Brookhaven Magazine September/October 2018

BROOKHAVEN

Unexpected ‘insta-fame’

MAGAZINE

Decorator’s home attracts fans, corporate sponsors

‘A PRETTY GOOD DEAL’ Star Drive In still serving up favorites after 50 years SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2018

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ARTS

THE PLACE TO MAKE DIY artistry has a new home

10

AN UNEXPECTED AUDIENCE McCloud finds ‘insta-fame’ in decorating world

14

HOME

WELLNESS

THE FASTEST CLASS AT EASTHAVEN 18 Men’s group forms running crew

HISTORY

A MURDER, A NAMESAKE AND A LEGACY OF LOVE

22

TAKE A DETOUR TO DAY 30 Pharmacy tech finds the prescription for making people happy

A DAY AT THE FARM

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BANKER BY DAY, CREATOR BY NIGHT

38

FOOD

SHOP

TRAVEL

SHOP

34

‘A PRETTY GOOD DEAL’ 42 50 years of good eats at Star Drive In

THE REST

PHOTO ESSAY

SOCIAL SCENES

26

GARDEN

56

VOICES

57

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2018 PUBLISHER Luke Horton EDITORIAL Adam Northam Donna Campbell Brett Campbell CONTRIBUTING: Kim Henderson Hannah Henderson Josh Wilson ADVERTISING Kristi Carney Kristie Champagne GRAPHICS Michael Granger

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BROOKHAVEN Magazine is produced and published by The Daily Leader, 128 N. Railroad Ave., Brookhaven, MS 39601.

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BROOKHAVEN

Unexpected ‘insta-fame’

MAGAZINE

Decorator’s home attracts fans, corporate sponsors

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‘A PRETTY GOOD DEAL’ Star Drive In still serving up favorite s after 50 years SEPTEMBER/OCTO

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BER 2018

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MAGAZINE 1

On the cover:

Curtis and Cindy McCloud relax with their grandson, Greyson Ellis, on the swing that started it all.

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 9

arts SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 18

Photo by Derek Covington Smith

Above, amateur artists paint their own canvasses during a class focused on Claude Monet taught by Derek Covington Smith.

Photos by Donna Campbell

Opposite and following pages: Tools for bookbinding, painting, etc. sit ready for use.

The place to make T

Story by Brett Campbell

he whole concept is built around do-it-yourself creativity. That’s why Gretchen Neal is moving from one task to the next as she talks, getting everything just right for her studio to open. Well, nothing is ever “just right,” but she’s working to get things where she’s satisfied. For the moment.

Neal is wrapped up in her passion of creating, and wants other people to get wrapped up in theirs, too.

Even if they don’t yet know they are creative.

German pilot Dieter F. Uchtdorf wrote, “The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul.” Neal says the quote describes her well.

Neal recently opened “The Ole Brook Makery” on West Cherokee Street in Brookhaven. The studio’s tagline/motto is “Where your Pinterest boards come to life!”

Neal said she was continually saving pins on the popular creating app as inspiration for future projects.

The problem was she was never going back and making anything she’d saved. She was just pinning more and more ideas. She needed a place where those ideas could come to life.

A former teacher, Neal had left her full-time teaching gig for health reasons. Unable to work full-time, she still had her deep desire to create and needed an outlet for it.

She figured there were lots of other creative people who —just like her — were always pinning but never actually making. Maybe they didn’t have the time, space or motivation at home. But maybe they could find the time if they had available space and someone else to motivate them.

The doors of her studio opened officially Sept. 1, and she scheduled her first class for mid-September. The Makery will offer scheduled events and activities primarily, and the first class is centered on making chalkboards.

“The end results will vary, but will originate from the same idea,” said Neal.

Taking inspiration and tips from Neal, class participants will create a project that fits their own home décor and comes from their own creativity. The supplies will be available at the studio and costs will vary depending on the project. All of that information will be available online and registration will be online.

DIY ARTISTRY HAS A NEW HOME IN OLE BROOK

Once a few classes have been offered, the format will be less structured and students will be able to come in to the evening class and choose from any previous project. Most classes will be offered in the evenings, 6-9 p.m., except for weekends, with two classes per week as she gets things rolling.

She’ll offer children’s projects, targeting school holidays and shopping holidays, when parents are busy but children need an outlet for their creative energies.

“Classes are for ages 10 to 100, all people,” says Neal.

She wants the studio to be a place for parties, portrait events, girls’ nights out, theme nights, bridal parties, date nights, birthday parties and special, personalized events with attention to detail.

“After I became disabled I hated sitting at home,” she said.

“I knew there was no way I could do that forever.”

With God’s nudging, she said, she got back to creating by diving into playing and learning about new media to use. Then she discovered online blogs and how to make one herself.

Then she taught herself graphic design so she could create graphics for her blog.

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 11

“The thing that I have discovered is that you are never, ever too old to learn how to do anything,” she said.

This idea pushes her to encourage people at any age to create a project with her and then go home and experiment with what they’ve learned.

In addition to DIY classes, Neal has plans for other parts of the studio.

She sees a need for affordable rental studio spaces for creatives who have limited space (or none at all), and those with active lifestyles, children, pets, etc. She believes a shared studio space can encourage creative interaction and spur people to create as they are able, rather than wait until “one day” in the future.

She also believes in sharing the wealth of knowledge that artists possess. She even encourages other makers to talk with her about coming in to the studio and teaching others about what they do, and how to do it, too. She hopes to reach out to a big group of people intent on sharing what they know.

“Keep no secrets,” Neal says.

“Share all we know. I’m an artist.

I’m a creative. I’ve been one all my life. I’m inventive. I’ve learned how to make a lot of stuff, so I want to share everything I’ve learned.”

There’s so much she wants to explore in-studio: metal smithing, jewelry making, quilting, paper projects, book binding, pottery making (with an off-site kiln), making and refinishing small pieces of furniture, sewing, painting and anything else she — or others — can dream up.

