Gulf of Mexico. One of its tributaries, the Missouri River

WINKLEY, 1977

COURTESY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER COMMISSION

Mississippi River – Greenville Reach

System, is considered by some to be the longest river in the nation, estimated to be one hundred to two hundred miles longer than the Mississippi. Others believe that the length of the Mississippi should be determined by including the length of the Missouri System, which includes the Jefferson River in Montana. If the length of the Missouri System is combined with the length of the Mississippi below their confluence, the Mississippi’s total length would be estimated at just under four thousand miles. This combined length makes the Mississippi the longest river in the United States, and the third or fourth-longest in the world, depending on the year of measurement and the organization conducting the measurement. Annual variations may occur due to natural changes in rivers, such as erosion or deposition at the mouth of each river and the number of new cutoffs that occur annually. Variation may also occur due to changes in the shapes of bends in rivers—the Mississippi’s attribute that evoked Mark Twain’s famous comment. Perhaps no other place on the Mississippi impressed Mark Twain more than the reach known as the Greenville Bends, comprised of Rowdy Bend, Miller Bend, Spanish Moss Bend, and Bachelors Bend. Bachelors Bend was the bend on which the town of Greenville would be located, and later it would become known as Lake Ferguson. Bachelors Bend was reportedly named by Mrs. Harriet Blanton—considered to be the “Mother of Greenville.”

As the story goes, Mrs. Blanton and her husband were hosting a group of unmarried male neighbors at a dinner party in 1830, when the question of naming the bend arose. The men could not decide, so the decision was left to Mrs. Blanton. She remarked that, since there were no married men at the dinner, other than her husband, the bend shoud be named Bachelors Bend, and all agreed. Spanish Moss Bend was so-named because it was supposedly the first area along the river where boat passengers headed downstream began observing the distinctive eponymous plant dangling from riverside timber. Miller Bend was supposedly named for Hiram Miller, an original settler who had abandoned his homestead due to frequent overflows. (1) The reach of the Mississippi known as the Greenville Bends is comprised of four closely spaced, serpentine bends located generally north and west of Greenville, Mississippi. Since the dawn of steam-powered navigation, the Bends area probably aroused more feelings of dread among river pilots than any other section of the river, garnering respect because of the navigational precision required in the Bends to successfully negotiate narrow, shallow passages between sandbars and numerous snags embedded in the river bottom. Snags and boiler explosions were the most feared navigational hazards of the era. Another bothersome aspect of the Bends was that no other DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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COURTESY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER COMMISSION

location on the river provided pilots with “less bang for their buck.” Their boats were required to circumnavigate the gauntlet of the Bends for a distance of fifty-three river miles—between the head of Rowdy Bend, the northernmost bend, and the toe of Bachelor Bend, the southernmost, after which pilots would have progressed only fifteen miles in straight-line distance. This coil of the river was the primary source of the bends’ reputation for crookedness. Potamologists (river hydrologists) use the term, sinuosity, to describe a river’s twisting and bending nature. The sinuosity of a river’s channel is calculated by dividing the length of a stream’s channel segment by the straight line distance between the endpoints of the channel segment. Sinuosity along the entire length of the Mississippi River generally varies from 1.0 to 3.0, with an average of 2.3. This compares to the sinuosity of the two channel segments at the Greenville Bends of 3.65 and 4.22. (2) With the start of the Civil War, river pilots began experiencing more than navigational hazards as they passed through the Bends, especially if piloting Union naval vessels. Union vessels began appearing in the Greenville Bends in summer 1862, as the Union started focusing on Vicksburg. Confederate troops and sympathizers familiar with local terrain developed an effective tactic to harass Union forces passing up and down the river. The strategy involved sniping at Union boats with small arms and cannon fire from various spots along the bends, then quickly moving across the narrow “necks” of bends and striking the same boats again. For example, a Union boat moving upstream might be fired upon from a rebel position at Leland Landing (see map), then steam upstream and around Bachelor Bend—a distance of 18 miles. After attacking, rebel artillerymen would only have to move one mile across the narrow base of Point Chicot (later known as Archer Island) to batter the same ship a second time. Some rebel snipers would hit ships a third or fourth time, as they followed it upstream through succeeding bends. (3) Numerous Union transport boats were captured or fired on by rebel forces, including the Delta, Empress, Blue Wing, Sallie Wood, Minnesota, Warren, Golden Era, and Crescent City, as well as naval vessels, USS Curlew and USS Marmora. A particularly active position from which rebels attacked was near the small town of Gaines Landing, on Rowdy Bend. Point Chicot near Leland Landing was also a notorious ambush site. Frequent harassment by Confederate troops and sympathizers eventually wreaked havoc on innocent residents of some of the small towns along the bends. The town of Gaines Landing was destroyed when it was shelled by Union naval vessels and later burned by Union troops. All of the houses on Point Chicot were burned, as well as those at Argyle Landing on the Mississippi side. Greenville also experienced the Union’s vengeance. Except for a lone house and a church, the entire town was burned to the ground in May 1863. Despite retaliation by Union forces, rebels continued carrying out small-scale attacks on Union vessels, even after the surrender of Vicksburg, on July 4, 1863. Although the Greenville Bends had been problematic for decades, the Mississippi River Commission had maintained an overall “levees-only” policy since 1880, without the use of artificial cutoffs for flood control. The levees-only policy was considered to be critical in the Bends area because it was thought at the time that cutoffs there would have particularly devastating results. This

