Leflore Illustrated Fall 2011 by Greenwood Commonwealth

Greenwood, Mississippi

A River Country Journal / Fall 2011

Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 1

table of contents

features 5.

Former maids talk about their experiences forThe Help DVD

13.

Tailgating is a great tradition of Mississippi college football

20.

Many families celebrate the holidays by making favorite treats

23.

Local doctors rely on mothers to keep practices running smoothly

37.

Lizzie George Henderson caused stir with her electric car

places people

4. 46. 47.

From the editor Calendar of events Index to advertisers

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26.

Hank Lamb stopped his car and got into Delta landscapes

39.

Ricky Williams wants to take hunter safety to new heights

44.

Carrollton Baptist’s music man celebrates 50 years

48.

Greenwood Convention and Visitors Bureau enjoys blockbuster year

17.

Keesler Bridge is a historic landmark and symbol of renewal

32.

Kathryn and John Pittman find sanctuary at home

ON THE COVER: Virlee “Birdie” Johnson, left, seen here with The Help star Octavia Spencer, worked as a maid for Thomas and Marguerite Gregory from 1957 to 1967. She recounts her experiences in a special feature to be included on The Help DVD. Photo by Johnny Jennings.

eflore

Illustrated

Editor and Publisher Tim Kalich

Managing Editor Charles Corder

Associate Editor David Monroe

Contributing Writers

Bill Burrus, Bob Darden, Jo Alice Darden, Ruth Jensen, Charlie Smith, Beth Thomas

Advertising Director Larry Alderman

Advertising Sales

Linda Bassie, Susan Montgomery, Ronnie Sanders, Jim Stallings, Kim Turner

Photography/Graphics Joseph Cotton, Johnny Jennings, Anne Miles

Production

Clifton Angel and Charles Brownlee

Circulation Director Shirley Cooper

Volume 7, No. 1 —————— Editorial and business offices: P.O. Box 8050 329 U.S. 82 West Greenwood, MS 38935-8050 662-453-5312 —————— Leflore Illustrated is published by Commonwealth Publishing, Inc.

Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 3

From the editor

PHOTO BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

On the road again F

or the past couple of years, I’ve had the itch to take up cycling. I finally decided to do something about it after working as a volunteer for the second straight year on Bikes, Blues & Bayous, the Greenwood ride that occurs on the first (blistering) Saturday in August. That afternoon, I loaded up my 10speed bike, which had been gathering dust and dog hair in our garage for the past decade, and my wife’s 18-speed model. I had bought the latter as a Christmas present for Betty Gail about 10 years ago, but a puppy later put it out of commission by chewing off most of both pedals and half of the seat. I took both bikes to Ed Dewett for an evaluation. Ed had helped me several times over the years assembling and fixing my children’s bikes. He’s a good mechanic and terribly reasonable. One hundred fifty dollars later, including parts, both bikes were ready to ride again. I had originally purchased my road bike while working my first journalism job out of college. I bought it new at a Washington, D.C., bike shop. At the time, the black Ross was my most significant investment. I used the bike to get around the city when I wasn’t riding the bus or subway. The job didn’t pay much, but the workplace was bike-friendly. I could ride to work, shower and dress for the day, then change and ride back home that night. When I moved to Greenwood, the bike came with me. I eventually took up other forms of exercise, and the bike fell into neglect. I held onto it, though, for sentimental reasons. It cleaned up nicely — or nicely enough for me. I have tried to do at least one long ride a week, sometimes by myself, usually with Betty Gail. I can get a better workout and go farther solo, but it’s more monotonous when I’m by myself. 4 / Leflore Illustrated Fall 2011

Most of our cycling has been along Money Road, north of town. I let Betty Gail lead, thinking that if a vehicle were to get too close, she’d be safer in the front. Some experienced bikers might be thinking I have an ulterior motive, but trust me, my skinny wife doesn’t provide much draft. The winding road is bumpy in stretches, which can be hard on a backside, but it presents an interesting landscape of row crops, tree lines and a vast horizon. One time, there’s a center pivot dousing a thirsty field. Another time, a combine is harvesting soybeans. The road is not busy, which is a plus, although what traffic there is can be a little intimidating as it zooms past. The various forms of roadkill along the shoulders are a regular reminder to stay vigilant. The best part of the ride, coming and going, is on the bridge that crosses the Tallahatchie River. There’s something beautiful about looking down at a flowing river, the trees and grass that line its banks, and the sky that frames it all. I have in my head a series of approximate mile markers after heading north

from the bridge. There’s WABG’s radio tower at mile one, New Zion Missionary Baptist Church at mile 2, Tallahatchie Flats at mile 3, a gravel turnoff at mile 4, and so on, all the way to the Emmett Till marker at mile 9. I haven’t gotten past that yet before heading back to town. It’s hard to look attractive in biking attire unless you’re a cyclist in your prime or a supermodel. I’ve not yet acquired a pair of those skin-tight biking shorts. Although I’m sure my bottom would enjoy the extra padding, the shorts seem a bit too unflattering for a person of my age and physique. My love handles don’t need the extra lift. We did, though, purchase a pair of bike helmets. Everyone looks goofy in a bike helmet. My goal is to get in good enough biking shape to do a mini-triathlon next year in Nashville, where our daughter, Elizabeth, lives. She tried to get me to do it this year, but since I didn’t have a working bike at the time, I passed. I no longer have that excuse. — Tim Kalich LI

The real Help

In their own words

Several women from Leflore and Carroll counties who worked as maids during the 1960s gathered at Little Zion Missionary Baptist

n any website where reviews and comments are solicited about the movie The Help, reactions to its story range from heartfelt gushing about its tale of racial redemption to its dismissal as a “chick flick.”

Church last summer. They were interviewed for a special feature to be included on the DVD version of The Help.

STORY BY JO ALICE DARDEN PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS AND DREAMWORKS

Commentators and reviewers speak apparently from a wide variety of occupations, lifestyles and backgrounds. It’s difficult, however, to find an opinion on the movie by a former maid who actually worked in the home of a white family, as depicted in the book by author Kathryn Stockett and the movie. The DVD package, however, may remedy that problem.

Set in Jackson in the early 1960s, the movie was filmed in Greenwood in the summer and fall of 2010. During filming, Stockett, a Jackson native, talked with several women who worked as domestics in Greenwood and Carroll County during the period illustrated in the movie. According to Johnny Jennings of Greenwood, photographer, City Council memFall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 5

“Everybody was always real nice to me.” Virlee “Birdie” Johnson

Octavia Spencer, right, plays Minny Jackson, and Viola Davis plays Aibileen Clark, the two central characters in The Help.

ber and an extra in the movie, these conversations were filmed for use as one of the “special features” on the DVD, which is expected to be released in late November. The Help tells the story of a wealthy white planter’s daughter fresh out of journalism school who seizes an opportunity to expose to the world the indignities she sees African-American domestics suffer in the early days of the civil rights movement. Soliciting the truth from the maids of her own snooty white

clubwomen friends, Skeeter Phelan, the young writer, quietly works to encourage “the help” to come forward with their stories. She relies on two strong women seen as leaders among the group of maids, Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson, to persuade the others to divulge their experiences to her anonymously for a tell-all book. The former maids Stockett interviewed for the special feature were contacted by local people the women knew and asked whether they’d like

to participate in the discussion of what it was really like to be a white family’s maid in the 1960s. The women arrived at Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church on Money Road on a hot summer day in 2010 and sat in the pews of the church for a few hours in the morning as Stockett asked them questions. Some of the former maids came alone; others brought friends and family members who sat with them. One of the maids helped rear Tate Taylor in Jackson — the movie’s director and writer of

its screenplay. At lunchtime, the discussion took a break for a Hollywood movie set version of “dinner on the grounds.” The women were served lunch alongside the movie’s cast and crew, who were shooting scenes at the same location. After lunch, the former maids returned to the church pews, alone, without friends or family, and continued the discussion. The afternoon session was filmed under hot, bright studio lights. So how do the experiences Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 7

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“It was enjoyable work for me. It was about all I could do.” Mamie Siler

Mamie Siler, right, pictured here with The Help star Octavia Spencer, says she didn’t know how to cook when she started work-

ing for Jody and Ann Gee in 1950. “All the fancy cooking I learned, I learned from (Mrs. Gee),” Siler says.

of the local maids compare to those of the movie maids?

