Leflore Illustrated Summer 2012

Greenwood, Mississippi

A River Country Journal / Summer 2012

Summer 2012 Leflore Illustrated / 1

table of contents 5

people 5.

Musician Eddie “Chank” Willis spent his career in shadows

10. Teenager DeVante Wiley has big dreams

30. Billy Ray Stonestreet says a miracle helped him become a minister

35. Bill Nations helped bring down WWII bridge that inspired movie

30

41. Kitty Ellis carves out her own niche as an artist

features 13.

Summer is the best time to get out the grill

25.

How to stay cool and cute this summer

39.

The outdoors isn’t just a man’s world anymore

places 13

more

4.

24.

From the editor Calendar of events

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44.

48.

Event snapshots The Back Page

15.

Bridwells’ home brings English country charm to Grand Boulevard

21.

Dixie’s Kozy Kitchen has good food and loyal customers

33.

Confederate Memorial Building has served community for nearly 100 years

ON THE COVER: From left, Kara Mae Bowden, Allie Hogan and Georgia Smith cool off in Margaret Henderson’s pool. (Photo by Johnny Jennings)

L

eflore

Illustrated

Editor and Publisher Tim Kalich

Managing Editor Charles Corder

Associate Editor David Monroe

Contributing Writers

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

Advertising Director Larry Alderman

Advertising Sales

Linda Bassie, Susan Montgomery, 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. 4 —————— 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.

Summer 2012 Leflore Illustrated / 3

From the editor

PHOTO BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

The lawn mower man F

or the first half of this year, it’s been as if the climate skipped ahead two months.

January felt like March, and June felt like August.

Those who keep track of the weather say it’s not just our imagination. It has been hotter than normal. The first six months of 2012 were the hottest on record in the contiguous 48 states — 4.5 degrees above the long-term average.

We haven’t been complaining, though, too much around our house. My wife, Betty Gail, likes it hot. She’d much rather be 4.5 degrees warmer in the summer than 4.5 degrees colder in the winter.

Although spring and fall in the Delta are my favorite seasons, Betty Gail’s is summer. It might have something to do with her being a schoolteacher, but she will tell me of other advantages besides the almost three-month break from the classroom.

The long days make it easier to get things done around the house and work in exercise, too. Life is a bit more relaxed, although some families may dispute that, what with hustling to the children’s baseball and softball games and fitting in summer camps, vacation Bible schools and summer vacations. For them, it’s a different kind of busy.

Maybe I’m not quite as thrilled about summer because it ushers in its own challenge: keeping the grass cut to a reasonable height.

Except when there’s a drought, the grass around my house has to be mowed weekly from May through September. If I miss a week, the yard starts to resemble a jungle.

The Delta climate and soil are great for 4 / Leflore Illustrated Summer 2012

growing a lot of things — Bermuda included.

My wife says yard work is a great stress reliever for me. She thinks that’s true, however, for most of the chores I do.

When I was a kid, my father didn’t trust me with a mower. He thought I’d cut off my foot. Or maybe that was his excuse for reserving the only exciting part of lawn care for himself. So while he pushed the mower, I had the monotonous jobs of raking, sweeping, edging and weeding.

It wasn’t until high school, after my parents had divorced and my father had moved to another state, that I took charge of the lawn mower and the full responsibil-

ity of keeping the yard trimmed. The experience apparently did not scar me.

All three houses we have owned in Greenwood have had fairly large yards. I could manage the first one with just a push mower, but the last two have taken both the riding and push varieties.

I’m not much for planting flower beds, but I do like a thick stand of grass.

In our previous house, we turned the oversized side yard into the neighborhood ball field. It was a great spot for pick-up baseball and soccer games for our two children and their friends. A stand of trees we planted on the far end acted like the Green Monster, the towering left-field wall in Boston’s Fenway Park. It kept most fly balls in our yard and away from the neighbors’ roofs and windows.

I introduced our son, Sam, to a lawn mower earlier than I had been. When he was a toddler, I’d strap him into a backpack carrier and let him ride along, looking over my shoulder while I operated the mower. It probably wasn’t the safest idea in the world, but it may have groomed him to take over the mowing responsibilities later on.

When he’s home from college, he still likes to cut the grass — for a fee, of course. He’s not real big, though, on the sweeping and edging. I’ve still not been able to shake those jobs that my father helped me master more than four decades ago.

I don’t pull up many dandelions these days, though. I got smart about that. I have the yard sprayed for weeds several times a year. It’s well worth the money.

— Tim Kalich

Eddie ‘Chank’ Willis

Out of the shadows W

hile with the studio band The Funk Brothers at Motown Records, guitarist Eddie “Chank” Willis played on some of the most beloved pop songs in history.

Eddie “Chank” Willis of Gore Springs played guitar on some of Motown Records’ most famous hits as a member of The Funk Brothers.

Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “What’s Going On.” The Temptations’ “My Girl” and “The Way You Do the Things You Do.” The Four Tops’ “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)” and “Bernadette.” Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ “Tracks of My Tears” and “I Second That Emotion.” The Supremes’ “Baby Love.”

Stevie Wonder’s “Fingertips” and “My Cherie Amour.”

Martha and the Vandellas’ “Heat Wave.”

And that’s just a very small sample.

But for years, The Funk Brothers remained largely anonymous. They didn’t even receive credit, individually or collectively, on records for a long time. So Willis had little

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perspective on what they had accomplished.

But within a couple of years after moving back to his hometown of Gore Springs in 1993, he noticed something.

People were approaching him and saying things such as “I heard you were a legend” — and he had never thought anything like that.

“It hadn’t registered in my mind what people were saying about this music everywhere, all around the world,” said Willis, who is now 76. “We paid it no attention. It was just what we did.”

He got more surprises when members of The Funk Brothers toured in support of Standing in the Shadows of Motown, the 2002 documentary about them. Typically they would invite about 10 people on stage, ask two groups to sing a popular Motown song and give a prize to whoever received the most applause. And the singers came from all age groups.

“These little kids would come up — I’m talking about 10, 11, on up — and sing those dadgum songs, man,” he said with a smile. And when they were asked how they knew the words so well, they’d answer, “My daddy” or “My mama.”

People also shared their memories associated with the music or said that it helped them through a difficult time.

“Everywhere we went, man, somebody had a compliment or (said) what the music did for them in all those years. ... We didn’t know what it was doing to other people,” he said. “Nobody knew us. They didn’t even know our names.”

v v v Willis was born in Gore Springs, not far from where he lives today.

His aunt raised him and a number of cousins, and her husband, E.O. Thompson — known as “Papa” — brought three girls and four boys of his

After years of touring, Eddie Willis says he’s now retired, but he plans to play on one last album of covers of Motown songs.

own into the home. No one in the family had professional musical training, but when Thompson bought them a guitar, the competition for it was fierce.

“His kids were older than we were, so we couldn’t hardly ever get the darn guitar, because the older boys would pick it up, and they would want to be messing with it for hours,” Willis said. “When they put it down, I grabbed it.”

Willis first got interested in guitar when he was about 7.

In his youth, he soaked up the music of B.B. King and other blues artists played on the Memphis radio station WDIA and country songs played on Nashville stations.

“Music was just really blowing me away,” he said. “I was possessed with music.

Hearing B.B., hearing Chet Atkins — everything.”

He moved to Detroit at the age of 14 to live with his mother after his aunt died. He got into a music class in high school and initially played saxophone, but he decided he preferred guitar and asked his mother to buy him one. She resisted at first, but she and

her friends could see how important it was to him, and her friends talked her into it.

So she purchased a Les Paul electric guitar at a store called Grinell’s, and he took it home and started practicing.

He met Don Davis, another student who played guitar, and watched him play in a band at dances and other social events. Before long, he was practicing with them.

“I got pretty darn good, I’ll tell you — because I was on my way,” he recalled.

“Because I was so enthused with it.”

He honed his skills further playing with a doo-wop group that included vocalist Marv Johnson. At one point, Johnson didn’t show up for about six weeks, and no one could find him — but then they learned he had recorded a song for eventual Motown Records founder Berry Gordy that had made it to radio.

Soon after, Johnson took Willis aside and invited him to play on his next record.

“I don’t know what I did; I just backed up and said, ‘You’re kidding me,’” Willis said. But he agreed to do it,

and Gordy gave his approval based on Johnson’s recommendation. So they set up a session in a studio Gordy was renting.