Anatomy of a Cutoff COURTESY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER COMMISSION

An earthen plug is all that separates the dredged pilot channels.

Dynamite removes the plug and opens the cutoff.

Fifteen minutes after opening.

One hour after opening, erosion of the plug has spread. DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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MISSISSIPPI RIVER GEOMORPHOLOGY & POTAMOLOGY PROGRAM

The shortening and steepening of the river caused by the cutoffs triggered complex morphologic adjustments that continue to the present day.

concern was best expressed by a Corps of Engineers article in 1910 that discussed the Bends in the following manner: “With four great bends following one another in immediate succession, each with a narrow neck, a cutoff in the upper one could hardly fail to be followed by like disasters at the others. They would all let go in quick succession. Such a disturbance of the river’s regimen as would be produced was never known. The suddenly liberated stream would run riot and play havoc with its banks and everything on them in all that country.” (4) Before the Great Flood of 1927, the River Commission had relied on the use of dikes and revetment to prevent natural cutoffs in the Bends. Despite these efforts, however, the necks of bends continued narrowing and flood heights increased. The likelihood of having unpredictable, catastrophic natural cutoffs seemed to be growing and their prevention was becoming more difficult. Even after the horrific impact of the 1927 flood, things were slow to change regarding the use of cutoffs. By 1932, however, the River Commission, influenced by its President, Brig. Gen Harley B. Ferguson, finally decided to adopt artificial cutoffs for river stabilization. As a result, the Commission began constructing 14 cutoffs, working from south to north up the river. Work was begun on the first cutoff, at Diamond Point (Grand Gulf south of Vicksburg), on January 8, 1933. By spring of 1935, a total of six artificial cutoffs had been opened. Two natural cutoffs had been allowed to occur also, one of which cut across Leland Neck, on Point Chicot, creating what would later be named Lake Ferguson. These cutoffs combined to shorten the river by 69.5 miles. While none of the artificial cutoffs had fully developed by the 1935 high-water season, they, along with dredging, proved their worth during a flood in the spring of that year. The 1935 flood was lengthy in duration, and its peak flow at the Arkansas City gage surpassed that of the 1932 flood, but with a crest that was almost two feet lower. The data indicated that Ferguson’s plan was working and the river was carrying more water at a lower-stage level. 130 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