I’d do everything else.” As long as she was with the Gees, Siler said — about eight years — she never had to use a babysitter for her own child. “I’d stay up there in the (Gee) house all day and sometimes half the night,” she said. “Ms. Ann would go to Greenwood to visit her sisterin-law and take my baby with her!” Siler was born in 1926 in McCarley in Carroll County. She finished the eighth grade, and after starting the ninth, she asked her mother to let her move to Chicago to live with her sister and find a job. Her mom said she could, and

v v v Mamie Siler of Winona enjoyed her employment with Jody and Ann Gee so much that she named her son after Mr. Gee. “I started working for the Gees about 1950, when I was 24,” Siler said. Now 85, Siler said she didn’t even know how to cook when she arrived on the Gees’ doorstep. “All the fancy cooking I learned, I learned from (Mrs. Gee),” Siler said. Once Siler had the basics down, she was

put in charge of the kitchen. “The family didn’t even know what they’d have for dinner every night,” Siler said. Her other daily responsibilities included keeping most of the house clean and looking after the needs of the two children, Ann Ross Gee, who was a teenager, and her brother Jody, a pre-adolescent when Siler started with the family. “That Jody was a troublemaker,” she said, laughing. “He’s still makin’ trouble.” Siler had a little help herself. “The butler did the yard work, and he’d wax the floors in the house and keep the living room up,” she said, “but

she stayed there for five years before returning home. After marrying, getting a divorce and leaving the Gees, Siler moved to Indiana to be near her son and his wife. She remarried, but her second husband died after about 10 years, and she lived alone for a while. When she felt she needed to, she moved in with her son’s family. After living in Indiana 41 years, she said she just missed home, fresh air and good weather too much, and she moved back. Siler now lives with her “old, old friend” and sister-inlaw, Marie Humphrey, in Winona. Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 9

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Working for the Gees is a happy memory for Siler. “It was enjoyable work for me,” she said. “It was about all I could do.”

v v v Virlee Johnson, born in 1926 in Leflore County, has spent all of her life in the Mississippi Delta, mostly in Greenwood. Known affectionately as “Birdie,” Johnson married and moved to Leland for a few years, where her husband’s job was located, and while she was there, she worked as a maid. When Johnson returned to Greenwood, she went to work for Thomas and Marguerite (“Baby Girl”) Gregory in North Greenwood, where she worked from 1957 to 1967. Johnson saw The Help with one of her daughters at a theater in Southaven. She didn’t recognize the problems the movie maids had as any of her own. “Everybody was always real nice to me,” she said. As the Gregorys’ maid, Johnson started her day at 7 a.m., when she arrived to make breakfast for the couple and their three sons — Tommy, Bob and Jim. Mr. and Mrs. Gregory left for work; Tommy and Bob left for school; and in the early days, Johnson spent the day minding the baby, Jim, and cooking and cleaning. “My Mama taught me how to cook when I was 11 years old,” Johnson said. “Everybody thought I was a great cook.” She kept the older boys when they came home from school and had supper ready when Mrs. Gregory got home at 5 p.m., and Johnson could return to her own family. With four daughters and two sons of her own, Johnson said leaving them with family members while she worked wasn’t too bad. She also did some special-occasion catering from her home. According to Bob Gregory, Johnson was lured away from the family when Care Inn, later

The sanctuary of Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church was turned into a studio where African-American former maids were interviewed for a feature to be included on The Help DVD.

called Pemberton Manor and now Riverview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, offered her a job running its kitchen. She later led the kitchen operations at Golden Age Nursing Home, finally retiring after about 20 years there. At 85, Johnson lives independently and still does her own housework. “My daughter lives next door to keep an eye on me,” she said. “Birdie still makes the best Thanksgiving dressing and homemade rolls I’ve ever eaten,” Bob Gregory said. He and his brothers — they all live in Greenwood — go to Johnson’s house every year to catch up with her, visit with her children and grandchildren and get some of her dressing and rolls. Johnson and the Gregorys are already looking forward to this year’s reunion.

v v v Carrie Bell of Greenwood spent 54 years taking care of the W.M. Whittington Jr. family. “I started in the spring of 1952,” Bell said. “They had just moved into their new

house on the Boulevard (in North Greenwood).” Bell worked from 1 p.m. until 5 or 6 p.m. six days a week. “They had a cook in the mornings who fixed breakfast and lunch,” she explained. “I sometimes cooked supper, and there was a lot of cooking for parties.” Bill and Mary Jayne Whittington had three children — Jamie and Billy and baby Anna — and Bell’s responsibilities included taking care of them all afternoon, in addition to cleaning duties. “I cleaned upstairs, and the cooks cleaned downstairs,” Bell said. “And I did all the laundry — ironed all those baby clothes and starched and ironed all Mr. Whittington’s white cotton shirts.” In the afternoons, Bell said, she often took the children to a park, took them to visit friends or let them entertain friends at their house. She made sure Jamie and her brother Billy had baths before she left and were ready to eat dinner with their parents. “That Billy,” she laughed. “He never did want to get out of the water.”

Bell bathed and fed Anna and got her ready for bed before she left to return home to her own family. Bell’s sister kept her son and daughter while she worked. “That wasn’t too bad,” Bell said. She could get them off to school in the mornings and still had time to spend with them when she got home in the evenings. Billy Whittington of Greenwood, a farmer, said, “Fortunately, we were ‘Skeeters’ and not ‘Hillys,’” referring to opposite character types in The Help. “Carrie is family.” Bell stayed with the Whittingtons until Mrs. Whittington died in 2006, when Bell was 77. “I know she won’t brag on herself,” said Billy Whittington, “but I want people to know that while she worked, her daughter went all the way through school and then taught school for 30-something years. And her granddaughter is a doctor in California.” Both Bell’s son and her daughter live in Greenwood. The Whittington family holds a warm spot in Bell’s heart. “I enjoyed every minute of working for the Whittingtons,” she said.

v v v The local ladies who worked as maids for white families in the 1960s acknowledge that their experiences differed from those portrayed in The Help. There seems to be plenty of room for the vast range of views and opinions about the movie and its place in that critical time. The Help illustrates one entirely plausible scenario that could have become a reality. It told a story, but not the story. And these local ladies — the real help — are adding their stories to this broad discussion through their participation in making the DVD special feature. LI Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 11

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Tailgating

PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS AND AVENT CLARK

Football’s feast Dogs

Mary Margaret Cockroft and her young friend, Mallory Moore, mingle with the Bulldogs before a game at Mississippi State.

hen fall finally rolls around and the leaves start to turn, one thing — besides football — comes to mind: Tailgating. But it’s more than just sitting under a tent eating snacks before the big game. It’s hours of preparation. You stake out the best spot around 5 a.m. and set your tent up before most fans are waking up from their beauty sleep. It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet. You work all night preparing enough hand-battered wings, barbecue and homemade desserts to feed an army. Don’t forget the sweet tea. It’s a fashion show. Ladies go shopping weeks before the game to pick out the perfect dress in their school’s colors. It has to be unique. Heaven forbid someone showing up wearing one just like it. Heels are a must — the higher the better. The team may lose, but the tailgaters don’t, and around these parts, tailgating is big business. You do it up right or you go home.