“The possibilities are endless.

I want people to explore and see what clicks,” she says. “I want to inspire some to be creative and to do things they didn’t know they could do. I want to make this available so you can dig in and find what your passion is.”

Neal comes from a family of creative people.

She can remember peering over the quilt rack as her greatgrandmother worked at what Neal fears is becoming a lost art. Her mother was into interior decorating and painting. Her sisters are both creative in different ways.

As children they were always 12 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

encouraged by their parents to be creative. But the encouragement came from elsewhere, too.

“Something that was so powerful in life was — when I was in ninth grade — a teacher told me that I was an artist,” she said. “That was huge to me. And I’ve believed it ever since.”

Her younger sister, Carly Jordan, is her personal assistant, of sorts. Their older sister, Leanne McCaffery, is a chef and professional caterer as owner of So Delish Catering Company, which will open soon in downtown Brookhaven.

Her youngest son is a painter and a musician, playing tenors in the Brookhaven High Panthers marching band. Her other three boys are full-on sports, she says.

“My husband, God bless him,” she says, “has never doubted but has encouraged me, and that’s been huge.”

It had been too long since she’d had her art supplies out, Neal said, and the hunger to create was gnawing at her.

She’d done some online searching and saw that the ideas that were gaining solidity in her head were striking others across the country. DIY studios of all types were springing up all over, but each one was dedicated to one particular creative pursuit each.

That’s not the angle Neal wanted.

The shotgun approach was much better in her thinking, because more creative “pellets” shot out meant more pathways of creativity and more artistic targets hit.

“I have tons of creative ideas and my favorite thing is being inventive,” she says. “If I want to do something, I’ll find a way — and it’ll look good. I just love making things.”

But there have been hiccups along the way in the process of bringing her do-it-yourself dream to life. She’s had to face her fears and self-doubts, take the chance, take the steps, get past the fear and believe she could do it.

Like most creative people, her younger sister says, “She’s her worst critic.”

She’s rarely satisfied with things. But getting to the point where she finally loves what she’s done is what matters to her.

So she stepped out past her fear and went looking for a place to make it all happen. She quickly found out that a building owned by her cousin, Holly Pappas, had just become available. The old tenant was vacating and the space was just what Neal had in mind.

An old warehouse renovated by Pappas, the building on West Cherokee had most recently been home to Southern Flaunt. Pappas had always had a vision of the building one day becoming an artsy type of space. And Pappas had always been supportive and helpful to her family. So now Neal had a home for both their visions.

“The timing was perfect. It was just meant to be,” she says, “Truly, truly.”

Nationally-successful artist Derek Covington Smith had recently returned

to his hometown of Brookhaven and was looking for studio space, as well — a place where he could both create and teach others how to do the same. One thing led to another and Smith’s studio resides within the Makery now, as well.

“With Derek’s fine art skills and all the variety of things, it’s going to be great,” Neal says.

“You could not have designed a better place for creativity and art to collide,” Smith said. “When Gretchen asked me to join her in this adventure and showed me the space we would be working in my heart jumped. Being surrounded by so much history has truly been a blessing I could have only hoped for.”

And Neal doesn’t plan on stopping with the ideas she’s implementing now.

“I see lots of ideas of expanding in the future,” she says.

She hopes to offer her own products — made by her, of course — like stationery, fabrics, shirts and other handmade items. She wants to have a makers’ market at various points of the year, as well.

The opening of The Ole Brook Makery is an artistic vision finally coming to fruition for Neal. It’s a chance to be herself and to help others discover and freely express their creative sides, too. It will definitely be a welcoming space for makers.

“I just like loving on people,” she says, “and I’m always wanting to make and do, and I get to do it every day.” |||||

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 13

home SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 18

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Curtis and Cindy McCloud relax with their grandson, Greyson Ellis, on the swing that started it all.

AN UNEXPECTED AUDIENCE Cindy McCloud and her Ivory Home find ‘insta-fame’ in the decorating world

C

indy McCloud, wearing classic black pumps and a ponytail, carefully arranges a fringed throw on the front porch of her East Lincoln home. A field away, drivers passing by on the rural road fronting her sprawling property probably don’t notice her, but the outline of the elegant two-story house is hard to miss. So are the fuchsia crepe myrtles flanking its eaves.

Knocking away a dusting of petals from an outdoor cushion, McCloud admits her Instagram followers are fascinated by crepe myrtles.

“They want to know what they are,” she laughs, her hazel eyes flashing. “They’ve never seen them, except in my feed.”

And that’s the mix – phone photos, Southern staples, and an Instagram feed – that has catapulted McCloud, a 57-year-old grandmother with spotty Internet service, to unlikely online fame.

The success story began three years ago when McCloud overheard her two children talking about Instagram. She decided to give it a try and posted a picture of the family’s outdoor pool. It quickly garnered more than 300 followers.

Later, a shot of her front door, decked out for Christmas, won a hashtag contest and doubled her fan base. But it was photos of her front porch swing that brought the most coveted attention – the re-posting kind – from big names in the decorating industry like Better Homes & Gardens and House Beautiful.

Custom-constructed from a circa 1800s door, the McClouds’ attention-getting piece of furniture is heavy, ornate and suspended by 3-inch-thick twisted manila rope — 50 feet of it. McCloud keeps the best seat in the house painted white but changes pillows and nearby potted plants with the seasons. To her own surprise, she has built a brand

by photographing her swing against sunset backdrops, surprise snows and a snoozing Dappled Dachshund the family calls Mr. Darcy. Instagram viewers, now numbering more than 100,000, can’t get enough.

“They love the swing. They love outside photos. They ask about the house plans a lot, too,” McCloud explains.