By spring of 1937, Ferguson had completed four additional cutoffs, including two at the Greenville Bends: Tarpley (at Spanish Moss Bend) and Ashbrook (at Rowdy Bend). These four brought the total number of artificial cutoffs to ten, which, along with the two natural cutoffs, shortened the river by 100.7 miles. The performance of Ferguson’s program during the historic 1937 flood demonstrated obvious signs of improvement in flood control. Just below the Greenville Bends, the peak discharge of the 1937 flood was 20 percent greater than that of the 1929 flood, even though the peak crest was one foot lower. Before retiring, Ferguson established one final cutoff, on May 13, 1937. This cutoff was made near Scott, Mississippi, on Caulk Neck at Bolivar Bend, creating Lake Whittington. Three additional cutoffs between the Arkansas River and Memphis were later completed. The last one was finished in 1942, on Hardin Point Neck at OK Bend, west of Tunica, Mississippi, creating the lake now known as Tunica Cutoff. This final cutoff shortened the river by more than any other—16.9 miles. The sixteen cutoffs in operation at the program’s conclusion reduced the length of the Mississippi River between Memphis and Baton Rouge by 151.9 miles. Additional measures, including corrective dredging, chute enlargements, and other improvements increased this total to 170 miles. The program of cutoffs not only lowered flood stages but also improved transportation costs. Before the cutoffs, the average time for a towboat and barges to travel from Baton Rouge to Helena took 125 hours. By 1938, with the cutoff program only 75 percent complete, the same trip took an average of 105 hours— saving nearly one full day. In 1944, the commission reported, “The river now has the best alignment, the best navigation channel, and the greatest flood-carrying capacity it has ever had.” (5)

The evolution of the artificial cutoff effectively ended a colorful period in the annals of Mississippi River history, when the Greenville Bends stood collectively as perhaps the most daunting challenge faced by any captain who dared pilot his steamer through their tight passages and serpentine coils. Now, the old bends are practically given no thought, their relevancy seemingly diminishing with time. Unless they pull out a copy of the Corps of Engineers Flood Control and Navigation Maps of the Mississippi River, most people today can’t state the names of the legendary bends. Most are now known only by the names of the lakes that have replaced them: Lake Ferguson, Luna Chute, Camp Lake, and others. DM (1)

(2)

(3) (4)

(5)

Blanton, O. M. Memoirs of Henry Tillinghast Ireys, Papers of the Washington County Historical Society, 1910-1915.1954. Miss. Dept. of Archives and History and Mississippi Historical Society, p. 337. Hudson, Paul Franklin, “Meandering Processes and Channel Morphology in the Lower Mississippi River Prior to Major Human Disturbance. (1998).LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 6741.https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/6741 Simons, D.R. In Their Words. 1999. Wise Publications, pp. 11-12. Taylor, R. S. Professional Memoirs, Corps of Engineers, United States Army, and Engineer Department at Large, Vol. 2, No. 5 (January-March, 1910), p. 90. Camillo, C.A. Divine Providence. 2012. Mississippi River Commission, pp. 149-162.

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EVENTS

The SpongeBob Musical, June 15-24

FESTIVALS, MUSIC & FUN THINGS TO DO July 1, 6:45 pm

Memphis

Cleveland

Words and Music: Rivers Rutherford

Kingdom Tour: Maverick City Music X Kirk Franklin

Grammy Museum Mississippi grammymuseumms.org

Fedex Forum fedexforum.com

July 2, 6:45 pm

July 11

July 14-17 Brandon

Maverick City Music Brandon Amphitheater brandonamphitheater.com

The Righteous Brothers, July 30

July 16-December 18

Southaven

Southern Flea Market Landers Center landerscenter.com

July 16

Clarksdale

Crossroads Blues, Brews, and BBQ Festival Southaven

Newsies Jr.

352 Delta Avenue bamfestms.com

Landers Center Theatre visitdesotocounty.com

July 20

Memphis

PJ Morton July 15, 7 pm

Memphis

The Glenn Miller Orchestra

Cannon Center For The Performing Arts pjmortonmusic.com

“The Negro Motorist Green Book,” A Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition

Orpheum Theatre orpheum-memphis.com

July 22-23

Two Mississippi Museums si.edu, mdah.ms.gov

July 15, 8 pm

July 2-September 25

July 2

Jackson

Merigold

Lil’ Bit Country Lil’ Bit Rock n’ Roll Downtown Merigold keepclevelandboring.com

July 2-3

All-American Weekend

Overton Park Shell dreamfestweekend.com

Radians Amphitheater squarespace.com

July 29, 6 pm Memphis

Yo Gotti & Friends Birthday Bash 8

Shelby Farms Park - Event Center memphisfestivals.com

FedExForum fedexforum.com

July 30, 8 pm

July 15-24 Vicksburg

Classics in the Courtyard “Happy Hour”