Rebels

Ole Miss football is a family affair for former Greenwood residents Luke Cannon and his mother, Cheryl Cannon. Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 13

Delta Devils

Greenwood Mayor Carolyn McAdams; Anna Hammond, Mississippi Valley State University executive vice president and provost; Greenville Mayor Heather McTeer; James Oliver and his wife, Donna

Cham Trotter of Belzoni appears to be enjoying the pregame festivities in the Grove at Ole Miss.

Oliver, president of MVSU; James Llorens, chancellor of Southern University-Baton Rouge, and his wife, Glenda Darensbourg-Llorens, get fired up before a game at MVSUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Rice-Totten Stadium.

Margaret Claire Walker, Drew Weiskopf, Avent Clark and Price Davis show their Mississippi State spirit in the Junction before a night game at Scott Field. Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 15

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Keesler Bridge

History and renewal

The first car, driven by Mrs. S.J. Riley, crosses Keesler Bridge following its dedication in 1925. The event drew a crowd of 10,000.

STORY BY BOB DARDEN PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS AND COURTESY OF ALLAN HAMMONS

n low water or high, Greenwood’s iconic Keesler Bridge has weathered the past 86 years with style and grace. “It was, and is, a landmark. I guess we all took it for granted,” said Allan Hammons, president of the Greenwood advertising firm Hammons & Associates, who remembers how the bridge was a critical component for residents who lived and worked on both sides of the Yazoo River. “When I was very small, it was the only bridge across the river. It was the bridge,” Hammons recalled. “The volume of traffic was enormous. Before the Walthall bridge was even built, there was a massive exercise moving people out of Greenwood. It involved almost every officer of the Greenwood Police Department manning an intersection with a whistle. They had these wild hand antics they would use.” This was a 5 p.m. ritual every weekday, he said. Before the U.S. 82-49 bypass was built, all highway traffic

Bill Ware and Allan Hammons, standing on Keesler Bridge, discuss the bridge’s contribution to trade and community pride in the city. Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 17

Keesler Bridge turns for a river barge to pass in 1932. The bridge was last turned in the early 1950s.

from U.S. 82 and U.S. 49 funneled its way onto the two-lane bridge. “There were a lot of taxi cabs that were active in those days. A lot of domestic workers would take cabs to and from work,” he said. “It was a very, very busy bridge.” That condition remained until the Hinman Bridge, on the bypass, was built in 1952. That was followed by the Veterans Bridge in the early 1960s. Unlike those bridges, the Keesler Bridge, named after Samuel Reeves Keesler, was designed to turn to accommodate river barge traffic. Bill Ware, a retired professor from Mississippi Valley State University, said he remembers how the bridge looked during the high-water days in the fall of 1948. “The compresses brought their cotton. This was the ‘Cotton Capital of the World’ and was so noted,” Ware said. “I was amazed at all the folks — 35 to 40 folks — rolling cotton from the bank onto a barge. They chanted and sang.” Ware said it was at that time he realized “that the cotton was going to go down the Mississippi River. It was either going to go to Memphis or New Orleans. From there, it would go all over the world,” he said. “I thought, ‘Gosh, how could folks in these cotton fields have such an impact 18 / Leflore Illustrated Fall 2011

“The cotton was going to ... go all over the world. I thought, ‘Gosh, how could folks in these cotton fields have such an impact on the world?’” Bill Ware on the world?’” Ware said.

v v v Keesler Bridge was dedicated on May 7, 1925. The event drew Gov. H.L. Whitfield

and featured a parade, barbecue, the crowning of Miss Leflore and a baseball game between the University of Mississippi and Mississippi A&M College, now Mississippi State University. It drew a crowd of more than 10,000. According to the Mississippi Heritage Trust’s website, Keesler Bridge is a swing bridge of the Howe Truss design. It is one of the few truss bridges left in the state. In 1999, it was named one of Mississippi’s 10 Most Endangered Historic Places because of its deterioration. Thanks in large part to the efforts of the late May Whittington, a former director of Main Street Greenwood, the bridge received a $1.6 million facelift — $1.4 million of which came from the Mississippi Department of Transportation as well as a Mississippi Landmark Grant from the state Department of Archives and History. On Sept. 15, 2003, the bridge was rededicated. Today, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Mississippi Landmark.

v v v Hammons witnessed the last time Keesler Bridge was turned, back around 1951. “I remember vividly going down there

after dinner. It was a weekday around 8 p.m.,” he said. A city maintenance crew used an acetylene cutting torch to cut something loose in the bridge’s turning mechanism — a maze of reduction gears — which allowed the center of the bridge to turn the massive structure. The turning mechanism consisted of a pipe with a square notch on one end. That fit into a corresponding notch at the center of the bridge. From there a bar was attached, and with the help of eight men pushing in unison in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction, the bridge pivoted. The bridge remains an engineering marvel, Hammons said. “You think of it as a big, long rectangle, the structure itself, but if a rectangle is up against a rectangle there’s no way that is going to move out,” he said. “If you’ve ever noticed, the ends of the bridge are actually built in a big curve; that is the radius of the width of the bridge. The approach had to have that curve, and the bridge had to have that curve; otherwise, it wouldn’t move. A lot of people have probably never noticed that.” Hammons said the bridge also had very close tolerances — not more than a 1-inch gap — between the bridge and the ramps on either side.

v v v At the rededication in 2003, thenLeflore County Board of Supervisors President Robert Moore said the cooperative effort between Greenwood and Leflore County leaders was a hopeful

Roadwork is done on Keesler Bridge prior to its reopening in 2003.

sign of what the future could bring. “Perhaps we should do it as often as we can to remind us of the importance of working together to do that which is best for all of the citizens of Greenwood and Leflore County,” he said. Then-Mayor of Greenwood Harry Smith, who had been a proponent of replacing the bridge initially, said the renovation of the bridge was a defining moment. “I didn’t realize that Keesler Bridge would become a symbol of renewal in our community and show a newfound spirit of renaissance and optimism, but it has,”

he said. Remarking on the restoration of Keesler Bridge, the trust said, “The Old Keesler Bridge restoration is a wonderful example of the value of restoring a rare historic bridge rather than replacing it with a typical modern bridge.” The trust, in 2004, presented an Award of Merit for the restoration. Ware said as he’s grown older, he admires the bridge more and more. “I come down here and just marvel at the bridge. The leaders in the city and the county have been astute in keeping it,” he said. LI

A period photo of Keesler Bridge, when the water level in the Yazoo River was extremely low, shows the base of the bridge’s central column. Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 19

Holiday candy

Sweet tradition STORY BY BETH THOMAS PHOTO BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

rom juicy turkeys and pumpkin pies to gingerbread men and Grandma’s infamous fruitcake, nothing warms the heart and welcomes the holiday season quite like traditional holiday food. We all love these treats and look forward to that one time a year when we can sit down with family and friends, pass around the plates and forget about that diet we’ll confine ourselves to come Jan. 1. Pharmacist David Clark is known around town for his heavenly holiday divinity, and making the mouth-watering treat around Christmastime is a family tradition for him. “I’ve been making divinity all my life,” Clark said. “We make candy trays for neighbors and friends and give them as holiday gifts.” Lee Ann Flemming of Cruger uses the same recipe for fruitcake cookies that her mother and grandmother used, and she hopes to share it with her granddaughter, Leila Rose Flemming, when she’s old enough to hold a spoon and stir. “This recipe has been in the family for years. It’s a generational thing, and we hope to keep it going through the next generation,” she said. The schoolteacher and food columnist said the recipe is special to her, and she makes these cookies only once a year at Christmas. “Even if you don’t like fruitcake, you’ll love these,” Flemming said. “They’re my favorite candy in the world!” LI 20 / Leflore Illustrated Fall 2011

Making tasty treats is a holiday tradition for many families.