Interior views also register with followers. A recent shot of her kitchen’s reclaimed wood shelves had 3,600 likes in less than an hour. That’s a lot of eye candy traffic for someone whose main marketing tools are an iPhone 6 and a dated Dell laptop.

“I know, right?” McCloud laughs, looking through a pair of red readers at a screen highlighting her website activity for the past month.

While locals are just learning about McCloud’s Ivory Home Design label, fans as far away as Italy, Australia, Turkey and Brazil have been keeping her busy for a while.

She’s even corresponded with a would-be home decorator in Siberia.

“You have to engage with Instagram to really succeed,” McCloud says, estimating she spends two hours a day answering followers’ direct messages and emails. “I try to answer their questions. They don’t know the Southern way, so they’re fascinated by our porches and the views.”

McCloud’s ability to impact the decorating decisions of thousands of people makes her popular with advertisers.

They offer to send samples of home furnishings, and if she chooses to place the pieces in her home, the companies get tagged in photos. For example, Josh & Main allowed McCloud to choose products worth more than $4,000 from their line. Romabio, a paint company, just limewashed her exterior brick. Lowe’s and GAF are scheduled to install a roof.

Story by Kim Henderson Photos by Hannah Henderson

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 15

The McCloud Home sits on a pastoral tract of land in rural Lincoln County.

Cindy McCloud’s first Instagram post included a photo of their backyard, complete with a saltwater Gunite pool and a river stone waterfall she designed.

16 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

She’s surprised by her new role as a trendsetter.

“When a Wayfair professional contacted me about ordering from them at a discount, he said, ‘Do you realize that you’ve achieved what people work decades for?’ It was very humbling. Instagram has given me a sense of confidence that I never had before.”

McCloud credits Brookhaven designer Cathy Pigott with part of that development process: “Cathy helped me redecorate our house seven years ago. I was so traditional. I knew what I wanted, but I needed the push. She gave it.”

McCloud also says her husband Curtis — and his career in the oil industry — has played an important part in her love for home decorating. “When he was offshore, that’s how I busied myself, and later, when he would have three weeks off, we did projects together.”

The projects have paid off. Across the globe, images from the couple’s 4,500-square-foot farmhouse are pinned, liked, shared, tweeted and re-posted thousands of times each day. That keeps McCloud thinking about what to feature next. But that’s no problem for someone who has always liked “changing stuff up.”

“In this business you won’t go far if you copy what others do. You have to be yourself, and I like that. It’s a whole new world that I never expected.” |||||

Above: This back-porch swing carries its own star power.

At left: An antique mahogany mantel from New Orleans provides a timeless focal point in the family room.

MORE FROM CINDY MCCLOUD • Is your home a true farmhouse? Not really, but it’s surrounded by 210 acres of pasture and trees. We built it in 2000 to be like my grandmother’s home — 10-foot ceilings, bay windows and double French doors.

• How would you describe your current style? I’m moving beyond just ivory. I’m into a mixture of light and heavy, mixed in with some rustic elements.

• What’s your best decorating advice? Every room needs some live greenery and an antique piece.

• How about some advice for would-be Instagrammers? Put your first name in your Instagram label.

• But yours . . . I know. I’m really Cindy with a “y”, but on Instagram I’m @cindimc.ivoryhome. It works.

• What’s trending with the decorators you follow? Anything that’s not traditional. Modern farmhouse, with a little touch of boho and eclectic. Chandelier with beads. Vintage finds. Clean lines. Not ornate. Lots of greenery.

• Where can we read more about you? I just flew to New York for Better Homes & Gardens 2018 Stylemaker event. Look for me in an upcoming BH&G issue.

• What’s next for Ivory Home Design? My son-in-law created a web site, ivoryhomedesign.com, and our first product – the Ivory Home Swing – is available for purchase now.

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 17

wellness SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 18

THE FASTEST CLASS

AT EASTHAVEN Story and photos by Adam Northam

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Men’s group from local church forms running crew

A

s they come up the hill on Church Street, headed north from the south side of Natchez Avenue, they appear to grow up out of the gray asphalt like Titans emerging from the ground.

Rounding a hill at a distance, their bobbing heads rise into view first, their faces emerging from the flat with looks of concentration, or strain, eyes cast down on the few feet of street rolling away beneath them. Pumping arms and sweat-circled T-shirts come next, growing larger as they approach, carried relentlessly forward at a steady pace by a dozen running shoes that cycle up and down, up and down, throwing miles behind.

They call themselves “The Wolfpack,” this group of runners who met and formed in a Sunday school class at Easthaven Baptist Church and get together every Wednesday evening and Saturday morning, early, to run the streets of Brookhaven, keeping their bodies in shape by the exertion and their souls in shape by the fellowship.

They aren’t professionals or try-hards — they compete only a couple of times per year.

They enjoy running just for the sport, for the accomplishment, what Robert Browning called “the joy in the blood” when Pheidippides made it to Athens and fell down, dying.

“It’s all about completing the runs,” said Timothy Cunningham, 41, a physical therapist who started the group in 2016. “We all try to have our personal records, but none of us are going to be standing on the podium. It’s more about the fellowship, and the training. We just hope each year to be a little bit faster.”

Cunningham got the group together with Paxton Lee while they were in Easthaven’s Sunday school class for the unmarried, whom he now calls the “not-so unmarried.” They’d drop the kids off and hit the streets on foot, and on Sunday mornings other men in the class heard them talking about their runs, their routes, their times. Interest began to spread among a small group, and Cunningham invited others to join them.

For a while, they called themselves “the

fastest Sunday school class at Easthaven.”

For The Wolfpack — Mitchell Chappell, Cunningham, Larry Hamil, Chad Johnson, Lee, Steven McMorris, Allen Mills, Adam Moore — running is a way to stay active and stay together in a low-impact sport that, most of the time, doesn’t leave them hurting at work the next day. Cunningham was happy to take up the way of the foot after spending time in the Fair River church softball league.