The process was new for Willis, who was only about 17 and had never even tuned a guitar to a piano, let alone played at a recording session.

But the others showed him the four or five chords he needed to play, and after some practice, they recorded a rundown of the song. Then he got to listen to the recording of himself playing alongside piano, drums and bass.

“I was so thrilled,” he said.

“And everybody was patting me on the back because they knew I hadn’t ever done it.”

After about six weeks, Johnson told Willis that the song, “Come to Me,” had been released to radio and told him where to listen for it.

“Eventually they played it,” he said. “Aw, man — I was really dumbfounded; I really was. You know, a kid. ... I didn’t know what the hell was going on.”

“Come to Me” reached No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959, and Willis performed with Johnson in some shows.

His next big break came with the help of Joe Hunter, a keyboardist on “Come to Me.” Hunter asked Willis to join a group that would provide backing music for artists at Motown Records. Again, the easy answer was yes.

First, they played on songs by the Marvelettes, including the hit “Please Mr. Postman.” Then they appeared on tunes by Mary Wells, including “My Guy.” Next up were the Supremes, who recorded more classics using their music.

“When we got to the Supremes, I was very, very good then,” Willis recalled. “I was really very good ... and that’s why I stayed.”

It became a formidable group of musicians. The lineup changed over the years, but the best-known performSummer 2012 Leflore Illustrated / 7

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At a reception in Jackson earlier this year announcing plans to put a Grammy museum in Cleveland are, in front, Eddie “Chank” Willis;

ers included Willis, Joe Messina and Robert White on guitar; James Jamerson and Bob Babbitt on bass; Hunter, Johnny Griffith and Earl Van Dyke on keyboards; Richard “Pistol” Allen, Benny “Papa Zita” Benjamin and Uriel Jones on drums; and Jack “Black Jack” Ashford and Eddie “Bongo” Brown on percussion.

The group’s informal name came from Benjamin, who turned to the others on the way out of the studio one day and said, “You are the Funk Brothers.”

They also were prolific. For years, they averaged three three-hour sessions a week, usually producing three or four songs per session. Willis said they were perfectionists, which is why so many producers wanted to record at Motown — and why, once The Funk Brothers became an established unit, Gordy didn’t want them to record for anyone else.

They developed their sound while playing in clubs all over the city. Many of the other musicians had jazz backgrounds, and Willis brought his funk influences. The nickname “Chank” was given to

him by Richard “Pistol” Allen to describe his “chopping” style of guitar playing.

Willis said it helped that they got along well. They joked that he, White and Messina formed an “Oreo cookie,” with Messina, who is white, sitting between the other two, both black.

“We were working together in the nightclubs, and coming together to do a session — man, that was fun,” Willis said. “It was nothing. ... It wasn’t work, hardly.”

But they weren’t thinking they were making history.

“We had no idea of any of it, of what’s going to happen.

It never occurred to us,” he said. “Just doing it is what we loved, and we were doing it anyway. That’s why Berry wanted to keep the band together.”

v v v After Motown left Detroit for Los Angeles in 1972, Willis did more recording, including projects in Detroit, Los Angeles and other places. He also toured with The Four Tops for 15 years.

He met his wife, Rosemary, in London, and the two now

and, in back from left, singer Dorothy Moore, state Sen. Willie Simmons and singer-songwriter Cassandra Wilson.

have been married 26 years.

During his time on the road, he began thinking about where he might want to settle down. Sometimes during a tour stop, he would ask to be taken around a city so he could note what was there.

But then he visited Gore Springs once to see his father, and his wife, who had never been to the South before, found that she liked it.

“She came back to me one day while we were here and said, ‘Eddie, since you’ve been looking, why don’t we move back down here?’” he said.

Now, he said, she knows more people there than he does — and he feels good that others have embraced her.

DVDs of Standing in the Shadows of Motown continue to sell. Willis said everything in the film is accurate, although it doesn’t give a complete picture because it doesn’t include all the musicians involved.

But he also shared one story about the film’s impact.

Three or four years ago, an acquaintance of his wife’s in Grenada called in tears, saying she had been playing the movie. Her father, who had not been able to communicate

for a long time and sat motionless in a chair all day, was also there.

Then she noticed something unusual.

“She went in the living room where he was sitting — that’s where the music was — and he was patting his foot, man,” Willis said. “And she said, ‘Eddie, he ain’t moved — I don’t know how long.’

And this lady was crying like crazy. ... That was one of the things I won’t ever forget.”

Willis considers himself retired now, although he does plan to play guitar on one more album, a collection of covers of Motown songs. He still listens to the old recordings sometimes, but there’s some sadness to that, now that some of the other members have died.

He says he feels good for a man of 76, although he needs a scooter to get around because of the effects of polio.

And he and his wife are still enjoying small-town life.

“I’m a people person, you know,” he said. “I just love people, man. I just love everybody, you know — and she’s the same way. That’s why she got to know everybody down here.” LI Summer 2012 Leflore Illustrated / 9

DeVante Wiley

D

Growing ambition

eVante Wiley’s ultimate goal is to be president of the United States.

“I’ll settle for governor of Mississippi,” he says with a sly smile.

The 2012 Greenwood High School graduate certainly seems destined for big things.

The 18-year-old has already started a community garden and a sports league designed to put boys from fourth through sixth grades on the right track.

“I want to see kids do better than to hang in the streets or do bad things. I want them to see that there’s more to life than trouble,” Wiley said.

His twofold mission is to help people out and bring different races together in what has traditionally been a segregated society in Greenwood.

A community garden proved a way to accomplish both aims at once.

Inspiration arrived when Wiley attended a summer program in 2010 through the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi.

His group visited an Oxford community garden, and Wiley witnessed a black man and a white man working there. The two men began talking, and the conversa-

DeVante Wiley, right, an 18-year-old who recently graduated from Greenwood High School, mentors young boys as part of his community service efforts. At the base of the tree, from left, are Paris Parker and Trey Farmer. In the tree is Srikendrick Travell.

STORY BY CHARLIE SMITH ! PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS 10 / Leflore Illustrated Summer 2012

tion quickly spread beyond gardening to all aspects of their lives. Wiley figured that if gardening could unite people of different races in Oxford, it could do the same in Greenwood.

He approached Mayor Carolyn McAdams with his idea to start a garden in the community where he grew up, Baptist Town.

Wiley was unsure how seriously she would take the proposal coming from a 16-year-old, but McAdams was interested. She said the city had wanted to start a garden already, but no one had stepped up to head the project.

The mayor told Wiley to get at least 10 signatures from people willing to help.

He got more than 20, and city crews shortly tilled up a plot of land at the corner of Avenue A and McConnell Street.

DeVante Wiley poses inside the Baptist Town Community Garden, which he started in 2010 Neighbors in the historically black with help from the city of Greenwood and neighbors. It’s one of several service projects neighborhood tend it, and Wiley said spearheaded by the Greenwood teenager. white people, including McAdams, have worked there, too. The elderly are given equipment now and hopes to expand the Then he plans to start at Ole Miss in first priority for its produce. program soon to middle schoolers and the fall of 2013 and major in political sciWiley is also founder of the Greenwood other cities. ence. He wants to go to law school and Wildcats, a sports organization in which He already won a Congressional Award get into politics. about 50 boys ages 9 to 13 from different in 2011 for his exemplary physical fitness In 10 years, he sees himself as a memGreenwood communities compete programs and many hours of volunteer ber of the U.S. Congress, a steppingagainst each other in football, basketball, service. He’ll receive a second stone on his path to the White House. baseball and soccer. Wiley said because Congressional Medal this summer.

His heroes are civil rights leaders the children are interested in athletics, he Starting in July, Wiley is working with Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King uses that to teach them life lessons.

AmeriCorps in Baton Rouge, La. He’ll be Jr., along with “anybody who lived their The league’s motto is “One team, one continuing his efforts to tutor young peolife to try to make things better.” family.” ple and develop community projects While still a teenager, Wiley is already Wiley is focusing on getting more through the federal service organization. doing just that. LI Summer 2012 Leflore Illustrated / 11

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Summer cooking

S

A time to grill

ummertime and the grill just seem to be a match made in heaven.

Whether you are grilling chicken, a mouth-watering rack of ribs or a thick, juicy steak, they just taste better cooked outside on the grill.