Lee Ann’s holiday treats 1/2 cup sugar 3/4 cup finely chopped nuts 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 1/3 cups unsifted, all-purpose flour 1 (9 ounces) package Hershey’s Kisses Confectioner’s sugar, as needed

RECIPES BY LEE ANN FLEMMING PHOTO BY AMANDA SEXTON

MAMAW’S FRUITCAKE COOKIES 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup butter 2 eggs 1 1/2 cup flour 1 tablespoon milk 1 1/2 teaspoons soda 4 tablespoons whisky, wine or apple juice 1/2 pound candied pineapple, chopped 1 pound candied cherries, chopped 1 pound pecans, chopped 1 pound dates, chopped

Mix softened margarine, sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add flour and chopped nuts. Blend well. Remove foil from Hershey’s Kisses. Shape 1 tablespoon of dough around each Kiss, covering completely. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes until set but not brown. Let the cookies cool. Roll the cookies in confectioner’s sugar. Store in airtight container. Roll in sugar again before serving.

Mix all ingredients well. Drop by spoonfuls on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes until lightly brown. VANILLA WHITE FUDGE

MICROWAVE PRALINES

4 cups powdered sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 cups chopped pecans 1 (8 ounces) package cream cheese 1 (12 ounces) bag white chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups brown sugar 2/3 cup half and half 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons butter, melted 1 cup chopped pecans

Soften cream cheese and chocolate chips in microwave, making sure the mixture is smooth with no lumps but not watery. Blend powdered sugar, vanilla and pecans in a mixing bowl. Line a 9-by-13-inch casserole dish with aluminum foil. Pour mixture on top of foil. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Mix the first four ingredients in a microwave-safe bowl. Mircrowave on high for 10 minutes. Turn the bowl around after the first five minutes. Let set for one minute. Add pecans and beat until creamy. (This will take about 15 minutes.) Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper.

Lee Ann Flemming looks forward to the many happy moments she will share with her granddaughter, Leila Rose Flemming, as they bake Christmas goodies together.

Take out and cut into serving-size squares. Put fudge back in refrigerator and let harden overnight.

MISTLETOE KISS COOKIES 1 cup margarine, softened

Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 21

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Doctors and moms

Family practice STORY BY DAVID MONROE PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

hen Todd Fincher needed help in his office in the early days of his dental practice, he turned to a familiar face.

Pie Fincher says she enjoys working in the office of her son, dentist Todd Fincher. “He says I’m the boss, and I say he’s the boss, so we just go with the flow,” she says.

His first receptionist, Gwen Naron, left in 1987 to move to Belzoni. Fincher thought he had a replacement lined up, but that person decided to go elsewhere. So he asked his mother, Pie Fincher, if she could help for a week or so by answering the phones. She didn’t know anything about dental offices, but she agreed. It must have gone well, because he stopped looking at other candidates’ résumés — and at the age of 77, she is still his receptionist today. “The end of the week came, and he said, ‘Well, we made it through the week; you want to come back next week, we’ll see what’s what?’” she recalled. “I said, ‘Well, yeah.’ So — here I am.” A longtime friend of hers, Ada Moses, knows that feeling, too; she’s been the receptionist at the office of her son, Dr. Wally Moses, for 29 years. She is now 76. When she started, she had taught kindergarten at First Presbyterian Church for about 15 years but hadn’t done anything to prepare for a job in a doctor’s office. Still, she said, “I’d worked for him all his life — so why not keep on?” Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 23

Ada Moses, receptionist in the office of her son, Dr. Wally Moses, says the two have “a wonderful working relationship.”

Both moms, who have known each other since junior high school, said they didn’t expect these to be long-term jobs. But they are pleased with their choices, and so are their sons. “Pie and I work great together,” Todd Fincher said. And Wally Moses said of his mother, “I hope I never have to replace her.”

v v v Early on, Pie Fincher had to learn a lot of terminology to be able to talk with patients, other offices and insurers. It was almost like learning another language, she said. Of course, there’s a lot more paperwork now, and the office also has added computers, more staff and a surgical suite. She has to be prepared when patients call about new procedures or marketing people call about their products. But she said her son is good at explaining things, and she goes to continuing-education classes to stay informed. She said with a laugh that she once told him, “You know what? If I’d known I was going to be in this dental office, I probably would have just gone on to dental school with you.” He had decided around seventh grade that he wanted to be a dentist, and she knew he’d be a good one. In fact, he first checked her teeth when he was in dental school, and she served as a patient for a procedure while he was taking his boards. She’s still a regular patient today. “He’s done just about every procedure 24 / Leflore Illustrated Fall 2011

on me that can be done, so I can vouch for how he does things,” she said proudly. Dentists have to be precise, and his perfectionist tendencies have even rubbed off on her, she said. “You’re working in such a small area that it’s got to be exact,” she said. “And I think that exactness of his carries over into his everyday personality.” Ada Moses also has a lot more paperwork than she once did, but she still schedules everything by hand. The office is computerized, but scheduling by computer takes too long, she said. Like Fincher, she knew years ago that her son would have a bright future. “He’s very smart — very, very smart,” she said. “And I thought he’d be a great doctor.” The best part of her job has been dealing with the patients, many of whom are like family to her. The children she taught in kindergarten now have children of their own. “I love people, I enjoy people, and this is sort of a people position,” she said.

v v v There’s little chance that these mothers and sons will get tired of each other — simply because they don’t see each other very much during the day. The Finchers will go over the schedule in the morning, and he’ll tell her when he’s leaving for lunch and when he’s returned. Then they’ll usually speak again late in the afternoon. But the office is so busy most of the day that there’s no

time for small talk. “We probably get to talk to each other more at church than we do the whole week,” Todd Fincher said. Wally Moses often is so busy that he never has time to go to the front of the office, where his mother is. But he likes having a lot to do, and the office arrangement has worked out well. “We have a wonderful working relationship,” Ada Moses said. The two mothers plan to keep working as long as they can, too. Pie Fincher still likes interacting with the patients, plus her job gives her some exercise to help control her arthritis. The addition of her granddaughter, Kaley, and a second hygienist, Melissa Pigott, to the office staff has reduced her workload somewhat. And she still helps her husband, Gene, at Fincher’s Antiques and goes to seven or eight antique shows a year with him. “I mainly keep working for my own good health,” she said. “I mean, it’s better for me to work than to not work.” Ada Moses said she also has some physical limitations but still likes her job. “As long as I can do it, and he’s happy with what I do ... I think it’s good for me to continue,” she said. Her son agrees. “I hope she’s working here in a rocking chair serving tea and crumpets when she’s 95 years old. I really do,” Wally Moses said. “Patients love her. I think she’s my best advertisement that I have for my practice. I really would hate to see the day that she’d quit working here.” LI

Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 25

Hank Lamb

Through an artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lens STORY BY CHARLIE SMITH PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS AND HANK LAMB

riving Delta highways brings into view both life and death. Most prominent are the huge vistas provided by oceans of cotton and grains, as vibrant as ever. But then spotted along the way are the decaying vestiges of the plantation system: long-shuttered gins and small churches, paint peeling off their Lamb sides as kudzu creeps up. Hank Lamb often spotted those scenes. But the photographer kept going, busy to get to his next school for class pictures.

These landscapes of Golden Bayou and a cotton field are just two of those Hank Lamb has shot in travels around the Delta.