Hernando

The SpongeBob Musical

Graceland Soundstage gracelandlive.com

Hernando Performing Arts Center kudzuplayers.com

August 2, 7:30 pm

July 16, 7 pm

Chris Stapleton

Brandon Amphitheater brandonamphitheatre.com

July 8, 7 pm

Brandon Amphitheater brandonamphitheater.com

August 5, 7 pm

Memphis

Sisterly Too: A “Family” Affair

Memphis

The Masked Singer National Tour Orpheum Theatre orpheum-memphis.com

Jimmie Allen Gold Strike Casino Resort goldstrike.mgmresorts.com

134 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

Tunica

Brandon

Koe Wetzel

The Cannon Center for the Performing Arts thecannoncenter.com

July 8, 9 pm

Memphis

Brandon

Encanto Live

Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation visitvicksburg.com

July 8, 8 pm

Memphis

Memphis Summer Cocktail Festival

The Righteous Brothers

Graceland graceland.com

July 7, 5:30 pm

Memphis

Darius Rucker

July 15, 8 pm Memphis

Memphis

Dreamfest Weekend 11

Landers Center landerscenter.com Darius Rucker, July 15 Koe Wetzel, August 5

Southaven

War on the Catwalk, August 7

August 6, 6 pm

Memphis

4th Annual Memphis Chicken & Beer Festival Liberty Bowl Stadium Memorial Stadium Field memphischickenandbeer.com

August 6, 7 pm

Brandon

Brooks & Dunn Brandon Amphitheater brandonamphitheatre.com

August 7, 6 pm

One of Mississippi’s Oldest Road Races

Go for a run under the Oaks

Sept 17, 2022 www.300oaks.com

Memphis

War on the Catwalk Orpheum Theatre orpheum-memphis.com

August 8, 7 pm

Southaven

All This Future Summer Festival Tour Landers Center landerscenter.com

August 11, 7:30

CLASSIC AMERICAN QUALITY.

Memphis

Foreigner Orpheum Theatre orpheum-memphis.com

August 11, 7:30

Brandon

Fantasia Brandon Amphitheater brandonamphitheatre.com

August 12

Clarksdale

34th Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival

Spicy Cornmeal Crusted Simmons Catﬁsh By Chef Steven Goff at the Delta Supper Club at Hopson Plantation - Clarksdale, MS.

1 Blues Alley Lane sunflowerfest.org

August 13 - Dec 4

Memphis

Repticon Landers Center landerscenter.com

August 13

Clarksdale

Cat Head 20th Anniversary Weekend 252 Delta Avenue cathead.biz

FRESH FROM THE POND TO YOUR PLATE. SIMMONSCATFISH.COM DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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The Glenn Miller Orchestra, July 15

Michael Hewes

The Milk Wagon July 23, 12 pm: Lemuria Books Book Signing lemuriabooks.com Charles Marsh

Evangelical Anxiety July 26, 4:30 pm: Lemuria Books Book Signing lemuriabooks.com Dr. Jay Wellons

All That Moves Us August 18, 9 pm

Southaven

August 21

Cleveland

The Original “Micro” Professional Wrestling Organization

Stories on Screen: If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynyrd Skynyrd

Sidecar Cafe Southaven visitdesotocounty.com

Grammy Museum Mississippi grammymuseumms.org

August 20

Greenville

August 23, 7 pm

Annual Roll’n on the River Car Show

Jamey Johnson

visitgreenville.org

Landers Center landerscenter.com

August 20

Southaven

Vishwesh Bhatt

I Am From Here August 2, 6 pm: Square Books, Oxford Book Launch squarebooks.com

19th Annual Memphis Blues Festival

August 24, 7:30 pm

Landers Center landerscenter.com

A R Rahman

Rinker Buck

Landers Center landerscenter.com

Life on the Mississippi

August 20, 8 pm

Memphis

Lady A

August 25, 8 pm

Radians Amphitheater squarespace.com

Ted Nugent

July 21, 6 pm

Memphis

Deer Creek Drive

Vicksburg August 27, 7 pm

Vicksburg Convention Center visitvicksburg.com

Brantley Gilbert & Jelly Roll

August 18, 6 pm, Square Books, Oxford Rinker Buck in Conversation with John Ruskey squarebooks.com Beverly Lowry

graceland Soundstage Gracelandlive.com

Ritz on the River - A Night of Soul

August 21, 7 pm

Southaven

July 26, 6pm: Square Books, Oxford Book Signing squarebooks.com July 28, 5 pm: Lemuria Books, Jackson Book Signing lemuriabooks.com