Limiting your grilling efforts to just the main course is a crying shame. Don’t forget those great summertime vegetables. ! Place those beautiful ears of fresh, delicious yellow corn directly on the grill for a wonderfully toasty charred flavor.

There is no need to soak the husks or wrap the ears in foil because summer corn is juicy enough to withstand high grill temperatures. ! Cut up those fresh bell peppers, onions, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini and yellow squash for a delicious vegetable medley. Whether they are grilled in a basket or on a skewer, they are a welcome addition to any meal. ! Cut romaine lettuce hearts in half, leaving the core intact, and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Grill, uncovered, for about one to two minutes on each side, turning once, until wilted and charred. Sprinkle with salt and pepper for a spectacular side dish.

Summertime meals have endless possibilities when you use your grill, your imagination and a little bit of creativity.

In fact, you never have to serve the same meal twice.

GRILLED STEAKS WITH GARLIC STEAK BUTTER 4 steaks, cut of your choice (about 1-Ù inch thick)

Summer is the perfect time to grill meat and vegetables outdoors.

Lemon pepper seasoning Garlic powder Seasoned salt Garlic steak butter Allow steaks to reach room temperature. About 15 minutes before cooking, season both sides generously with lemon pepper, garlic powder and seasoned salt.

Grill according to your desired doneness.

Spread garlic butter on steaks immediately after grilling.

GARLIC STEAK BUTTER 1/2 pound butter 1 tablespoon Cavender’s seasoning 1 teaspoon chopped parsley 1 teaspoon chopped garlic Allow butter to reach room temperature. Combine ingredients and cream well. Form balls of butter using a small cookie scoop. May be made in advance and refrigerated until use. Will also keep in the freezer for a short period. LI

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The Bridwell House

English country charm on the Boulevard

The Bridwells’ house on Grand Boulevard was built in the late 1930s using brick salvaged from a schoolhouse being demolished in Grenada.

U

pon entering the Bridwell house on Grand Boulevard in Greenwood, you could be forgiven if you felt as though you’d been transported to an old cottage in a village in the English Cotswolds.

You’d want to hold your pinky out as you sipped tea and nibbled a scone, and you wouldn’t be surprised to see sheep grazing on the front yard.

That’s all by design.

Joan Bridwell bought the two-story brick house in 1997

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with that look and feel in mind. She had been admiring it for years, and when she heard it was for sale, she moved on it.

“At Christmastime, it looks like a Charles Dickens postcard,” she said.

The old brick actually came from a schoolhouse in Grenada that was being torn down in the late 1930s. The house was designed by a woman architect named Dubard, Joan believes.

“This house is her real passion,” said Joan’s husband, Bill. “She takes great care and expense to make it look the way she wants it to. And then I come along and mess it up with tomato plants and golf clubs.”

Joan (pronounced “Jo Ann”) doesn’t mind; she and Bill love being in each other’s company and enjoy their retirement, which allows them to travel and pursue the interests they share, including golf and duplicate bridge. They are both Life Masters with the American Contract Bridge League.

Bill plays golf, in his words, “15 days a week” and has held several offices in the Mississippi Seniors Golf Association. Joan took up the game three or four years ago so she could see Bill occasionally, she said, and the couple is

Bill and Joan Bridwell and their Westie, Miss Belle, sit at the piano in the parlor of their home on Grand Boulevard in Greenwood.

enjoying the travel and social activities the organization offers.

Married since 1999, the two

The Bridwells’ parlor is far lighter and more inviting than the name of the room suggests. A portrait of Joan’s three sons overlooks the comfortable sofa and cushy wing-back chairs.

are members of the Greenwood High School Class of 1953. Their lives originally took different trajectories.

Bill became a research chemist with NALCO, living in Baton Rouge, New Jersey, West Virginia, Texas and other places. He has one daughter, who lives in Rosenberg, Texas, now, near Houston, and two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Joan became a registered nurse, working for many years at Greenwood Leflore Hospital. She has a deceased daughter and three sons — Matt Howard, who owns Howard Farms, and David Howard, who owns Idlewood Farm, both in this area; and Joe Howard, who lives in Germantown, Tenn. She has seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Rounding out the family is the couple’s West Highland White Terrier (“Westie”), Miss Belle.

After their circumstances changed — Joan’s husband died; Bill was divorced — they “re-met” at a gathering of some of their classmates in April 1999 and were married the following November.

“He said he was smitten,” Joan said.

Over the years, Joan has inherited antiques and heirlooms from family members, especially her mother and aunt. The pieces she has inherited take their places among those Joan has bought

Ample windows in the parlor frame the marble-top wrought-iron pastry table designer Clay Pettit found in Italy for the Bridwells. Beyond the table, beside the door on the left, stands the cloisonné-overchamplevé lamp Joan Bridwell inherited from her great aunt.

Summer 2012 Leflore Illustrated / 17

The Bridwells’ formal dining room contains countless family heirlooms and antiques collected over the years by Bill and Joan.

to produce a collection that works together seamlessly and elegantly.

“I try to buy antiques when they’re cheaper than new,” Joan said.

She has a contact in Drew who knows her tastes and keeps an eye out for pieces she might appreciate. When a particularly interesting shipment arrives, she said, she “rushes to help him unpack.” Bill often accompanies Joan on antiquing trips.

Joan and Bill give a great deal of credit to longtime friend and adviser Clay Pettit, interior designer and owner of 1919 Antiques in Itta Bena, for the way everything in their house works together to achieve the desired result.

“The house is a museum,” Pettit said. “(The Bridwells) have exquisite taste.

Everywhere you look, something catches your eye and makes you want to go look.”

The parlor is the room through which most people enter the house. “We almost never use the front door,” Joan said.

Just inside the entry is an antique lamp Joan cherishes that belonged to her greataunt. “It’s cloisonné over champlevé,” she said, referring to two different types of enameling.

Another eye-catcher is an antique marble-top pastry table with wrought-iron legs that is positioned against a large window in the parlor.

“Clay saw that piece in Italy and had it shipped back for us,” Joan said. “It was just perfect for this spot.”

The room overlooks the lovingly tended garden and gated brick patio through generous windows and a glass-paned door that suffuse the room with light and energy. Accordingly, the furniture and accessories are mostly light in color and mass.

In fact, “parlor” almost seems a misclassification of the room, connoting a formal stuffiness that does not apply here.

Anchored by one of the Bridwells’ 18 / Leflore Illustrated Summer 2012

An antique silk tapestry commands attention on the stair landing.

Joan Bridwell bought it at an auction in Hot Springs, Ark.

The more feminine of the two upstairs baths, both original to the house, was later enhanced by a mural painted by the daughter-inlaw of former owner Eva Ford.

many age-softened oriental rugs, the arrangement of a pale salmon sofa and two wing-backed chairs encourages visiting across a glassand-chrome coffee table and in front of a massive fireplace, over which is centered a portrait of Joan’s three sons.

“I raised all my children on this couch,” Joan said, lightly skimming its arm with her hand as she passed by.

Built-ins at the end of the room opposite the windows hold books and photos and other mementos on their shelves.

And the baby grand piano in the parlor is not just for show. Joan plays regularly for Sunday school at First United Methodist Church, where Bill teaches Sunday school and both are active longtime members.

On one side of the parlor is the formal dining room, at one end of which sits a massive glass-door, sideboard-height antique china and silver cabinet containing countless family treasures.

On the other side of the parlor is the den. Once a long porch, the den is now a built-

for-comfort all-purpose room where Joan said she, Bill and Miss Belle spend most of their “non-eating” time — watching TV, talking, reading and planning their next adventure.

Down a short hallway is the cool and comfortable master suite, and finishing the ground floor is the kitchen-breakfast room — the heart of the house and the happy result of another porch conversion.

The cozy breakfast room,

where the Bridwells eat most of their meals, was the original kitchen and still has a double sink at one end. Joan said a former owner, Garrard Barrett (who owned Barrett’s Drug Store on Howard Street), had the porch on the other side of the sink wall converted to a kitchen. He had a convenient pass-through built over the sink, which Joan said has come in handy on many occasions, especially during entertaining.

A former owner of the house had the back porch converted into an efficient kitchen, where Joan now loves to bake. The pass-through over the sink connects the room to the original kitchen, which is now the breakfast room.