But two years ago, Lamb started stopping. The result has been a series of artistic photographs that capture the region’s wonder and geography. There also is a popular Facebook game, “Where in the Delta is Hank?”, in which he posts a picture and has friends guess the location. The Lamb name has a long history in Delta photography. Hank’s father, Les, came to Greenwood from Connecticut during World War II as an Army photographer and then started his own business. Hank Lamb, 58, worked in his father’s shop as a youth but didn’t snap his first picture until he hurt his arm as a senior at Greenwood High School, ending his football career. Coach Sammy Dantone asked him to take pictures, and Lamb’s father put a camera and flash in his hands, fixed the focus and had him shoot away. “Once I got the picture in the paper, I was bit,” he said. Lamb did his first wedding that summer in Jackson and then went to Mississippi State, where he continued to take pictures and met his

wife, Rebecca. He then spent two years at a photography school in Daytona Beach, Fla., before returning to Greenwood in 1977 to work for his father. Hank’s brother, Chuck, went to Clarksdale and still runs a studio there. Lamb said he’s proud of his work documenting the lives of people in the community through portraits, especially, as well as school pictures. Those memories are contained in long rows of negatives inside his studio on U.S. 82 just west of Greenwood. But throughout his career, Lamb has always enjoyed photographing things “just for me,” he said. He went through a period of Polaroid manipulation. Lamb would alter the emulsion on the film using a golf tee right after taking the shot, which created an effect similar to an impressionist painting. Now he’s doing mostly Delta scenes. Lamb works with 10 mostly small schools, so he’s on the road early in the morning, a prime time for photography. Unlike some nature photographers who spend hours waiting for just the right light,

Lamb works by inspiration. “See it; capture it” is his motto. Some of the images that never got photographed remain imprinted on Lamb’s mind. He said if he doesn’t stop when he first notices a scene, he usually can’t recapture it. One recent view that Lamb passed up — horses kicking up dust at sunset — leaves Lamb kicking himself. The artistic photography

isn’t lucrative, but Lamb said it brings him great personal pleasure. His dream project is to put together a tabletop book featuring photographs from three generations of Lambs: Hank, his dad, Les, his brother, Chuck, and two of Hank’s three sons, Andrew, who works with Hank, and John, a math professor in Tyler, Texas. “If nothing else, for ourselves,” Lamb said. LI Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 27

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Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 31

The Pittman House

John and Kathryn Pittman were downsizing and ready to build when they decided this house on West Harding was too charming to resist.

Sanctuary of comfort

athryn and John Pittman of Greenwood lead an active, energetic lifestyle, pursing assorted interests and frequently taking off in different directions.

When the day’s business is done, however, they come home to unwind in a house and garden they’ve turned into a serene retreat on West Harding Avenue in North

32 / Leflore Illustrated Fall 2011

Greenwood, where they can enjoy each other’s company and re-energize for the next day. John, 62, retired as president of Planters Bank in July

STORY BY JO ALICE DARDEN PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

2010, though he still contributes to the business. “I’m in the office when I need to be,” he said. And he serves on the bank’s board of directors. Additionally, he is on the boards of the GreenwoodLeflore Fuller Center for Housing and the Museum of the Mississippi Delta, formerly known as Cottonlandia. The board and nonprofit

work keeps John busy enough, but his hobbies also figure largely in his life. “I’m a tinkerer and a woodworker,” he said. He is currently restoring a dark blue 1964 Lincoln convertible. At this stage, though, the car is not on his property, needing a level of professional care he feels is beyond his capabilities. “Right now, I’m just the facilitator,” he said. “I write

the checks for the work (the car) needs now.” Kathryn, 58, and her longtime friend, Jamie Brewer, have a business that ties in with Kathryn’s interest in antiques and good design — Brewer-Pittman Estate Sales. “About 15 years ago, we were just shopping and buying and selling antiques,” Kathryn said. “We had a booth in an antiques mall. But then we did a sale 10 or 11 years ago and loved it. We just do estate sales now.” When the movie The Help was being filmed in Greenwood in summer and fall 2010, Kathryn said, set decorator Rena DeAngelo and production designer Mark Ricker “shopped” the warehouse where Brewer-Pittman stores furniture, rugs and accessories, often finding the perfect period piece for the movie, which was set in the early 1960s. The Pittmans are emptynesters. Their son, Richard, a doctor at Emory University in Atlanta, and his wife have three boys and a girl. The couple’s daughter, Kathryn, died at age 21, when she was a nursing student at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. “I tell people I have two children,” John said — “one here and one in heaven.”

Pale blue walls and white woodwork contrast crisply with black granite countertops in the kitchen.

v v v While the kids were growing up, the Pittman family home was on Weightman in North Greenwood, a sprawling house and pool that were

The focal point of the Pittmans’ living room is the portrait of their late daughter, Kathryn. The room is arranged for comfort and conversation.

perpetually filled with friends of their son and daughter. After Richard left home, Kathryn said, the place was just too big. As many others do in their situation, the Pittmans started thinking of

downsizing. “We were ready to build,” John said. “We found our lot right off Robert E. Lee. But then I saw the ‘For Sale’ sign in front of this house, and I told Kathryn she needed to drive by and take a look.” Both John and Kathryn have always been interested in antiques, inheriting many good pieces from their families and collecting furnishings that please them for the nearly 40 years they’ve been married. The house on West Harding appealed to John immediately because of its solid feel, high ceilings and beautiful millwork, he said, gesturing to the crown molding and the woodwork surrounding the windows in the living room. He also appreciates the tall, old trees that keep the house shaded and cool. “I hate to condition air,” John said. “There are a lot of days in the summer when we don’t even have to turn on the air; we just leave the windows open.” The house was built in 1939 for Mr. and Mrs. Earl Equen by S.G. Beaman, who built many other homes and businesses in Greenwood. Mr. Equen, John explained, started the Equen-Elfert Insurance Agency, which was dissolved in 1994, and was at one time sheriff of Leflore County. The Equens lived for

The dining room reflects the eclectic nature of the Pittmans’ collection. The table and chairs were inherited from John’s family, the sideboard from Kathryn’s. Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 33

34 / Leflore Illustrated Fall 2011

many years in the house; Mrs. Equen lived well into her 90s, John said. The property had changed hands a couple of times before the Pittmans bought it in 2003. The porch on the east side of the house was original to the structure; another had been added to the west side. The kitchen had been completely remodeled and updated. With three bedrooms, one of which the Pittmans would use as a den and study, and two baths, the house was exactly the size the couple needed.

v v v Throughout the interior, soft creams, pale blues and hardwood floors form the canvas onto which Kathryn has applied the warm woods of various antique pieces and the muted bright colors of gently aged oriental rugs. Window treatments are painted shutters. Without exception, the furniture populating the rooms is designed for unfussy comfort and easy conversation. Over the fireplace, a portrait of daughter Kathryn is the focal point of the living room, which is just off the entry. A wall of built-in shelves displays books, art and family treasures. One step down at the east end of the room is the original porch, which has been glassenclosed. Catching the morning sun, the room is made for naps, reading and thriving potted plants. Through an archway at the opposite end of the living room is the dining room, where a portrait of son Richard overlooks family pieces, including the dining table from the Pittman side and the sideboard from Kathryn’s great-aunts. An antique crystal chandelier twinkles over the table. “I like to call our style ‘eclectic,’” Kathryn said. “Others might say ‘hodgepodge.’” In the back of the house, off a center hallway, are the bedrooms and baths. The guest

John and Kathryn Pittman added a koi pond when they landscaped their backyard. It’s one of Kathryn’s favorite features.