“I’ve done the softball thing before, and I’ll never forget the day I quit — I hit a ball, a clean single, and next thing I know I’m sliding into second base like I’m going to the majors tomorrow,” he said. “I’m thinking, ‘I’m 40 years old. I’ve lost my mind. I have to work tomorrow. What am I doing out here?’ I’m too old for church softball.”

So they started running, at first on Wednesday nights. One run a week was not enough to maintain momentum, and getting the guys together proved difficult, with work and families and schedules to be kept. But dawn on Saturday mornings is free, so that’s when they meet.

They meet in Railroad Park in downtown Brookhaven and run the streets, which are free of traffic for a couple of hours and allow running routes that reach and stretch for miles without ever getting too far away from the starting point — the more conditioned runners make big loops around the city, while those who are just breaking in or have somewhere to be can drop off when the route swings back by the downtown parking lots.

They run up to 4 miles on Wednesday nights, but Saturdays are the “long run” — they were running up to 7 miles per morning on Saturdays in August, and by February they’ll be up to 10 or 12 miles.

They’re increasing the Saturday runs to train for 2019 Rock n’ Roll New Orleans Marathon and Half Marathon, the Wolfpack’s biggest annual competitive event. Cunningham ran the half marathon — 13 miles — in 2016 and 2017, and much of the group will run the half again next year.

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 19

The half marathon starts on Poydras Street, close to Lafayette Square, and heads southwest down St. Charles Avenue to Audubon Park and back. It then heads northeast to Esplanade Avenue and shoots straight northwest to City Park, where the 13th mile is on the north side of the New Orleans Museum of Art. Twenty-nine runners from Brookhaven competed in the half marathon last year. Around 20,000 runners participated in the race — Lee finished 3,516 with a time of 2 hours, 17 minutes; Cunningham finished 4,040th with a time of 2 hours, 21 minutes, 31 seconds; and Larry Hamil finished 4,047th with a time of 2 hours, 21 minutes, 34 seconds.

The Wolfpack also participates in local 5K races hosted

by Defining Moment Events, whose owner, Steven McMorris, is a member of the pack.

McMorris, 36, is not a new runner — but he’s new to having a run support group. He said he’s found motivation in the Wolfpack and the encouragement he gets from the group text messages, where members post their run times, schedule meet-ups and cajole each other off the couch and onto the streets.

“There’s other guys who are patting you on the back, and when you go out and get that run, it feels good to post it to the group and hear the other guys say, ‘Good job,’” McMorris said. “We all like that affirmation, and it helps motivate us. We have built some camaraderie.”

The group encouragement isn’t all in the form of flattery.

The members also shame each other into running, joke and clown one another for missed runs or slow times. They once sent photos of themselves recovering from a run laid out on their backs, legs elevated — a posture that promotes blood circulation — to Hamil, who had to drop out of the runs due to heart trouble.

“If you post bad times, you better have a good excuse,” said Adam Moore, 35. “I swallowed a bug last week, and that cost me a minute or two. I really did — it cost me two minutes.”

The group’s oldest member, Allen Mills, 42, is not an Easthaven member, but a friend from the softball league.

He wasn’t a runner, either — he was done with running

20 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

after competing in a half marathon for his 40th birthday.

“It was like a midlife crisis-type deal. I ran for about 10 miles. That’s the farthest I ever made it,” he said. “I lost my love for running altogether.

I never wanted to run again, but Tim kind of punked me out about it. That’s basically what keeps me going. A little bit of accountability.”

The punking works — Mills ran 43 miles in the month of August. It’s also good, clean fun. The Wolfpack loves to make fun of itself, but never tears itself down.

“When you run, you talk. You lean on one another. It may be a comical run, or it may be a serious run, where the guys will bring up things they’re dealing with in life and we all help each

other out,” Cunningham said. “It’s a group of guys who take care of each other.”

The runners also use their text group for prayer requests, and Cunningham said there’s been talk of using the Wolfpack as a church small group to reach more men.

“Throughout the Bible you hear topics of perseverance, of finishing well,” Cunningham said. “There’s a lot of correlation between running and faith.”

It’s not a closed-off sport, either.

“The internet has made it easy to start running.

Everywhere you turn, there’s couch-to-5K training programs out there,” Cunningham said. “That excuse may have held true back in the day, but today anybody can become a runner.” |||||

The self-proclaimed “fasted Sunday School class at Easthaven” takes a 5-mile lap around downtown Brookhaven at dawn on a Saturday morning in August. Pictured are, from left: Chad Johnson, Adam Moore, Tim Cunningham, Allen Mills, Steven McMorris and Mitchell Chappell.

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 21

history SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 18

A murder, a namesake and a legacy of love Story by Joshua Wilson

T

he air was cool and crisp in the Harmony community of rural Lincoln County on the morning of Jan. 10, 1937. The temperature dipped into the low 40s the night before, but a bright sky and brilliant sun seemed to promise a spring-like day just weeks after Christmas.

It’s easy to imagine the two men, brothers by marriage and the best of friends, sitting around the fireplace in their shared home as their families quietly slept in tiny adjoining rooms. The housesharing arrangement was far from ideal, but it was a necessity. It was hard to make a living back then.

The Great Depression raged on, but honestly, there wasn’t much to lose to begin with in that land of tall pine trees and rolling hills.

So much is unknown about the events that followed the morning’s chilly start. A few items, however, are indisputable: the two men, James Luther Quinn and Luther Warn Townsend, were sharecroppers and were described as “best friends” in an article published six days later in The Brookhaven Leader. Their wives, Alberta Mason Quinn and Leslie Jane Mason Townsend, were sisters. The two families, including James Luther and Alberta’s six children and Luther Warn and Leslie Jane’s three children, shared the same home.