Joan loves to cook and, in particular, does a lot of baking.

She said the updated kitchen is perfect — the perfect size and perfect arrangement — for her needs.

“It all just works beautifully,” she said. “I love this kitchen.”

Upstairs are two guest rooms, each with its own bath, one leaning slightly masculine and the other a bit feminine.

The upper walls of the “girl’s” bath offer an unexpected delight: The daughter-in-law of a former owner of the house, Eva Ford, painted a mural that surrounds the bath.

On the walls of the upstairs hall, just outside the door of each bedroom, is a bit of lifestyle evidence from the time the house was built — a switch that was used to beckon the servants to come upstairs from the original kitchen.

That sounds, again, like something that might have been part of an English country house a couple of centuries ago — the perfect, final, tiny detail that might have charmed Joan into moving into her own picture postcard. LI Summer 2012 Leflore Illustrated / 19

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Dixie’s Kozy Kitchen

Home-away-from-home co oking

Y

ou may not get an answer the first time you call Dixie Carpenter’s Kozy Kitchen because the cook is just too busy.

Dixie Carpenter has been serving up home cooking at her North Carrollton restaurant for 18 years.

Dixie’s — or just “the Kozy,” as locals call the petite restaurant in North Carrollton — is usually full at lunch time and again in the evening.

Except for some help to wait tables, Carpenter is pretty much a one-person operation, although husband Mike grills steaks, pork chops and other mouth-watering items on the weekend.

So, she said, “that’s my biggest challenge — answering the phone.”

Restaurants have come and gone in North Carrollton, but the Kozy Kitchen continues to thrive. Some say it’s the atmosphere. On the wall are a poster advertising creamed possum (in jest, of course) and a plaque advising, “If you give a man an inch, he’ll take a mile.” Potatoes are stacked on a small window sill. The

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Dixie’s Kozy Kitchen Type of cuisine: Home-style cooking Where: 504 George St., North Carrollton Phone: (662) 237-6836 Hours: 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5 p.m.8 p.m. Monday-Friday; 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday Methods of payment: Visa and MasterCard, local checks and cash

refrigerator juts into the seating area.

Most of the space is used.

Patrons love the food. There are hamburger steaks, taco salads, cheeseburgers and hamburgers with home-style fries, grilled chicken salads and sandwiches.

Each day Carpenter prepares a meal of the day that occasionally consists of her famous squash casserole.

Just last year, Carpenter garnered enough votes from her loyal customers to earn the right to be called maker of one of the 10 best hamburgers in the state in a contest sponsored by the Mississippi Beef Council.

She entered her “Carroll County burger,” which consists of a large hamburger patty, grilled onions, mushrooms, cheddar cheese and Thousand Island dressing.

After all the votes were tallied, Carpenter came in fifth out of 214 restaurants entered — not bad for a very small restaurant in a very small town.

For most of her customers, what makes the Kozy Kitchen special is Dixie herself.

She likes to chat with patrons while she prepares food in the kitchen that is separated by a partial wall from the seating area. She has many special customers, such as 89-year-old George Morgan, who says the restaurant means more than just food to him.

“You wouldn’t find a more pleasant and lovable person than Mrs. Dixie,” he said.

“I need individual preparation of food and the elimination of salt. She does it for me.”

Even though many people come in and pick up lunch, the Kozy will often deliver food to local schools or to people who can’t come and get it if there’s someone around to do it.

Besides her regular cooking, Carpenter also caters for groups and events. When scenes from The Help were being filmed at Cotesworth, the crew and actors got 22 / Leflore Illustrated Summer 2012

Dixie Carpenter is surrounded by the makings for her “Carroll County Burger,” which was ranked among the top 10 burgers in the state.

their food from Kozy Kitchen. “They were nice and said they liked it,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter has owned the restaurant for 18 years since buying it from Phyllis Stokes. About the only time the Carpenters are absent is when the big NASCAR Sprint Cup race takes place in Talladega, Ala. As NASCAR fans, they usually attend.

The Carpenters’ daughter, Anna Irwin, takes over on those rare occasions they are gone.

With just four tables, the restaurant is definitely small, but it is just that closeness that customers seem to enjoy. They talk back and forth. R.B. Brown of Leland, who comes over to hunt from October until the end of January, said he loves Carroll County and the Kozy Kitchen.

“I eat here nearly every day. If she was open on Sunday, I’d eat here then, too,” he said. “When my wife retires, we’re going to move here.”

Dixie Carpenter’s favorite recipe SQUASH CASSEROLE 8 medium squash, sliced 1 medium onion, diced 2 eggs 1 sleeve Ritz crackers 2 teaspoons Splenda 1 cup grated mild cheddar cheese 1 can cream of chicken soup Boil squash and onion until tender; drain well. Add soup, eggs, crackers and Splenda. Mix well and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. The last 5 minutes, sprinkle cheese over top.

Besides enjoying Dixie’s famous hamburgers and home-style fries, or the meal of the day, Brown said the Kozy Kitchen

is a place to meet people.

“Anybody can come in and sit with each other. Everybody talks, hollers at each other. You meet people here,” he said.

Jim Locke, executive director of the Farm Service Agency in North Carrollton, agrees. He said he eats at the Kozy every day, and if he is missing for a few days, someone will call and check on him.

“It’s pretty much the same people. You have rapport with them,” he said.

Locke likes the hometown cooking.

“I’ve been coming here a good many years,” he said. “Dixie will fix whatever you want if it’s available, or she’ll substitute something on the lunch menu.”

Some people say if the Kozy were to expand, it wouldn’t be the same. Besides, Carpenter said she wouldn’t be able to handle all the cooking.

Anyway, the maxim “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” seems to apply here. People around Carrollton and North Carrollton like the little place just the way it is. LI Summer 2012 Leflore Illustrated / 23

Summer Events AUGUST 4 — Bikes, Blues & Bayous bicycle ride begins at 7 a.m. in downtown Greenwood.

Rides of 20, 46 and 58 miles are offered.

13 — First day of classes at Mississippi Delta Community College.

17 — Mississippi high schools kick off the 2013 football season.

20 — Classes begin for the fall semester at Mississippi Valley State University.

SEPTEMBER 1 — Mississippi Valley State opens the 2012 football season at home against Concordia College at 5 p.m. at Rice-Totten Stadium.

1 — Mississippi John Hurt Memorial Blues Gathering will be from noon to 6 p.m. at the Mississippi John Hurt Museum in Avalon. A Sunday gospel singing will be from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 2. Musicians are welcomed to perform.

3 — The Browning community’s annual Labor Day festival.

6-9 — The Greenwood Little Theatre presents the children’s classic Winnie the Pooh.

6 — Mississippi Delta Community College plays its first home football game against Pearl River at 7 p.m. in Moorhead.

15 — The 31st annual 300 Oaks Road Race starts at 8 a.m. in North Greenwood.

It features 5K and 10K runs, a 5K walk and a one-mile fun run.

OCTOBER 4 — Art Alfresco will be held in downtown Greenwood.

5-7 — The Carrollton Pilgrimage and Pioneer Festival Day will be held in Carrollton. The hours will be 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Oct. 5-6 and 1-5 p.m. Oct. 7.

6 — The Mississippi Blues Fest, a biannual rhythm and blues show, starts at 7 p.m. at the Leflore County Civic Center.

6 — MVSU will celebrate homecoming when it plays host to Alabama A&M at 2 p.m. at Rice-Totten Stadium.

12-14 — Southern Chef Series at the Viking Cooking School concludes with Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman, chefs and owners of the Italian Kitchen in Memphis.

24 / Leflore Illustrated Summer 2012

Cool ways to spend your summer days Page 26

J U M into Psummer PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

Molly Henderson leaps into cute poses on the trampoline before taking a plunge in her grandmother’s swimming pool. The home of Margaret Henderson in Greenwood served as an ideal location for our summer fun photo shoot.

Dress the part: See cute summer dresses Page 28

What are you waiting for?

When school is out and the heat is on, it only means one thing: It’s summertime. So shake the dust off those flipflops, grab a cold glass of your favorite beverage and go outside.

How to

Pool par ty

beat the heat

Getting a group of your closest friends together for a little fun in the sun is always a splash. Don’t forget the sunscreen.