room has a tall antique pencilpost bed, along with other antique furnishings. The master suite’s soft blue silk quilted bedspread holds a legitimate claim to fame. “When they were looking for a bedspread for the scene in The Help where Ms. Stein (the New York book editor played by Mary Steenburgen) was talking on her phone in bed, they just could not find exactly the right spread,” Kathryn said. “But Rena remembered seeing this one at our house and asked if they could use it. So our bedspread is famous.” The remodeled kitchen and the glass-enclosed porch on the west side of the house see some heavy traffic. “Kathryn loves all these drawers and cabinets,” John said. The clean lines of the white cabinetry against the black granite countertop give a fresh, uncluttered look to one of the busiest rooms of the house. “We like to cook,” said Kathryn, who teaches classes at the Viking Cooking School in Greenwood. “We get together often with two other couples and cook supper and talk and relax. And I like to use food from our garden out in the back when I can.” The porch off the kitchen is one of Kathryn’s favorite places. Every morning, she and

John enjoy coffee there and share their plans for the day. It also serves as a transition or pivot point from the house to the back garden.

v v v When the couple bought the property, the garden, however, needed some major work. The yard, fenced on the west side by the next-door neighbor, with a detached garage, was neither relaxing nor inspiring. The Pittmans set about making the outdoor space as personal and comfortable and welcoming as the interior. “Lark Brown helped us landscape (the space),” Kathryn said, referring to a friend who is a landscape designer in Schlater. “Everything felt so disconnected,” John said. “I wanted the garage to be connected to the house, and we wanted a privacy fence to enclose everything.” The result is a retreat within a retreat. A few steps down from the porch is the expansive brick patio with its outdoor dining suite and barbecue grill, bordered on one side by the older fence and on the other by Kathryn’s favorite feature – a brick-walled koi pond. The brick surface extends

almost halfway into the backyard, flowing into the garage by means of a meandering brick path. The couple transformed the garage by adding siding that was painted cream to coordinate with the house, installing screened windows with window boxes full of flowers and adding a gabled mini-porch, complete with an air potato plant vining under the eaves. The effect is a structure that more closely resembles a charming guesthouse than a garage inside which John can do his “tinkering.” Poor drainage in the backyard was a challenge easily solved. John noted where the low-lying problem areas were, mapped where the underground sewer lines ran and added drainpipes connecting the surface to the lines. So, with a little of John’s tinkering, the couple had no more standing water worries. Kathryn’s garden is at the back of the yard, against the fence the couple built and installed themselves. A member of the Greenwood Garden Club, Kathryn grows both produce and flowers – everything from asparagus to zinnias – and uses what she grows in her cooking and decorating. She shares a delightful “coming home” story about her garden. A long, long time ago, Kathryn said, Mrs. Equen, the original owner of the Pittmans’ house, gave a cutting from one of her white rose bushes to longtime Greenwood resident Henry Flautt. He took the cutting and cultivated it into a rose bush in his own garden. After the Pittmans bought the property and settled in, Kathryn said, Flautt arrived offering a housewarming gift: a cutting from the same white rose bush. “Henry told me he wanted to bring it home,” Kathryn said. And the bush is growing once again in the garden of its original home on West Harding. LI Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 35

36 / Leflore Illustrated Fall 2011

Electric car

Shock and awe

Lizzie George Henderson's electric car sits out at Cotesworth, the ancestral home of former U.S. Sen. J.Z. George. The Detroit Electric was mostly sold to women and doctors, it is said, since it was easy to start, unlike the internal-combustion cars that had to be hand-

t must have caused quite a stir in Greenwood — the sight of Lizzie George Henderson riding down the street in her electric car. It was the only one in town, as far as any of her descendants knows.

cranked, and it was more likely to start in cold weather. The car was taken to Mississippi State University's Mechanical Engineering Department in the 1970s and re-tooled so that it would run. In the ’80s, it was returned to the Williams family and Cotesworth.

STORY BY RUTH JENSEN PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

Novelist Elizabeth Spencer wrote in the August 1964 issue of Delta Review about seeing Henderson in the electric car: “I actually saw her once, gliding around in this thing. I was in Greenwood with my mother and my aunt who had doubtless gone over to shop at Fountain’s and must have had some business around at Whittington’s, for I remember she was passing down Main Street near the courthouse. She was sitting up very straight and wearing a hat with a veil tightly drawn down under Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 37

her chin and my aunt said, ‘It’s Miss Lizzie George Henderson in her electric car,’ and my mother said, ‘Don’t stare.’ ... “The lady herself, Mrs. Henderson, was remarkable; if not actually royal, she would do until the real thing came along. She was just sitting there, being borne along at a decorous, silent rate, her back straight as a plumb line, not noticing anyone (though if she by any chance did look your way, you’d better speak, and quick); she touched no visible control (or so in memory it now seems). And she was famous. A senator’s daughter to whom that huge white Victorian house, carefully shuttered, with a butler and intricate service, belonged; I say it was white but along about that time she painted the whole of it mustard yellow, and as if that weren’t enough, what with the electric car, to produce a state of marveling and bemusement in Greenwood ... .”

v v v Henderson was the wife of Dr. Tim Henderson. Dr. Henderson likely had purchased the 1912 Detroit Electric car for its reliability for nighttime calls during cold weather, his great-greatnephew, Jay Williams of Carrollton, believes. According to Wikipedia, the Detroit Electric, which was built from 1902 to 1939, “was mainly sold to women drivers and physicians who desired the dependable and immediate start without the physically demanding hand cranking of the engine that was required with early internal combustion engine autos.” The car would go about 50 to 75 miles on a single charge and would be plugged in at night. Dr. Henderson died first, and Mrs. Henderson died about 10 years later. The couple had no children, and she 38 / Leflore Illustrated Fall 2011

Jay Williams and his sister, Liz Williams (now Davis), as young teenagers, stand by the electric car that their mother, Katherine Williams, inherited when she was about 4 years old.

left everything to her only living brother, youngest son of the 11 children of U.S. Sen. J.Z. George. Greenwood was the perfect place to drive such a car, since it did not have the power to climb tall hills. It is said Mrs. Henderson once tried to drive it out to her father’s home, Cotesworth, just north of North Carrollton, which entailed climbing Valley Hill, not yet paved — and the car got stuck about halfway up. Henderson’s brother, Joseph Warren George, was the grandfather of Katherine Williams of Carrollton, who was about 4 when her greataunt died. She vociferously protested that Aunt Lizzie had left the car to her. “I said, ‘The car is mine’; he said, ‘She left it to me. I’ll give it to you,’” she said. “I said, ‘You can’t give it to me; it’s mine.’”

v v v It did indeed become hers, and she recalls having many good times playing in it. The car runs on 72 volts of battery power, hooked up from either six or 12 batteries.

It has an electric motor under the center of the car, and batteries in the trunk and hood area tied together with a cable. There are two places in the floorboard to put oil in the motor. It is guided with a stick and has five forward clicks and three reverse, Jay Williams said. For many years the car has been housed at Cotesworth. Though it has not run since the 1990s, it could do so if it had the proper type of batteries, he said. In the 1970s, the Mechanical Engineering Department of Mississippi State University took an interest in the car and restored it. Charlie Bell of Carrollton, a professor in that department then, had told his colleagues about the car. After they got it going again, it was used for various exhibitions and parades. It was returned to Cotesworth around 1980, when the department was renovated and there was nowhere to keep it at MSU, Jay Williams said. He recalled that the telephone company provided the batteries for the car. They

Like many early automobiles, the 1912 Detroit Electric was guided by a tiller rather than a steering wheel.

were used in their substations, he said. “Older people remember the bell making a loud sound,” he said. “The bell is very low in tone, but everybody remembers it was loud. It was driven in the Christmas parade, and people said it was very loud.” Now that Cotesworth has become a culture and heritage center, future generations can marvel at the wonder of Lizzie George Henderson’s fabulous electric car for many years to come. LI

Ricky Williams

Taking safe ty to new heights

Ricky Williams fought for three years to get a patent for The Caddy, his invention to make climbing trees with weapons safer for hunters.