Brandon

Brandon Amphitheater brandonamphitheatre.com

August 24, 6 pm, Square Books, Oxford Beverly Lowry in Conversation with Richard Howorth squarebooks.com Taylor Brown

Brandon Memphis

Wingwalkers

Jamey Johnson

August 27, 8 pm

Brandon Amphitheater brandonamphitheatre.com

Olive Tree Presents Cowboy Tears—One Last Ride

May 3, 5 pm: Lemuria Books, Jackson

Graceland Soundstage gracelandlive.com

Emily St. John

LITERARY EVENTS

Sea of Tranquility May 4, 12 pm: Lemuria Books, virtual event on Facebook Live Tom Sancton

Brooks Eason

The Last Baron

Redemption: The Two Lives of Harry Brooks

May 7, 2 pm: Lemuria Books, Jackson

July 2, 12 pm: Lemuria Books Book Signing lemuriabooks.com

Steve Yarbrough

Stay Gone Days June Gervais

Jobs for Girls with Artistic Flair July 14, 5 pm: Lemuria Books Book Signing Event with June Gervais + Jamie Dickson lemuriabooks.com

Jamey Johnson, August 21 136 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

May 24, 5 pm: Lemuria Books, Jackson May 26, 6 pm: Off Square Books, Oxford Jake Kaiser

Daffodil Hill June 7, 6 pm: Off Square Books, Oxford

CJ Hauser

Diane C. McPhail

The Crane Wife

The Seamstress of New Orleans

July 18, 6 pm: Square Books CJ Hauser in conversation with Snowden Wright squarebooks.com

June 7, 5 pm: Lemuria Books, Jackson

FOR A FULL LIST OF EVENTS OR TO PURCHASE TICKETS VISIT ORPHEUM-MEMPHIS.COM/ONSTAGE THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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DELTA SEEN

Mississippi Delta Sigma Alpha Epsilon Alumni event held at the B.B. King Museum in Indianola on May 26 Photos by Leigh Hargett

Jerry Solomon, John Dean, Reggie Sims, Bryan VanLandingham and Ike Trotter Caleb Chambers, Ike Trotter and Doug Russell

Pete Fisher, Ike Trotter and Pat Patton

George Harris, Stewart Bridgforth and Trip Barnes

John Dean and Barry Bridgforth

Bobby Banks, Charlie Boyd, Haley Barbour, Ron Doleac and Larry Jones

John Garrard, Jay Jacks, Jody Moor and Jim Robertson

138 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

Randy Randall, Jack Harris and Dave Billingsley

Haley Barbour with John Dean

Cham Trotter, Haley Barbour, Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney and Chip Morgan

Art in the Alley in Greenwood on May 5 Photos by Andy Lo

DELTA SEEN

Shawn Hodges

Melanie Bowman and Kola Sue Bowden

Amanda Bush and Swayze Hicks

Allen Wood III and Peter Gee

Jacob and Christie Clark

Shelby Gorman, Taryn Wilson and Michelle Stadelman

Brandice Brown and Elizabeth Rustom

Yolande Van Heerden, Ashley Scott, Allen Wood, Kelli Stalhback and Lina Elfert

Brandice Brown, Bryan Lockhart, Greg West and Travis Walls

Brandy Avant, Erin Jacobs Stagner and Buddy Hendricks

Lora Evans and Venita Peterson

Randy Moss, Dr. Doug Bouden and Mark Kimmel

Hart and Beth Kittle

Mychell Ussery, Jane Moss, Tish Goodman and Kay Kimmel

Mychell Ussery, Kay Kimmell and Anna Sims

Laura Anne Archer and Geney Galey

Elizabeth Rustom, Rachel Goldberg, Kim Pillow and Lorrie Powers Rebekah Arant and Erin Mulligan

Ron Ussery and Randy Moss

Cyndy Long and Eddie Kaman

DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

| 139

DELTA SEEN

“The Goddess Project” exhibit at the EE Bass Cultural Center in Greenville on June 3 Photos by Holly Tharp