It’s also known that at some point during that day, a Sunday with a high of 70 degrees, Luther Warn stabbed his best friend and brother-in-law in the arm, severing his brachial artery. James Luther was rushed by wagon to the closest hospital, which was 20 miles away in Brookhaven, and died just minutes after arrival. He was 38 years old. His wife of 17 years, Alberta, was 33 years James Luther Quinn.

Opposite: The Quinn family.

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old, suddenly a widow, and now solely responsible for the care of six young children.

James Luther was my great-grandfather, the father of my grandmother, Bernice Quinn Wilson, who is now 89 years old. I’ve always had an intense interest in James Luther’s life and his early death, partially because of my love for genealogy but also because I share his name. My two middle names, Luther Benson, come from greatgrandfathers. I was in my 20s before I learned the Luther name was also the name of his murderer.

The motives behind the murder are sketchy at best. The newspaper’s report on the event said the fatal stab wound followed “a quarrel over a trivial matter.” Any witness or police reports from the time have been lost to history. Accounts from family members and friends claimed that a heated argument, fueled by Sunday drinking, escalated to cursing, threats and raised knives.

The argument’s cause has also been lost to history, although one account from the time period said it involved Alberta and Leslie Jane.

Contemporaries of the two Luthers said, in stories passed down now by several generations, that both men possessed big amounts of self-pride and easily-flared tempers. One of James Luther’s daughters, my great-aunt Bennie Jo, shared, in a rare moment of reflection about the murder, that “Luther Warn was drinking and cussed Daddy …

and Daddy said he would not let anyone cuss him.”

James Luther was buried the following day in the Antioch Church cemetery a few miles from his home. Luther Warn was arrested and charged with the murder; he was eventually convicted and sentenced to time in the state penitentiary. His wife, Leslie Jane, died of cancer 10 months following the murder. According to census records, their three children then lived with relatives. At some point prior to 1950, Luther Warn was released from prison and remarried. He died two years later at the age of 57.

I spent a lot of time trying to find out more about Luther Warn and his family, but kept hitting dead ends. From all accounts, his three sons grew up to be wonderful people, no doubt victimized by the crime just as much as James Luther’s family.

Luther Warn was a veteran of World War I and was afforded a military burial in the same cemetery that holds the remains of my great-grandfather, greatgrandmother, and several of their children. It’s insulting that his tombstone, now black from years of neglect, sits just feet away from his victim’s, which is cared for lovingly even 81 years following his murder.

Shortly after the murder, Alberta and her six

children were forced to move and spent the next few years living in what can charitably be referred to as a shack. My grandmother was always reluctant to discuss her childhood and especially the circumstances surrounding the murder, but she’s shared, usually through tears, the pain of losing her father at such an early age. That pain was amplified by the abject poverty her family faced over the next few years as Alberta struggled to make ends meet.

What’s remarkable about this story is Alberta’s resolve, strength and ability to rear six children into productive adults under such tough circumstances.

There’s no doubt in my mind that this resolve was a result of strong faith. Her children, one boy and five girls, all enjoyed lengthy, happy marriages. Alberta lived to be 60 years old, passing away in January 1964, and was able to hold and dote on many of her grandchildren. She died surrounded by family and was laid to rest next to the love of her life, James Luther.

My grandmother is the only living witness to the events of January 10, 1937. Her health is now fading, but she still has a sharp wit and eagle eyes.

Her husband, Tommy Jerry Wilson, died in June 2016, just months before the couple’s 72nd wedding anniversary.

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Her early traumatic years were eclipsed by this long and happy marriage, a fulfilling career, a passion for her church family, the birth and raising of three sons and a huge love for her eight grandchildren, 19 greatgrandchildren and six great-greatgrandchildren.

Grandmother’s siblings, James Lenard Quinn, Ruby Lanell Quinn Krogstad, Annie Ruth Quinn Bessonnette, Margaret Lucille Quinn Griffith and Bennie Jo Quinn McGuffie, all had similarly fulfilling lives. I’ve always been proud to brag that my Uncle James “Jim” Quinn was a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. I never met Aunt Lanell, but I’ve heard stories of how beautiful and elegant she was and how friendly her police officer husband was.

I spent much of my childhood with my grandmother and with my Aunt Ruth. Years and years later, I can still remember Aunt Margie’s laugh and Aunt Jo’s hugs. I remember the excitement I felt when I learned they

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would be coming to visit. I’m blessed to still be in touch with their children and grandchildren, my cousins, and to share with them memories of these fine people. We all gather for a family reunion each year, which is full of laughter and good food.

I mentioned earlier that James Luther was known for his self-pride.

I think he can rest comfortably and proudly knowing that his legacy is a good one. I wish he could have died an old man, warm in his bed, surrounded by his children and grandchildren. Fate had other plans, but those plans weren’t a match for a mother’s love, resolve, strength and faith.

I’m proud of the legacy I carry in my veins. |||||

Joshua Wilson is a public relations and marketing professional living in Hattiesburg. Write him at jwilson@ jowilmedia.com.

THE BEST IN LOCAL NEWS, SPORTS AND OPINION IS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS. IN PRINT & ONLINE. BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 25

photo essay SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 18

FRIDAY NIGHT SIGHTS BY ADAM NORTHAM

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Early in the season, with the Friday night air still warm and heavy, the Brookhaven High School faithful pack in for the Panthers. Games at King Field are not just games, they’re parties, reunions, revivals. The very old and the very young — from grandparents who sit in yard chairs under the shade of the locker room, fanning themselves; to grand babies who run, tirelessly, around the walking track — block off, and block out, three hours on Friday evenings to see Ole Brook compete.

These photos capture those fans during a home game against old rival South Pike on Aug. 31.

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BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 29

shop SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 18

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TAKE A DETOUR TO DAY Story and photos by Donna Campbell

F

or Brandi Day, Brookhaven smells like a stimulating blend of citrus — grapefruit, lemon and lime with hints of fresh cucumber and jasmine and a touch of pineapple, blackberry and champagne.