STORY BY BILL BURRUS PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

icky Williams of Quito has been using climbing stands for deer hunting for nearly 50 years. About eight years ago, Williams, 58, came up with an idea to make climbing trees with weapons safer. He developed a strap system that easily attaches via an industrial Velcro fastner onto an existing tree stand and secures a gun or bow during climbing or periods of inactivity. It allows a hunter to safely secure a weapon to a stand while climbing a tree. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This idea just came about from a safety Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 39

Business Directory

40 / Leflore Illustrated Fall 2011

standpoint. We always preach ‘safety first’ to our kids, but there was nothing out there to make climbing trees with a gun safer,” said Williams, who grew up hunting in Ruleville before moving to Leflore County in 1978. “There have been numerous hunting accidents where guns have gone off hanging around a hunter or while the gun was being pulled up by a rope. This was just a common-sense idea.” Williams, environmental services manager for Aramark at Greenwood Leflore Hospital, took the idea and ran with it. The end result was The Caddy, which is now sold on the Internet (www.treestandcaddy.com) and in five stores around the state in Greenwood, Indianola and Morton.

The Caddy retails for around $10. “At first, it was just a way for me and my family to carry our guns safely up a tree, and then it hit me: This is something that every hunter needs,” Williams said. After a three-year battle that included two denials by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Williams got a patent for The Caddy and quickly began searching for someone to make the product. “The cost of making it in the United States was just too much, so I had to go overseas to China to find a manufacturer. It just wasn’t feasible any other way,” Williams said. He recently got great exposure for his product at the Mississippi Wildlife

“We always preach ‘s afety first’ to our kids, but there was nothing out there to make climbing trees with a gun safer.” Ricky Williams

Business Directory

Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 41

Extravaganza in Jackson, where he sold 80, made some key contacts and also met some sales people in the hunting industry. Hoping for the day when the The Caddy is considered a key accessory anytime a climbing stand is purchased, Williams’ next step is to pick up a sales group or distributor. He said he is talking with two possible groups about his product. “Deer hunting is so big in Mississippi. We have about 200,000 hunters in this state, so there is a large group to market this toward,” Williams said. “My plan is to move my sales into Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee once things get rolling. “Realistically, I could see one day selling a million. I am not dreaming that big right now. I’ll take whatever the good Lord gives me.” LI

Business Directory

42 / Leflore Illustrated Fall 2011

Ricky Williams has found an overseas manufacturer for The Caddy, which retails for about $10. He plans to expand sales into other Southern states.

Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 43

Bernard Taylor

Lifetime of services STORY BY RUTH JENSEN PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

ew churches retain the same staff for very many years — and 50 years is about unheard of — but that’s how long Dr. Bernard Taylor has directed music at Carrollton Baptist Church. In August, his church dedicated a service in his honor. The guest speaker, Dr. Gene Henderson, said that in researching the matter, he could not find a Mississippi Baptist church that could equal that record. “There may have been others, but as far as they know, I’m the only living director continuing to serve in an organized choir program for over 50 years,” Taylor said. Carrollton Baptist is also the only church the 70-year-old has attended. “My mother was Methodist; Dad was a Baptist. I went to church with my grandmother, Kate Taylor,” he recalled. “All I remember is being there, except for the time in college.” He attended Holmes Junior College and then graduated from Mississippi College with a major in history and English and minor in instrumental music. He later earned a master’s 44 / Leflore Illustrated Fall 2011

Members of Carrollton Baptist Church worked hard to keep secret a service honoring Bernard Taylor for his 50 years as the church’s music director.

Bernard Taylor became Carrollton Baptist Church’s organist when he was in the 10th grade. He became music director in 1961.

degree in school guidance and a doctorate in school administration and guidance. “I always wanted to teach,” Taylor said, and you can find him instructing his choir in the finer points of a piece of music during weekly choir practice. After teaching for two years at J.Z. George High School, he was encouraged to work with the welfare department, which he eventually realized was not for him. He then taught at Greenwood High School before becoming administrator of a nursing home. Once again, he returned to education and became headmaster of the newly formed Carroll Academy. “I worked diligently to get accreditation by the Mississippi Private School Association and the state of Mississippi, and we got it,” he said. “I taught four classes and had choir.” After seven years in that post, Taylor was offered a job as school counselor in the Winona Public Schools. He later became curriculum coordinator, then assistant superintendent of schools for 13 years, and then superintendent of schools for three years before retiring. Music has been important to Taylor throughout his life. “I started playing for Baptist Training Union in the seventh grade and became church organist in the 10th grade,” he said. He continued as organist throughout

“I’ll do it until the Lord says, ‘No.’” Bernard Taylor college and was there each week except for times that the MC band was at an away game, and he had to miss going home, since he was drum major. He was asked to be music director at Carrollton Baptist in 1961 at a salary of $10 a month. His music budget was $5 monthly. “You could buy quite a bit of music in those days for that,” he recalled. “We only had 12 in the choir, and most music was 25 cents a copy.” Eight of his original choir members are still in the church and still singing in the choir. Church members worked hard to keep the anniversary celebration a surprise, and Taylor says they succeeded. “We didn’t have a printed program because I had already done the bulletin. It started like a normal service. Dr. Gene Henderson, now retired, was filling in at the pulpit, and he stepped up and asked if he could take the service.” The church presented Taylor and his

wife, Beverly, with a trip to see fall foliage in the Northeast and Niagara Falls. Taylor said his time as choir director has brought him great enjoyment. “There has been a lot of self-satisfaction in music. I always felt I was trying to do what the Lord wanted me to do,” he said. The choir also has prospered. “Anytime someone has left, someone has moved in. We started with 12 and maintained 12 to 18. Now we have about 24,” he said. Taylor tries to expose the choir to different musical styles. “The choir has responded well to my directing,” he said. “It is refreshing and humbling to pull a piece of music and they can do it. The Lord has blessed me with a cooperative, dedicated group of choir members.” Taylor doesn’t plan to quit any time soon. “I’ve told the choir I never want to harm the music program. I have told them they need to be looking for somebody else, but they won’t even talk about it,” Taylor said. “There have been times when I have thought about quitting, but never for very long. When I think I’m too old, I think about Mrs. Estelle Cooper, who is 91 and has been singing for 70 years in the choir, before it was an organized one. “I’ll do it until the Lord says, ‘No.’” LI Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 45

Fall Events OCTOBER 15 — The Robert Johnson 100th Anniversary Remembrance Festival will honor the centennial of the blues legend who died in Greenwood in 1938 with live music on the grounds of the WABG radio station on Money Road. 20-23 — Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat opens the Greenwood Little Theatre’s season. The musical tells the biblical story of Joseph. 23 — “Rhythm On The River” features blues music on the river bank at Tallahatchie Flats, a rustic spot three miles north of Greenwood that recreates a Delta cotton plantation. Alvin Youngblood Hart will be among the performers. 28-29 — Mississippi Valley State University’s homecoming will include a golf tournament, “Temptations” revue and scholarship banquet on Friday, and the Delta Devils will play Texas Southern Saturday. 29 — The Museum of the Mississippi Delta, formerly Cottonlandia, will hold its second annual Art & Antique Auction fundraiser.

NOVEMBER 8 — Greenwood merchants display their wares at the opening of the Christmas shopping season in Holiday Open House.