Pictured, from left, are Kara Mae Bowden, Georgia Smith, Allie Hogan, Holly Ann Pannell, Katherine Flautt, Karyn Curtis Kellum, Molly Henderson, and Jordan Toole.

Chill out On a hot summer day, nothing cools you off better than an ice-cold beverage. Try this recipe for Delta mint tea by Margaret Henderson. During our photo shoot, the girls loved it, and most likely, you will, too.

DELTA MINT TEA 1 individual packet of Crystal Light lemonade drink mix 3 mint medley tea bags 8 cups boiling water lemon slices to garnish Steep the tea bags and drink mix in boiling water.

Let cool.

Garnish with lemons in individual glasses.

Recipe makes two quarts.

26 / Leflore Illustrated Summer 2012

Homemade drinks Karyn Curtis Kellum, Katherine Flautt and Kara Mae Bowden pour up a few glasses of fresh lemonade.

Backyar d barbecue Nothing says fun quite like the sweet smell of a summer barbecue —a perfect end to a long day in the water.

Pictured are Jordan Toole, left, and Holly Ann Pannell. In the back, from left, are Karyn Curtis Kellum, Katherine Flautt, Georgia Smith, Allie Hogan, Kara Mae Bowden and Molly Henderson.

Easy lounging Kara Mae Bowden, Georgia Smith and Allie Hogan soak up the rays on a lazy summer afternoon at the pool. Their friends, Holly Ann Pannell, Katherine Flautt and Karyn Curtis Kellum, share some laughs in the background.

Lay it on thick A sunburn is not a summer badge of honor. Remember to slather on some sunscreen before going out in the sun.

Here are a few ways to keep sunscreen with you at all times.

! Keep a tube of moisturizing sunscreen with your makeup so you'll remember to apply it each morning. ! Mix sunscreen, 50/50, into a bottle of hand lotion and/or body lotion. ! Mix it into your favorite liquid foundation in a 50/50 ratio. You'll be applying makeup and sunscreen in one quick step.

Summer 2012 Leflore Illustrated / 27

Ways to be

Summer chic

Dr ess the par t Want a hot way to keep cool this summer?

Invest in a sundress or lightweight denim.

Pictured, front row, from left, are Molly Henderson, Kara Mae Bowden, Holly Ann Pannell and Allie Hogan; back row, Jordan Toole, Katherine Flautt, Georgia Smith and Karyn Curtis Kellum.

Well suited Kara Mae Bowden models an orange halter bikini with horizontal stripes.

Expect to see stripes in a wide array of bold and bright colors when you hit the pool or the beach this summer.

Fashion tip: Horizontal stripes accentuate your curves while vertical stripes make you appear leaner.

28 / Leflore Illustrated Summer 2012

Pr etty paisley Molly Henderson is all smiles in orange paisley.

Pretty patterns, especially florals and paisley, are a big hit this summer. Molly’s pants ensemble provides a nice contrast to the typical summer sundress. When paired with heels, the outfit is perfect for a night out on the town.

Casual play Karyn Curtis Kellum shows off a staple item that’s probably in every Southern girl’s dresser drawer —a pair of cut-off jeans. Perfect for outdoor play, the denim jeans are cut off about mid-thigh to become shorts.

Fray the ends to add some edginess.

Just the bright textur e Katherine Flautt, sitting, pairs her bright floral sundress with a braided leather skinny belt in chocolate brown. The belt adds texture to her ensemble and accentuates the waistline.

Kara Mae Bowden, standing, models a purple-and-red strapless maxi dress with tropical print. Pair this dress with gladiator sandals, and you’re good to go.

How many ways?

The belt is very versatile. Just how many ways can you wear it?

Here are a few.

! Belt + Skirt Try putting together a white tank top and a patterned skirt, then add a beige belt around your waist. ! Belt + Cardigan Knit tops, cardigans and sweaters tend to make us look heavier. Try wearing cardigans with a solid color belt around your waist. ! Belt + Jacket Pair a dress trench coat with a very thick belt.

You’ll love how it defines your figure.

Summer 2012 Leflore Illustrated / 29

The Rev. Dr. Billy Ray Stonestreet

Man of the Word T

STORY BY DAVID MONROE PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

he Rev. Dr. Billy Ray Stonestreet likes to say he was “blessed with no talent” growing up.

He was a “C” student; he wasn’t athletic; and he froze up and stuttered whenever he had to speak in public. He said this gave him an inferiority complex, especially being surrounded by talented people at home and school.

But he doesn’t stutter anymore, and he gives God all the credit.

Stonestreet, who has been pastor at St. John’s United Methodist Church for three years, remembers the first time he had to give a sermon years ago. The pastor at his former landlady’s church had asked him to speak there, and he worked hard to prepare, but it wasn’t going well.

“I got to the church before anybody got there and went in and practiced, and it was horrible,” he recalled. “I was tonguetied and got lost. It was a big mess. And I said, ‘Oh, Lord, you’ve got to do some30 / Leflore Illustrated Summer 2012

The Rev. Dr. Billy Ray Stonestreet stuttered as a child but says that condition disappeared the first time he gave a sermon.

thing to get me out error of his ways. of this.’”

During one revival There was also at Silver City the pressure of a Methodist, when larger-than-usual he was 12 or 13, audience that he watched a girl Sunday night walk to the altar because the service and said somealso included a big thing sarcastic to musical program. the boy sitting But as he looked next to him. over the sea of “He turned and faces, he felt the he looked at me Holy Spirit come with tears in his over him. eyes,” he said.

“It was like I “And in his eyes, I stepped completely saw what a out of myself — hideous human like another whole being I was. ... I person was in front wasn’t looking for of me — and out God, but God rolled the most perfound me.” fect, crystal-clear Stonestreet’s sermon,” he said. father had an elecHe still rememtrical plumbing bers the feeling of business in The Rev. Dr. Billy Ray Stonestreet has preached all over Mississippi and says he is happy pure joy afterward: Belzoni and hoped at St. John’s United Methodist Church in Greenwood.

“When I got outhis son would And he was a regular churchgoer side, I jumped up and down and said, work there. He went through the airbecause the church was the center of the conditioning program at Hinds ‘Lord, if you do this every time, look community. out, world, here we come.’”

Community College but knew he lacked But the church was where he saw the Of course, not every subsequent serthe skill for it. mon went like that. But his stutter was gone.

“I guess one of the great gifts that I discovered in not having a talent or ability is that you have to depend on God more,” he said.

v v v Stonestreet, 64, might not have looked like a future minister when he was growing up in Silver City. In fact, he said, he was more of a Dennis the Menace type.

He would run into people’s homes and yank away tablecloths that had food on them. He might gather shoes out of closets and pile them in a corn field. He ran away from home twice.

And once, when he was little, he stole a car from the home next door. It was the type of old-time vehicle that could be cranked without a key, so he took off through the middle of town before being caught on U.S. 49 between Silver City and Belzoni.

“They told me I ran 27 cars off the road before they finally got me stopped,” he said. “And so I got a big whooping for that.”

He said he wasn’t having problems at home; he was just looking for attention.

Summer 2012 Leflore Illustrated / 31

Then, one night, he heard God’s call to the ministry. He said he responded that making him a preacher would take more miracles than are contained in the whole Bible, but he agreed to follow God’s will.

The next morning, he got a big surprise during a visit from his landlady’s pastor.

“I walked into her kitchen while they were talking, and this guy, who didn’t know me from anybody, invited me to come next Sunday night and to preach in his church,” he said.

That led to his first sermon, and the experience transformed him. A few months later, he spoke at his home church, and people who had known him were surprised by his newfound skill.

“You can imagine the shock of those people when I stood up,” he said. “I mean, the fact that I could say 10 words in a row was a miracle.”

Today he stumbles over a word now and then, but his fear of speaking is gone.

And he has also helped others who have struggled with that problem.

v v v Stonestreet said he has been blessed in many ways.

His wife, Madeline, is a registered

32 / Leflore Illustrated Summer 2012

nurse at Greenwood Leflore Hospital.

One son, Richard, is a policeman in Batesville, and the other, Chris, manages a store in Oxford.

Stonestreet went to Delta State University not knowing how he would pay for it. But when he asked a banker for a loan, the banker — and, eventually, the banker’s widow — ended up paying for his undergraduate degree at Delta State, a master’s degree from Candler School of Theology at Emory University and a doctorate at Oral Roberts University.