And while the scent is one of her best sellers at Detour 51, the gift shop she opened four years ago on Hwy. 51, it’s not her favorite candle.

That title goes to A Home Seekers Paradise.

Day picks up the large candle in the sleek glass container and takes a whiff. Her daughter, Laren, sniffs, too.

A slight aroma of blood orange and tangerine mingles with grapefruit, lemon and lime and Day smiles.

The Brookhaven native does that a lot these days, even when her family, work and her store seem to require more hours in a day than the good Lord allows.

She and Ryan Day are parents to three — son Brantley is almost 14 and the twins, Roland and Laren, are 12.

Laren is her baby by just a minute, but a huge help to her at Detour 51.

“She’s amazing,” her mom bragged. “She’s a big, huge help.”

Day is a pharmacy tech at LaRue’s Discount Drugs, which is located across a vacant grassy lot on the same side of the fourlane highway. Her father, LaRue Baker, has been a pharmacist for more than 35 years and the store has been open at almost that same location for more than a quarter of a century.

Day also manages the staff for her dad.

Taking care of people is what drives her in life, work and in her store.

Detour 51 is Day’s creative outlet and a way for her to brighten people’s lives.

“It’s all about making people happy,” she said.

The front door to Day’s store opens to a plethora of treasures. The décor is the store itself — hundreds of items of various price points line shelves and display tables and hang on any available vertical space. Every bit of horizontal real estate is taken.

“They don’t think it’s this big at all,” she said. “They have no clue. They’re shocked when they come in.

“I try to have stuff that I’ve never seen anywhere else,” she said. “Things that are unique that I haven’t seen in other places.”

The inside of the store is divided into six rooms and each follows loosely to a theme.

In the bridal room, bookcases hold items that any bride would be happy to open on her wedding day — frames, inspirational signs and other home décor.

A unique twist on a computerized registry is the cubbyhole shelves Day’s husband built so that brides and groom’s photos can be displayed with their wedding date and a sampling of items the couple have picked on their wish list.

Most items on display are in neutral colors like grays, whites, beiges and crèmes, which is the trend this year, she said.

A burst of color can be found in the kitchen room, with Nordic Ware bowls in bright primary colors that pop against the white shelves. Mason Cash dishware and cookware is a popular choice among brides as well.

Pellet grills, grill supplies and hunting and fishing gift items can be found in the back area.

Another room features unique jewelry and T-shirts and an entire wall in the large front showroom is dedicated to bath products that could help create the perfect home spa like lotions, soaps, bath bombs and shampoos.

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 31

Then there are the candles.

Candles in various sizes and scents are grouped together on shelves and scattered here and there as accents in displays.

Grassroots is a popular brand and offers the aforementioned The Brookhaven and A Home Seekers Paradise, which are scents created by the company specifically for Detour 51.

They’re exclusive to Day’s store.

Grassroots also created a candle based on the city’s catch phrase — “Come Stay Awhile” — which is a masculine scent with a clean, sharp finish. According to the back of the candle, it’s the “perfect combination of barbershop aromas. It combines scent of a strong yet sweet aftershave along with hints of aromatic spices and orange zest.”

“They’re all very good scents,” she said.

Day also features selections from Unwined Candle Co., which pours candles into recycled cut wine bottles; Sweet Wick of Kernersville, North Carolina; Himalayan Handmade Candles from Decatur, Georgia, and Oxford Candle Co. Many of the products Day chooses to sell are from Mississippi vendors. She talks to them often to keep her store filled with new and interesting gift items.

While her candle lines are some of her best sellers, Lumberton artist Alex Ladner is probably her most requested vendor.

“We have a lot of requests for his art,” she said. “I feel like a lot of people have his art.”

He paints simple scenes on wood blocks and canvas that are undeniably Mississippi like one-room country churches, hilltop crosses, vases of flowers and just-picked cotton stalks.

Cotton finds its way into several of the displays, as does Day’s faith.

Crosses and inspirational signs are in every room. God and family — in that order — are very important to her. Her family pitches in to help her clean the store and run the register when it’s really busy.

Maybe that’s why there are so many signs that say “Blessed.”

Day is featuring fall accents for now but she’s already getting Christmas items in.

Her trees will go up soon to show ornaments she’ll be displaying as part of the Merry Mississippi Christmas. She’ll feature ornaments and gifts created in large part by Mississippi-based artists.

Page 30: Brandi Day’s faith is important to her, as evidenced in the many Christian-themed items available for purchase at Detour 51.

Page 31: Detour 51 T-shirts and seasonal merchandise are popular sellers at the gift shop.

Top and bottom left: Shoppers will find many options for gift purchases.

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Day hopes to eventually get a website for the store to feature the bridal selections and Mississippi made products, but she’s pleased with the store she’s created.

“I love where it is right now,” she said. “We’ve built the bridal up, we have happies for people to be able to run in and get and we have a wrapping area.”

Gift-wrapping is free.

“I’m very passionate about my job at the drugstore. I help others. That’s my goal. But I still feel as if when I’m here, I’m just about making people happy,” she said. “I care that much about the gift and the presentation. If somebody asks me to get a gift for his wife I’m going to make sure that everything about it will be perfect for her.”

Day enjoys interacting with her customers, many of whom she’s known her whole life.

Her time in the store is her therapy.

“I’ve told my husband a hundred times, ‘You go hunting. You go fishing.

Leave me alone at the store and I will decorate the whole store the way I want it to be. I enjoy doing that,” she said.

“It’s stressful but it takes stress away from me to be able to be creative in that way.” |||||

Top left: Artist Alex Ladner’s painted blocks of country churches are popular.

Above left: Candles by Grassroots carry names like The Brookhaven, A Home Seekers Paradise and Come Stay Awhile.

Above right: Brandi Day and her daughter Laren enjoy working together in the store.