DECEMBER 1 — The 13th annual lighting of the historic Leflore County Courthouse will be held. 1-Jan. 9 — The Museum of the Mississippi Delta will host an exhibit covering the development of Christmas and other holidays, including Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Las Posadas. Community clubs and organizations will decorate Christmas trees. 2 — The Roy Martin Delta Band Festival, the state’s oldest Christmas parade, marches through the city for the 76th year. 6 — “HoliDelta,” a downtown party 46 / Leflore Illustrated Fall 2011

and fundraiser benefitting the Main Street Greenwood facade grant program, will be held.

JANUARY 3 — Mississippi Valley State’s men’s basketball team plays its home opener against Arkansas Pine-Bluff.

The Roy Martin Delta Band Festival is Dec. 2

FALL 2011

The index

of advertisers Ad page

Ad page

ANTIQUES

The Pickett Fence Makamson Antiques

40 41

ART GALLERY

Gallery Point Leflore

ARTS AND CRAFTS Montage Marketplace

APPLIANCES

Scott Petroleum Corporation

ATTORNEYS

Mills and Rodgers, LLC Upshaw, Williams, Biggers & Beckham L.L.P.

AUTOMOTIVE

Kirk Auto Group Mims Wholesale Motors

AUTO PARTS

BOOKS

Turnrow Book Co.

CLOTHING

Phil’s Squire Shoppe Puddleducks Rachael’s Smith & Co.

CONSIGNMENT Deja Vu

Custom Glass Services Mobile Glass, Inc.

41 12

40 36 40 22 3 25 36 6, 45 14, 45 42

ELECTRICAL SUPPLIES

Rexel Electrical & Datacom Supplies

EYE CARE

Walls Vision

FARM EQUIPMENT Triple M Irrigation Wade Incorporated

FINANCIAL

Bank of Commerce Planters Bank

FLORIST

Bella Flora

Fincher’s Inc. Gift Box,The Mississippi Gift Company, The

BEER DISTRIBUTOR Capital City Beverages, Inc. Delta Distributing

GIFTS

GLASS

BEAUTY SALONS Legends Salon & Day Spa

McCaleb Discount Furniture

back cover 40

Delta Farm & Auto Supply, Inc.

FURNITURE

GOVERNMENT

43 12 36 42 41 40

36 25 43 40 41 42

OIL CHANGE

Shell Rapid Lube

PET CEMETERY

Lap Pet Cemetery

Pet Quest

PET STORE

PHARMACY

Downtown Drugs

PHOTOGRAPHY

City of Greenwood 10 Leflore County Board of Supervisors 8

Jennings Photography Lamb’s Photography

Family Dental 42 GI Associates 20 Greenwood Orthopedic Clinic inside back cover Medi Quik 36 Northwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center 16 Riverview Nursing 43

Westerfield Plumbing

Bowie Realty, Inc. DuBard Realty

34 8

HEALTH CARE

HOME IMPROVEMENT Lexington Home Center

HOTELS

Alluvian, The

INSURANCE

Alfa Insurance Clark Insurance

25 39 40 34

JEWELRY

Clevenger Jewelry & Gifts inside front cover, 45 Lynbar Jewelers 8 Russells Antiques & Fine Jewelry 12

LIMOUSINE SERVICE 42

Ad page

Performance Limo

Pioneer Credit Company

LOANS

MAGAZINE

Leflore Illustrated

MANUFACTURING Viking Range Corp.

OFFICE MACHINES

MidSouth Copier Systems, Inc. Southern Duplicating of Mississippi

22 3 42 41

PLUMBING

REAL ESTATE

RESTAURANTS

Crystal Grill Delta Bistro Flatland Grill Lusco’s Mai Little China Veronica’s Custom Bakery What’s Cooking?

SCHOOLS

North New Summit St. Francis School

34 39

M29 M29 M30 M30 M31 M31 M28 34 43

SWIMMING POOLS Pinkston Seablue

TOURISM

Greenwood Convention & Visitors Bureau Main Street Greenwood

34 12

Direct Connection Travel

TRAVEL AGENCY TREE SERVICE

Shane Sanders Tree Service

VETERINARIANS

Four Paws Animal Health Center Greenwood Animal Hospital

WRECKER SERVICE

Parker Wrecker Service

40 41 22

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Fall 2011 Leflore Illustrated / 47

Greenwood Convention and Visitors Bureau

A blockbuster year STORY BY CHARLIE SMITH PHOTO BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

nparalleled. That’s how Paige Hunt describes the landscape of Greenwood and the Mississippi Delta. “There is nothing more beautiful than a sunset in the Delta,” says Hunt, the chipper executive director of the Greenwood Convention and Visitors Bureau. “My husband tells me that sunrises are beautiful as well, but I’m not a morning person.” Promoting Greenwood’s natural resources is an aim of the CVB as it moves into the future. It’s part of a statewide promotion of “non-consumptive” natural resources — i.e., outdoors activities other than hunting, such as kayaking, hiking and bird watching. The 300 Oaks Road Race and Bikes, Blues & Bayous ride are examples of ways Greenwood is already drawing tourists through the outdoors, Hunt said. They’ll be looking at even more ways to do that, she said. Of course, the bureau is continuing its general promotion of Greenwood as a travel destination. Without a turnstile for counting tourists, the CVB relies on tax receipts to track visitation. The organization, named the best of its size this year by the Mississippi Tourism Association, is funded by a 1 percent tax on restaurants and hotels that generates roughly $400,000 annually. Receipts were up slightly for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, Hunt said. That means the city was able to sustain the large increase afforded by the presence of The Help the year before. The bureau continued to promote the DreamWorks/Disney movie and build off its buzz, Hunt said. The film was shot mostly in Greenwood during the summer of 2010 and released in August. A map — produced by the CVB — 48 / Leflore Illustrated Fall 2011

Paige Hunt, executive director of the Greenwood Convention and Visitors Bureau, keeps busy promoting tourism.

guides visitors to set locations and homes where the stars stayed. Hunt said requests for the map have increased since the movie, which has been a huge success at the box office, hit theaters. But the year’s biggest undertaking was the centennial celebration of bluesman Robert Johnson, who died in Greenwood in 1938. In fact, it’s the largest event the CVB’s ever done. The May weekend of blues concerts and forums honoring the mysterious musician attracted more than 3,000 visitors from 30 states and 11 foreign countries, according to Hunt. The Mississippi Tourism Association gave it the Governor’s Award for “Small Festival/Event of the Year.” Added promotion for Greenwood came from coverage of the event in national publications. The equivalent ad space in those newspapers and magazines would have cost more than $500,000, which is more than the CVB’s annual budget, Hunt

said. Website traffic jumped 52 percent leading up to the festival, she said. The Robert Johnson weekend, which drew international travel writers, is an example of growing attempts to sell Mississippi abroad. The state tourism division now has representatives selling the state in Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada and France. Germans love the blues, Hunt said, while the French prefer high-end experiences, such as The Alluvian and the many downtown retail shops. When trying to attract tourists from thousands of miles away, the connectivity of the Internet becomes even more important. In Hunt’s nearly five years with the CVB, she said she’s seen an increasing shift toward the Internet for booking travel. Whereas about 20 percent of the bureau’s advertising was online when she started, that rate’s now about 70 percent, Hunt said. The European visitors also fit into an effort to get visitors to stay in the Delta for longer than a weekend, which has been a major goal of the nine-city Mississippi Delta Tourism Association. The group recently created a new logo, website (visitthedelta.com) and catchphrase, “See where the back roads take you.” The majority of the Delta communities involved are small destinations — with the exception of casino-rich Tunica and Vicksburg, Hunt said. Traditionally, they’ve focused advertising on weekend getaways. But now they’re working together to encourage longer stays exploring the region. Hunt said her job is made easier by the great events planned by the GreenwoodLeflore County Chamber of Commerce and Main Street Greenwood. She said she’s also excited about new developments at the Museum of the Mississippi Delta, formerly Cottonlandia. LI