He preached all over Mississippi in locations including Issaquena County, Escatawpa, Anguilla, Hazlehurst, Wade,

Belzoni, Water Valley and Clarksdale before joining St. John’s.

“Every place I went to prepared me for the next place,” he said. “That’s just the way God works.”

He said he wants to show people that God is real, that God answers prayers and that the Bible can be a foundation for living. He wants them to see God all around them and then get involved in what God is doing.

And Stonestreet is pleased to spread these messages at St. John’s.

“I’m here until either they run me off or the Lord tells me to go away,” he said. LI

Confederate Memorial Building

Nearly a century of service

Greenwood’s Confederate Memorial Building, dedicated in 1915, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Despite a devas-

G

tating fire in 1992, the building has been restored to its former glory and is available for rental for weddings, concerts and recitals.

reenwood’s Confederate Memorial Building, which celebrates its centennial later this year, is still a vibrant focal point in the city’s downtown.

“We’ve rented it almost every weekend,” said Martha Floyd, the building’s manager.

The building — the product of hard work by the J.Z. George Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy — was one of two building projects in Greenwood in November 1912, according to the Greenwood Enterprise, a newspaper of the day.

The other, the adjoining Greenwood Public Library Building, was funded by a $10,000 grant by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, the paper said.

The two buildings, located at the

corner of Washington and Henderson streets, “will place Greenwood among the leading cities in the states in rank of library facilities,” noted the Greenwood Commonwealth of March 29, 1912.

The businessmen of Greenwood raised $4,500 for the Confederate Memorial Building. Another $500 was raised from Confederate veterans, according to an article by Saranne O. Emerson, J.Z. George Chapter past president.

In addition, oyster suppers and ice cream socials helped raise the necessary funds for construction.

The J.Z. George Chapter of the UDC and the Women’s Club of Greenwood dedicated the Confederate Memorial Building at 11 a.m. on April 15, 1915.

At 3 pm., the ladies were “invited to the auditorium of the building to hear addresses by Mrs. J.H. Price, president of the Mississippi Federation of Women’s Clubs, and Mrs. Lillie Scales Slaughter, president, Mississippi Division of the UDC.” Price and Slaughter sent telegrams at the last minute expressing regret for not being able to attend, according to the Commonwealth of April 16, 1915.

That evening at 8 p.m. “all adult white citizens of Leflore County and their visitors” were invited to a reception at the building.

According to the Greenwood Enterprise of April 16, 1915, services at both morning and afternoon events were well attended and very interesting.”

STORY BY BOB DARDEN ! PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS Summer 2012 Leflore Illustrated / 33

Panels listing the names of men and women who served the Confederacy during the Civil War flank the second story entrance of the Confederate Memorial Building.

The paper said attendance for the building’s evening reception was less enthusiastic.

“The average man naturally shuns a reception unless he feels that his presence is expected. No individual invitations were sent, but a general invitation extended to all and the result was that very few men attended and the ladies were pretty well worn out with the exercises of the day,” the paper said.

In 1985, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Its first floor features a banquet hall, which can seat 150. The second floor features an auditorium with seating for 200.

In 1992, the building was badly damaged by arson, which resulted in the loss of many of its original paintings and furnishings — including a $60,000 Steinway concert grand piano.

Insurance funds were used to refurbish the interior of the building, and the UDC chapter raised additional funds to restore the building.

In 2000, the chapter made the final payment on a $70,000 loan from Planters Bank & Trust Co. That loan, in addition to $115,000 in private donations, made the restoration possible.

“Thanks to the public, we got it back in good shape,” Floyd said.

Floyd said anyone interested in renting the Confederate Memorial Building for events may call her at 453-4924. LI 34 / Leflore Illustrated Summer 2012

Bill Nations

BRIDGE BOMBER M

any movie fans have seen the classic 1957 film The Bridge on the River Kwai, in which a band of intrepid commandos, led by William Holden, brings down a Japanese railroad bridge.

Bill Nations shows the honors he won for his service aboard a B-24, like the one shown top right, during World War II. His awards include the Distinguished Flying Cross and three Air Medals. He didn’t receive the third Air Medal, for his actions during a bombing raid that inspired The Bridge on the River Kwai, until 1995, 50 years after the attack.

What they might not understand is that the film, based on the novel of the same name by French author Pierre Boulle, is a work of fiction.

Carroll County resident Bill Nations, a veteran of the 10th Air Force, Seventh Bomb Group and the 436th Bomb Squadron, had a hand in bringing the real-life version of the fictional Kwai River bridge down.

Nations, who celebrated his 88th birthday on the Fourth of July, said there were two bridges on the Mae Klong river (renamed Khwae Yai in the 1960s) in Thailand, one of wood, the other steel, which were constructed in 1943 using prisoners of war and slave laborers.

The Burma-Thailand railway was built in 1942-43 to supply the Japanese army in Burma. Commonwealth, American and Dutch prisoners of war and civilian work-

STORY BY BOB DARDEN ! PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS Summer 2012 Leflore Illustrated / 35

ers from Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia were forced to work on the project. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, approximately 13,000 prisoners of war and an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 civilians died during the 16 months it took to build the 400-mile railway and its bridges.

The two bridges over the Mae Klong river were used for two years before they were brought down by American heavy bombers flown out of India.

v v v Nations, a native of Attala County, was an engineer on a B-24 Liberator bomber that took off from a base in India around 2 a.m. on April 3, 1945. As engineer, his job was to monitor the heavy bomber’s four engines and hydraulic systems, as well as serve as top turret gunner.

Nations said bombers from the 493rd Bomb Group had been successful in knocking down sections of the steel bridge.

“They had knocked the wooden bridge down a little bit, not much. (The Japanese) repaired it, they were using it for crossing. They sent us after the wooden bridge,” he said.

In all, three B-24s from the 436th Bomb Group took off for the bridge. Each would make its own bomb run.

Nations said each of the three planes carried six 1,000-pound bombs. The remaining half of the B-24’s massive bomb bay was used to carry extra fuel for the 14-hour round trip.

“There was supposed to be a flak-suppressing airplane in front of us. When we got there, there was no sign of it,” he said.

More than 67 years later, Nations recalls the landscape as the plane approached the bridge from a height of 4,000 to 6,000 feet shortly before 9 a.m.

“The bridge was here; the flak (from anti-aircraft guns) was here; and right next to it was a bridge prison camp. You had to pinpoint the bridge so as to not kill the prisoners,” he said.

When the plane, piloted by First Lt. Charles Linaman of Ashland, Va., made its first pass on the one-railroad-trackwide bridge, flak wasn’t very heavy, Nations said.

“When we lined up and made the first pass, we were all right. We were beginning to draw flak, a little flak,” he said.

That gave bombardier William Henderson the opening he needed.

“We hit the bridge with the left bomb; the right bomb didn’t go off,” Nations said.

36 / Leflore Illustrated Summer 2012

Once the bomb hit, a center section of the bridge collapsed into the river, taking with it the critical support columns, he said.

On the second pass, flak was heavier.

Turbulence from the nearby explosions caused the large bomber to be buffeted violently, Nations said. Both bombs fell wide of their intended target.

When the plane made its third and final bomb run, the flak had intensified.

“It done turned like midnight up there,” Nations said, commenting on the black puffs of anti-aircraft shells bursting.

“One plane with all that flak.”

Nations said the plane’s sophisticated Norden bombsite took control of the plane on its bomb run. For that to be successful, the plane had to have a level approach to the target, and the Japanese were doing their best to knock Nations’ plane out of the sky before it reached the bridge.

“Any movement will change the bomb pattern.

Nothing could hold it straight,” he said.

Needless to say, the third run did not hit the narrow, now heavily defended bridge. In fact, the two bombers that were readying to follow Nations’ plane’s bomb run found the flak too intense to press their attack on the bridge, Nations said.

v v v Following the third pass, conserving fuel became a major issue for the long trip home.

Instead of being able to fly on, Nations said, the plane was stuck flying in a circle not far from the bridge’s flak guns. Flak had caused a wire-thin “trim tab” to freeze up on the plane’s tail ailerons.

“One of them went up, and one went down,” he said. “When it did, the aileron did the same thing. The airflow was controlling the ailerons.”

As the plane’s engineer, Nations went to the rear of the plane to see what was the matter.