Above: Nordic Ware bowls bring a pop of color to the room at Detour 51 filled with kitchen items.

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 33

travel SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 18

A DAY ON THE FARM 34 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

O

ne of the most unique things to see at Mitchell Farms in Collins has dirt under his fingernails and packed in the lifelines of his calloused hands.

Don Mitchell is an American farmer who grew up on the land he tills, following in his father’s muddy footprints out in the fields when he was just a boy.

Together with his wife, JoLynn, and his parents, Dennis and Nelda, the Mitchell family runs the 1,500-acre farm deep in the piney woods of Mississippi.

Mitchell Farms is located along Three-Chopped Way Trail that cuts through the woods east to west and Old Jackson Military Road headed north.

Three-Chopped Way is a trail forged by the U.S. Army in 1807 that stretched from Georgia to Natchez. It was marked with three chop marks on the trees. It runs roughly parallel to the present day Hwy. 84.

The farm is eight miles from Seminary and seven miles from Collins.

It’s a working farm — the Mitchells have been selling and shelling boiled green peanuts for more than 30 years.

The selling is to the public in small plastic bags to 30-pound green sacks, while the shelling is for their own consumption.

They also produce row crops and timber.

“I think the dirtier I am, the busier I am, I’m more fascinating to people because they’re seeing the real deal,” Mitchell said. “When they come here, they get to see the real deal.

They see tractors in the way, they see dirty pickups, they see tools laying everywhere. It’s a fascination with seeing a real working farm. I think that adds more to the experience than anything we could have built.”

When he’s not sweating on a tractor, Mitchell is boiling peanuts in a trio of stainless steel pots behind his peanut stand near the entrance to the farm.

He cooks 90 pounds of peanuts with 5 pounds of salt in each pot.

“They’re only going to be as salty as your water,” he said.

Sam, his Labrador retriever, is usually found either walking around hunting for shade or napping in a cool spot.

The ground is littered with hulls from his tasting, and even though he’s cooked enough batches in his lifetime that they consistently come out perfectly seasoned — not too salty, not too bland and somewhere in the middle between crunchy and mush — he still tastes them frequently because they’re delicious.

The Mitchells grow two varieties of green peanuts — super jumbo and Virginia — and sell them from early August through mid-November. Dry Virginia peanuts are sold from September until they’re gone.

Peanuts are so popular at this Covington County farm, they started a festival to honor the goober. The MS Peanut Festival is Oct. 6 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Oct. 7 from noon to 5 p.m. It features live entertainment, craft vendors, food vendors and, of course, peanuts.

Story and photos by Donna Campbell

Opposite page: A goat castle is a popular attraction at Mitchell Farms.

Above: Nelda Mitchell has dozens of unique collections displayed in The Toy Room including these wax cylinder phonographs.

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 35

36 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

FOOD FROM THE FARM

At left: Don Mitchell totes sacks of green peanuts to a customer’s car.

Above: Cookbooks featuring Nelda Mitchell’s favorite recipes are available for sale in the peanut shack.

But peanuts aren’t the only things that gets the crowds down the winding driveway to the farm. Mitchell Farms has evolved into a tourist destination and a thriving agri-culture business.

The Mitchells offer farm tours that give visitors a glimpse of life on the farm and they run a pumpkin patch and corn maze from Sept. 29 to Nov. 11.

Mitchell Farms features a huge barn built specifically to be used for weddings, receptions, reunions, retreats and company picnics.

Dennis Mitchell designed the barn, which is made entirely from timber that grew on the property and was cut into lumber at their sawmill by Don Mitchell. It features a large covered porch, kitchen and banquet area and plenty of rustic charm perfect for any bride-to-be dreaming of a country wedding.

Nelda Mitchell is proud of her homestead and gives tours that wind past her home and her son’s. There’s a log cabin to see that was built in 1877 and moved three miles to the

farm when Dennis and Nelda Mitchell bought it from one of the sons of the original builders in 1981.

The tour winds around the features on the property like the animal barn filled with chickens, a pair of peacocks and some guinea, the goat castle, the outhouse made from the sand-stone chimney that was taken apart from the log cabin and Tiny Town — a small town where children can play pretend on rocking horses in the livery stable, desks and blackboards in the school house or behind bars in the jail.

One of the most unusual stops on the tour is Nelda Mitchell’s Toy Room, which should more aptly be called the Toy House. It was built in 1999 out of sawed virgin pine timbers and houses Mitchell’s collections.

Inside are more than 2,200 miniature skillets, miniature ovens, squirrels, nut crackers, metal shoes, metal irons, glass fruit-shaped salt and pepper shakers, waxed cylinder phonographs and farm tools. Basically, it’s anything that catches Mitchell’s fancy that can

be collected and sorted, and shelved or hung.

While Tiny Town is a popular spot during field trips and birthday parties, there are dozens of other places to play on Mitchell Farms. The Pumpkin Patch & Corn Maze is open to the public from Sept. 29 to Nov. 11 weekends only. Hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday.

School field trips are available only during the week.

Some of the adventures available are gem mining, hay pyramid, corn pool, jumping pillows, train ride, pumpkin wagon and sand mountain.

“Our No. 1 attraction is a big ol’ pile of sand and a rope swing,” Mitchell said.

From Lincoln County take Hwy. 84 east toward Collins. A few miles past Hwy.49, turn right onto Leaf River Church Road. It’s about four miles to the farm. Watch for signs.

For information, call 601-765-8609 or 601-606-0762 or visit www. mitchellfarms-ms.com. ||||| BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 37

shopping SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 18

BANKER BY DAY, CREATOR BY NIGHT

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Story and photos by Donna Campbell

N

ot much slips through Stephanie Porter’s fingers without getting fluffed, furred, feathered or rhinestoned.

Porter, a longtime vendor at the annual Ole Brook Fest, puts her creative spin on pre-made items, transforming the plain into the spectacular with some thread, hot glue, accessories and her imagination.