AJ Dean, Janice Dean and Nathan Dean

Chris Powell, Kevin Tharp and Euphus Ruth

Barbara and Hank van Riessen

Courtney Dean, Eric Nolting, Bill and Sandy Crandall Krista and Todd Davis

BC Irwin and Patrick Dean

Kevin Tharp and Morgan Dean

Cetin and Carmen Oguz

Euphus Ruth, Pat Brown, Janice Dean and Tyler and McKinley Coleman, Mia Powell, Ruby Courtney Dean Dean and Chloe Dean

140 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

Jennifer Shy, Paula King and Mary Kline

Sage Dean, Sophia Dean and Cassie van Riessen

Bolivar County Friends of Scouting Event on April 28 at the Bolivar County Expo Center in Cleveland Photos by Maggi Mosco

DELTA SEEN

Mississippi Writers Trail unveiling of new marker honoring Willie Morris on June 4 in Yazoo City Photos by Jane Rule Burdine

Robert Heslep, Nancy Havens, Kerri Mosco, and Debbie Heslep

Cliff and Terry Burd

Ryan Redditt, Robert Heslep, Kerri Mosco, Paul Janoush, Mary Parker Redditt, Judson Brown, and Jimmy McClellen

Jimmy and Jimmy McClellen with Bill Stembridge

Tyler Cannon, Colby Spradling, Michael Boulanger, and Rob Brown

David Rae Morris showing his love for Yazoo City at the unveiling of the marker honoring his late father, Willie Morris on the Mississippi Writer’s Trail

Malcolm White speaking to the crowd awaiting the unveiling of the Jim Dees, of Thacker Mountain New Mississippi Writer’s trail marker honoring Willie Morris trail marker speaking at the unveiling event in the late Willie Morris Yazoo City DELTA MAGAZINE 2022 | 141

DELTA SEEN

Delta Soul Celebrity Golf & Charity Event in Greenville on June 9 - 11 Photos by John Keen

Steve and Gwen Azar, Former NFL Player Pete Shaw, Miss Mississippi Holly Brand, Kari Shaw, Teresa Hubbard

Latrice Mahalitc, Esther Virden, Beth Mansour, Casie Weeks

Kim Dowdy, Kathy Bullard, Donna Steinle

Mary Edith and Mark Shapley

Billy Brozovich, Mickey and Beth Naaman

Rob Suares, Allie Malone, Neal and Paige Suares, John Bentley Suares, Isabelle Millwood

Former NFL Player Corey Miller, Jacky Valentine, Actor Gary Valentine, Actress Debbe Dunning, Chris Seely

Olympic Gold Medal Gymnast, Trent Dimas, Cappy Dimas, hit songwriter Matt Warren, Lisa Dimas

Actor Richard Karn and Tudi Wilson Karn

Actors Nicole and Jackie Flynn, Jeff Schwartz, Dr. Alphonso Sanders, Supermodel Kim Alexis, Former USA Ski Team member Terry Ahola

April Andrews, Olympic Gold Medal Snow Boarder Nick Baumgartner, Courtney Ayres, Jenny Henderson

Senator Derrick Simmons, Dr. Andrew Abide, Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann, Greenville Mayor Errick Simmons

Former MSU QB, John Bond, Mary Beth Bond, Charisse and Danny Oberle

April Robertson, Reya Hayek, Maroun and Nadine Hayek, Shounda Foster

Cecilia Azar and Garrett Johnson

142 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

DELTA SEEN

A selection of photos by Delta Magazine readers

J. Carlton Smith, Frances Varner, Thomas Coopwood, Bernadette Zrenner, William Dossett, Emma Bond, Robert Lucy Speakes and Ed Coleman Ming and Alex Janoush

Andy McWilliams riding his BMW in the Ozarks

Henry Mosco, Gilbert Lopez, Kid Rock, Shine Sizemore, and Sid Melton at Tracy Lawrence’s Second Annual Mission: Possible Celebrity Classic Golf Tournament at Old Hickory Country Club in Nashville

Tom Janoush, Desira Warrington, Coleman Warrington, Mary Grace Summers, Alex Janoush, and Robert Ming enjoyed the “A Night in the Arts” event presented by Delta Arts Alliance

Van Hipp and Herschel Walker

Jacob, Kerri, and Henry Mosco, with Griffith, Kendall, and Brad Roberts, and Maggi Mosco celebrated Mothers Day weekend in Biloxi