“I went into the bomb bay and found all of this stuff shot out and reported back

Veteran Bill Nations owns this splinter from the Japanese railroad bridge the B-24 he served aboard successfully bombed during an attack on April 3, 1945.

to the pilot and co-pilot. They told me to go back and check it again,” he said.

Nations said he decided to try to do something to free the frozen trim tab.

Options for the 10-man crew were running out, he said.

“If we bailed out, the Japs were going to get us,” Nations said.

Nations began hopping up and down on an 8-inch-wide catwalk above the bomb bay, trying frantically, “fooling with these cables,” he said.

“I got to jumping up and down, jerking that cable over my head. I broke the thing loose; it leveled out.”

The fuel-starved plane, once turned around, headed for the coastline, where it made a wheels-down landing on the beach. Nations said the crew decided to ride the plane in rather than bail out.

Upon landing, everything was going along well for about 300 to 400 yards until the plane’s nose wheel approached an eddy.

“When the nose wheel went down in that eddy, it didn’t come out. It got

buried,” Nations said.

Still, no one was injured on the harrowing bombing mission.

As the war progressed, Nations and his crew became more skilled at bombing Japanese bridges, even using the B-24 as a dive bomber.

“Ain’t nobody ever done it before. Ain’t nobody ever tried to do it since,” he said proudly.

The Seventh Bomb Group received three presidential unit citations for its service during the war.

Nations received the Distinguished Flying Cross and two Air Medals for his service during World War II. He was presented a third Air Medal in 1995 after copilot Thyron Bradley Hamlet found out about Nations’ efforts to free the trim tabs on the bomber more than 50 years earlier.

Of Nations’ 10-man crew, only four are alive today — Nations, Linaman, Henderson and gunner Herbert Clyde Saylor.

The metal bridge, which is located near the Thai town of Kanchanaburi, was repaired and refurbished after the war. It is still in use today.

v v v After the war, Nations returned to his former job as a manager at an A&P grocery store in Mississippi. Later, he became a manager of an A&P store in Mobile, Ala. He came to Greenwood to work for Wonder Bread and quickly rose to the rank of branch manager. Nations, who was also a soybean farmer, later became a Realtor.

Once he reached 85, he officially retired.

The vanity tag on Nations’ Dodge pickup harkens back to that April 3, 1945, mission.

It reads: “B24KWAI.” LI

Summer 2012 Leflore Illustrated / 37

38 / Leflore Illustrated Summer 2012

Women hunters

Not just a man’s game

Kristen Stephens of Greenwood and Cindy Sturdivant of Glendora both learned to love the outdoors from their fathers. Stephens, a soon-to-be freshman at Ole Miss, killed her first deer at age 5.

R

eal women wear camouflage.

That’s the way Greenwood’s Kristen Stephens and Glendora’s Cindy Sturdivant see it.

Stephens, 18, a soon-to-be freshman at the University of Mississippi, and Sturdivant, 49, both were introduced to hunting early in life by their fathers and remain avid outdoorswomen to this day.

Sturdivant, shown here on a dove hunt in Argentina earlier this year, was the first woman named to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks foundation board.

Sturdivant admits her passion for the sport isn’t as strong as it once was, but she still enjoys hunting and fishing because it’s something she and her husband, Sykes, can do together.

The Sturdivants, who have been married for nearly 32 years, recently celebrated the Fourth of July by fly fishing for trout in Colorado. Last February, they went dove hunting in Argentina; next February, they will go back for a dove and duck hunt and then will go to Chile from there to fly fish.

“I am not as mad at those birds as I used to be. Getting up real early and

standing in ice-cold water slows you down the older you get,” Sturdivant said.

Two years ago, Sturdivant became the first woman named to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks foundation board. Her love for the outdoors stems from the time she spent with her father learning to shoot, clean game and bait a hook.

“Hunting and fishing drew me in quickly because I love being outdoors and seeing and experiencing new things,” Sturdivant said.

Stephens’ love of hunting was passed

STORY BY BILL BURRUS ! PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS AND LANGDON CLAY Summer 2012 Leflore Illustrated / 39

on from her father, Shane. The two have spent a lot of time together in the woods since she killed her first deer at age 5. She bagged two turkeys the next year at 6 and has been hooked ever since.

“It’s a hands-on sport, and I like that,” Stephens said. “You get to see a lot beautiful scenery and things you may have never seen if not for hunting. Also there is a great sense of pride and accomplishment after you kill something you worked so hard for.”

That’s why Stephens’ true love is turkey hunting. She has bagged 35 of them, and in March she completed the grand slam of turkeys, killing four types of birds: the Eastern, the Rio Grande, the Merriam’s and the Osceola.

“Turkey hunting is such a thrill because it’s so challenging to pull that turkey in tight, and you have to respond to every move the bird makes,” she said.

She has killed about 30 deer and has recently gotten more into bow hunting for deer. Her first deer bow kill came during a recent trip to the Texas hill country, where she bagged a Catalina.

Stephens prefers hunting deer with a bow rather than a rifle because it’s more challenging. High-powered rifles with scopes allow hunters to shoot deer from hundreds of yards away, almost like a video game. But with a bow, she’s limited to 30 or 40 yards. That’s close enough to hear deer snort and see their nostrils flare.

Stephens said none of her female friends has an interest in hunting, and some can’t understand why she does.

“They’re like, ‘That’s fun?’ But a few have gone with me before and learned to respect it, if not like it,” she said.

Slowly but surely, more women are discovering that hunting isn’t just a man’s game. Between 2004 and 2009, the number of women hunting with firearms jumped 50 percent, from 2 million to 3 million, according to the National Sporting Goods Association.

Because the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks does not require gender information when a license is bought, spokesman Jim Walker said there is no statistical record of the number of women hunters in the state.

However, based upon his experience, he said definitely more women are taking to outdoors sports.

“Go to your local sporting goods store; go to a wildlife trade show; go to a hunting camp; and you will see lots more women than you ever have before,” he said. “I have noticed a large increase in women, and that’s great.” LI 40 / Leflore Illustrated Summer 2012

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Kitty Ellis

CREATIVE SPACE

Kitty Ellis of Lexington loves to create art and to teach others to do the same. Teaching, she says, “gives me a lot of simple joy.”

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izards, frogs and intricately carved-out spaces make Kitty Ellis’ works in clay extraordinary. Her home and others’ have light shining into them from special pieces made into lamps or sconces.

“I love to do the carving. It’s my favorite way to embellish,” she said. “I love taking space and rearranging the surface by carving detail. I also like to press in patterns with found objects. I have created texture on small slabs of clay and fired them to make my own stamps for clay patterns.”

Every piece Ellis makes is unique — not ever mass-produced. “I wouldn’t do pottery if I had to do 50 plates that look alike,” she said. “I’d be bored with that. I like the freedom to free float along with it.”

In all of her work, there must be texture. There are birds, flowers and weeds, as well as her favorites — lizards and frogs. Many times when she works on a commissioned piece, she has freedom to create however she pleases.

“I’ve done a lot of commissions. I get a

lot of requests for large centerpiece bowls, lanterns, lamps. Sometimes they’ll say ‘anything with frogs on it.’”

Ellis also loves to teach others.

Throughout the years, area high schoolers have benefited from her art instruction — at J.Z. George High School in North Carrollton, Winona High School and, most recently, Central Homes Christian Academy.

“It’s exciting to me when students make discoveries about what they can actually do that they didn’t realize,” she said. “I love watching them experiment; it gives me a lot of simple joy. They come up with a lot of wonderfully unique things.”

When Ellis was growing up around Avalon, there was little to inhibit the nurturing of creativity.

“It was the country. We discovered all

STORY BY RUTH JENSEN ! PHOTO BY JOHNNY JENNINGS Summer 2012 Leflore Illustrated / 41

Carving is Kitty Ellis’ favorite part of the pottery she creates, whether it’s surface detail, like her famous frogs, above, or the spaces she creates for one of her lamps, right.

kinds of wonderful things to do,” she said.

“There was no television. I liked to play in dirt. I can remember when I was 6, under my grandmother’s porch. In the hard-packed, cool dirt, I carved the interior of a boat with two seats for my brother and me. I created little worlds for myself, like a big patch of tall weeds near the house. I hollowed out the center of a clump and wove a little house for myself.

We found an old gravel pit that had washed away where we found fossils and petrified wood.”

Ellis got her first taste of formal art instruction in high school, and later she took a few beginning art classes at the

42 / Leflore Illustrated Summer 2012

University of Mississippi. But after a couple of years of college, she was still not sure what she wanted to do vocationally.

“I took off to work, and I had an urge to see more of the country,” she said. “I had a friend who worked in Laguna Beach, Calif., and I went there, got a job and stayed for three years. There was a huge art community there, and I first saw people producing clay objects and selling them.”

There she took classes in clay and learned to throw on the wheel. “Clay is definitely my favorite medium,” she said.

After three years, she left to return to school, knowing what she wanted to do.

She was led to Albuquerque, N.M., by another friend, and there she earned a degree in art education with a studio emphasis at the University of New Mexico. Years later, she began a master’s degree while living in Kentucky and then completed it in two summers at William Carey College on the Mississippi coast.

After a divorce and return to the area, Ellis got involved with the artists’ studio of the Cities in Schools program in Greenwood. Then several local artists formed a pottery cooperative.

“It was a great place to work and was a godsend to me,” she said.

About that time, she took a job as art

Kitty and Billy Ellis live on a lake near Lexington in a former hunting camp.

instructor for J.Z. George High School, where she taught for several years before going to teach gifted art classes at Winona High School.

She married Billy Ellis of Lexington about 12 years ago, and they have since lived on a lake among lots of trees near Lexington in a former hunting camp that Billy says Kitty turned into a home.

“He transformed an old pavilion into a

wonderful studio for me. I have enjoyed it,” she said.

Ellis is now 72, “with more energy than most people have,” husband Billy said.

After taking a year off — a sort of sabbatical — she said she’s ready to get going at her potter’s wheel again, making things that will no doubt be pleasing to look at and use. That is, after all, what art is all about. LI

Summer 2012 Leflore Illustrated / 43

Chamber meeting

The Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce held its 95th annual meeting on May 1 at the Leflore County Civic Center.

(Photos by Bob Darden)

Bill McPherson, Jim Barksdale, Donna Barksdale and Allan Hammons.

Larry Griggs and Lorna Boyd

Dr. V.K. Chawla and Greg Bennett

Cindy Tyler and Bill Crump

Jerry Singleton and Rob Spiller

Gene Stansel, Circuit Judge Betty Sanders and James Quinn

Mayor Carolyn McAdams, Tim Tyler and Mark Hutson

Christine Hemphill and Kerri Reaves

44 / Leflore Illustrated Summer 2012

The Cotillion Federated Club’s Red and White Pageant was held April 21 at the Leflore County Civic Center. (Photos by Andy Lo) The Greenwood-Itta Bena Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority held the Delta Debutantes Scholarship Gala May 5 at the Leflore County Civic Center. (Photos by Andy Lo)

Tiffany Townsend and Marlene Johnson

Kiarra Walls and her mother, Carla Walls

Aleeyah Tarver and De Marqais Weever

Richard and Sheron Gary

Red and White Pageant/ Delta Debutantes

Jakayla Rayford, queen of the Cotillion

Denarius Wright and Ashanti Brownlow

Denishia Yates and Ghiavonni Robinson

Allison Simpson and her father, Roger Simpson Summer 2012 Leflore Illustrated / 45

River to the Rails

The eighth annual River to the Rails festival was held May 4-5 in downtown Greenwood. (Photos by Andy Lo)

Carter Kittle and Landry McCool

Hattie St. John

Vince Johnson

Jeannette Summerville and Terry Stancil

Melissa Britt, Mavri Smith and Terri James

Katy Coleman 46 / Leflore Illustrated Summer 2012

Molly Black, Connie Black and Caroline King

The Celebrity Waiter Dinner, which benefits Greenwood Interfaith Ministries’ Community Kitchen, was held May 31 at Webster’s. (Photos

by Johnny Jennings, Cathy Jennings and Bob Darden)

Don Brock

Dr. Rusty Douglas, Mayor Carolyn McAdams and Johnny Jennings

Marion Johnston, Terry Johnston, David Clark, Dean Kidd, Catherine Kidd and Alyse Clark

Cathy Jennings and Susan Gregory

Celebrity Waiter Dinner

The Rev. Greg Plata and Dave Becker

Tish Goodman, Kay Hull, Anne Ellis, Cindy Tyler, Tim Tyler, Dennis Moss, Gay Moss and Dwight Dunn Summer 2012 Leflore Illustrated / 47

The Back Page

PHOTO BY BILL JACKSON

by Hart Henson

Where the lotus flowers bloom

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ast summer I discovered one of the best-kept secrets in Leflore County when I witnessed the spectacular display of lotus flowers at Mathews Brake National Wildlife Refuge.

The scenery was so magical that I wondered, “How did I grow up in Greenwood and not know about this?” I could not get over the breathtaking view of the lotus plants set against the backdrop of cypress and tupelo trees, with blue herons and egrets flying overhead.

As I kayaked across the lake, I felt as though I had been transported to another part of the world. The lotus plants were enormous, with leaves up to 3 feet in diameter, perfect circles, with some laying flat on the water and others perched a few feet above the water like green umbrellas. The flowers were simply gorgeous, pale yellow and as big as magnolias, standing upright in the water like torches.

What captivated me even more than the beauty of the lotus plant was the peculiar way that its leaves repelled water. I noticed as water dripped from my paddle onto a lotus leaf that it formed a bead, like mercury. I stopped my boat and continued to drop water onto the leaf over and over in what appeared to be magic. I even whipped out my handy jeweler’s loupe and looked at the leaf under the magnifying glass to see what caused the water to behave in such a way.

I was so intrigued by the plant that I researched it as soon as I got home. What better way to spend a Saturday night than learning about the micro-nanostructured surface of plants? I found that the lotus plant is one of the most unusual in the world in that it has incredible self-cleaning 48 / Leflore Illustrated Summer 2012

properties.

The term “lotus effect” was coined in the 1990s by a German botanist, Dr. Wilhelm Barthlott, and refers to super hydrophobicity or extremely high water repellency. This phenomenon allows the lotus leaf to clean itself by removing dirt and pathogens while also repelling water

from its surface. Like a scene from a science-fiction movie, it would be like pouring water onto the floor, with the water rolling around collecting dirt and then forming one giant bead and rolling right out the front door, taking the dirt with it.

Several self-cleaning products have been developed in recent years based on the principle of the lotus effect, including paint, roof tiles, glass, tents, fabrics and airplane coatings.

The lotus plant that grows in Mathews Brake is American Lotus (Nelumbo lutea), and the flowers are the largest native blossoms in North America, growing up to 8 inches wide and ranging in color from white to pale yellow. The seedpods are quite distinct and, oddly enough, look just like shower heads. They are often used in floral arrangements.

Almost every part of the lotus plant is edible and was a mainstay of the Native Americans and still remains a staple in

many countries today. The roots are similar to sweet potatoes, the stems like beets, the young leaves like spinach and the seeds like nuts. In Louisiana, the seeds are called Cajun peanuts.

For thousands of years, the lotus has been considered sacred in many parts of the world, representing purity, wisdom, nobility and beauty. It is found in the early art of Greece, India and Egypt, and Chinese poets often refer to the lotus flower as “bringing beauty and light from the murky darkness at the bottom of the pond.”

Although there is a wealth of information available about the wildlife and fishing at Mathews Brake, surprisingly nothing is mentioned about the lotus, which might be the most fascinating part of this lake. Mathews Brake, the largest brake in Leflore County, provides habitat for an enormous population of wildlife, including mallards, blue-winged teal, pintail, wood ducks, hooded mergansers, blue heron, egrets, prothonotary warblers, bald eagles, golden eagles, hawks and owls. There are also largemouth bass, crappie and catfish, and you can count on seeing an alligator just about every time.

But the true star of Mathews Brake is the American Lotus. The sheer beauty of this plant is unmatched and an absolute mustsee during the summer months.

Rumor has it that the signs to Mathews Brake are routinely stolen so that newcomers will not discover this favorite spot of duck hunters and fishermen. Although it can be a journey to find, it is well worth the effort, for one of the most stunning views in the Delta is sunset at Mathews Brake with the lotus flowers in bloom. ! Hart Henson is the Greenwood-Leflore recycling coordinator.