Kirk and Bridget Satterfield attend the 148th running of the Kentucky Derby

John Thomas Davis, Hunter Lamb, Leigh Robison, Hannah Davis, Hunter Caston, Stacy Davis, Emory Davis and Lauren Caston at the Viking Cooking School in Greenwood

Andy and Presley Lee, Gary and Jamey Gainspoletti, Boo Mitchell, Director of Royal Studios in Memphis, Yvonne Mitchell, Rivers and Russell Gainspoletti DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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Thefinalword The Delta Dazzles in the Big Apple BY LEA MARGARET HAMILTON

he message read, “We have a date!!! Emma’s Broadway debut will be June 6!” Immediately the texts from the Sisterhood started coming in. “Let’s go!” “Girl’s trip to NYC!” “The Sisterhood will take over the Big Apple!” You see, our college friend and Chi Omega sister, Mona Tedford Pittman’s uber talented daughter, Emma Pittman, had been the name on everybody’s lips since 2020 when she won a nationwide search for the next “Roxie Hart” in Broadway’s Chicago. But due to the pandemic, Broadway shut down, delaying Emma’s shining moment. Earlier this year, it was announced that the Great White Way would be opening back up and with it Lea Margaret Hamilton, a Hollandale native, came the announcement that we had long lives in Greenville. She is a newly named been waiting for, Emma would indeed be contributing editor to Delta Magazine and is the owner of SoDelta Candle Company. She is wife making her debut on Broadway! to Chris and mother to Mac, who is headed to Emma grew up across the Tallahatchie her beloved Mississippi State this fall. River in Batesville and is a product of the Delta. Her mama, Mona, is a native of Marks with deep roots planted there. It was not until I went to Mississippi State that we would become friends, even though she had a reputation in high school of being the toughest basketball player at Delta Academy. At MSU, I would join the sorority where she was a member and it would be the Delta connection that brought us together. On every Bid Day at the Chi Omega house, the Delta girls would gather in the Chapter Room to take our “Delta picture.” Even before it was the thing, we were throwing up the triangular Delta Lea Margaret Hamilton, Mona Tedford sign with our fingers for the Zap man! Pittman, Campbell Flowers Melton and Lee (And if you don’t know what the Zap Shellman Irwin the big city. man is, ask your parents.) After the cheers, pictures, and hoopla that go along with sorority bid day, the new sisters would hop in a car with some active sisters and go out for a night to celebrate. The Delta girls always stuck together. And we still do! With bags packed and Campbell Flowers Melton of Tunica as my travel companion, we hopped on a plane in Memphis and flew off to New York City for a glimpse of Broadway’s

144 | JULY/AUGUST 2022

new shining star and to see our friends. The sky scrapers that reached the heavens and taxi cabs that weaved in and out of traffic like race cars at Talladega were a stark contrast to the flat land around Perry Farm Road that we left at 3:45 that morning. Greenville native and fashion PR executive, Savannah Engel jumped in and made all of our lunch and dinner reservations and advised us on the “must see” in the city. Savannah and I go way back—she was a junior bridesmaid in my wedding—and now she has set the fashion world on its toes with her A-list clients. She knows New York and New York knows her. But she has certainly not forgotten her Mississippi Delta roots, made evident by the pot of turnip greens and skillet of chicken frying on the stove while we visited with her for drinks at her lovely West Village apartment. At the Pebble Bar, prior to the show, we were joined by Mona and Lee Shellman Irwin, another sorority sister and Lambert native. We made a toast to Emma and our friendship and were off to see the star at the historic Ambassador Theatre which was just a few blocks away. At the theatre we found a nice man to photograph our foursome in front the golden “Chicago” blazoned stage curtain. Lee informed him that we were from the Mississippi Delta and that Roxie’s mama was our friend. In fact, we told everyone that we were from the Mississippi Delta and that Roxie’s mama was our friend! I told the lady behind me in the line to the lady’s room where we were from. She had a thousand questions and I think she was a little star struck because when the attendant motioned that it was my turn she said, “I feel so lucky that I got to stand behind you, I can’t wait to tell my daughter!” I saw the twinkle in Emma’s eye when Roxie and cast sang, “We Both Reached for the Gun.” “Where’d you come from? Mississippi!” Emma made Mississippi shine with her razzle dazzle performance and I’m so glad that the friends from the Delta were there to see her rock Chicago. DM

ava i la b le at

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