By day, the wife and mother of four is a banker, training tellers and new account associates at the State Bank office in Ridgeland. By night, she’s a seamstress, crafter and creator at her dining room table, turning store-bought accessories into the stuff of little girls’ dreams, helping the mundane become magical.

Porter lives in Brookhaven with her husband, Chris, and their four children — Seth, 23; Julianna, 21; MacKenzie, 17, and Vivi Claire, 12.

Her trade show and festival store is JuVi’s, named for her daughters.

Lately, she’s been busy gearing up for the Christmas season, filling crates with handmade items she’ll sell at Ole Brook Oct. 6 and Handiworks in Jackson Nov. 16-17.

This will be the 44th annual Ole Brook Fest.

Porter figures she’s been a vendor at least 10 of those years.

She started going to it when it was still held on the playground at Brookhaven Elementary. She became a vendor in 2007 when her girls were 10 and 2.

Porter always loved to craft, but after her second daughter arrived she kicked it up a notch.

“I always had crafty friends but I never had my own little thing that I could always do,” she said.

“I was always the one that they let paint a solid color. I could prime stuff. That’s about all they would let me do.”

She started making bows for Vivi, watching YouTube to pick up pointers and quickly made her way to other accessories. She hadn’t considered actually selling her items at that time.

Then, 11 years ago, she visited Handiworks Holiday Market at the Mississippi Trade Mart in Jackson. Vivi Claire wore a pair of pink Converse tennis shoes with rhinestones on the toes. Her hair was swept back with a bow her mom had made, too.

“People were literally just stopping us, ‘Did you get that here?’” she said.

She’d tell them she made it and they’d be shocked. “‘Oh my goodness,’ they’d say and just have fits over it,” she said.

Opposite page: Bracelets are a big seller.

Above: Stephanie Porter, a Brookhaven mother of four, creates her crafts at night after a full day of work at State Bank in Ridgeland.

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 39

A vendor at Handiworks introduced her to one of the decision-makers over the massive market and she asked Porter for samples.

They invited her to become a vendor.

“I just went headfirst wide open,” she said.

She applied to join the Canton Flea Market Arts & Crafts show and made it onto “the square,” premium real estate space for vendors around the courthouse.

Porter heard it was difficult to get into the Canton show.

“My very first time to apply, I was on the square,” she said.

Now she does Canton twice a year as well as other festivals between Brookhaven and Jackson.

Chris Porter has always been a huge help, from making the displays and racks for JuVi’s to actually manning the booth when it gets busy or his wife has to step away.

“He knew which bow went with which dress. He could tell you what went with what,” she said, proudly.

“Chris is my sidekick. He sets up, he packs up, he takes down displays and would re-arrange displays 10 times if I asked him to, and he never once complains.”

She said her husband goes along to all of her shows and had garnered his own following through the years.

“Returning shoppers always want to talk to him,” she said.

Porter’s carpel tunnel has made it difficult to grip and twist the ribbons to make the bows, but she still creates embellished headbands and pom poms.

Everything on every bow must be just right. She wouldn’t put a hair accessory together that her youngest wouldn’t wear.

She gets a lot of inspiration from internet sites like Pinterest, but finds way to make her creations her own.

At left: Stephanie Porter uses school colors to personalize pom pom hair accessories.

At right: Whether it’s an appliqué on a baseball cap or handmade earrings, Stephanie Porter finds a way to add some sparkle.

40 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

“You find something you like and then I just add to it,” she said. “I’ll find something and then I try to think of ways to make it a little bit more sparklier.”

Take, for example, her bracelets made from well-worn baseballs. She cuts the leather at the seams and adds stitching and jewels. A cord and vintage button turns it into a trendy cuff bracelet that mothers of baseball players love to wear.

Porter’s husband is an umpire and brings her baseballs instead of tossing them out when they’re too worn. She’s had to purchase balls new before, but made her kids take them outside and play for a while to scuff them up.

She enjoys the Ole Brook Festival because it’s on home turf.

“Ole Brook is too easy not to go to,” she said. “You have your local people and you can do the local school colors and make things that people can’t just go buy other places.”

Of course, being from Brookhaven it makes it more like a family reunion than a trade show.

“I just like doing it because it’s a local show. You spend a lot of the day just talking and selling. It’s like it’s my own little retail store for the day,” she said.

Porter loves to see youngsters take delight with her creations.

“It just kind of make it all worthwhile to see how excited they get and their little eyes light up,” she said. ||||| BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 41

food SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 18

‘A pretty good deal’ LOYAL CUSTOMERS COMING TO STAR DRIVE IN FOR 50 YEARS

42 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

Story & photos by Adam Northam

R

andal Rushing doesn’t get a hamburger just anywhere. He doesn’t go to a big chain fast food joint and compete with all the foolishness that goes on in double drive-through lanes, waiting on folks to get off Facebook and move so he can pull up to the window and be handed someone else’s food.

Neither does he go to fancy sit-downs where the silverware is wrapped in fine linen — who needs a fork and a knife for a hamburger, anyway? — and the prices on the menu start at double digits and go up from there.

When Rushing wants a good hamburger, he goes to stand beneath the old red metal star.

“The Star Drive In’s got the best burgers,” said Rushing, 53. “I don’t know what it is about it, but they beat any burger around. And they’re just good people — ain’t never had a bit of trouble.”

Rushing’s not the only guy in town who likes his beef off the grill top of Brookhaven’s Star Drive In, an old-school, walk-up burger joint built in the 1960s that still operates flame-to-hand, just like it did in those old days of muscle cars and

draft cards and a cigarette behind every ear. The Star is celebrating its 50th year of operation in 2018, and still gets by in this age of cheap meats and anonymity by serving fresh food to loyal customers the workers call by name.

“That’s Randal’s bag right there,” said June Givens, the Star’s owner and manager, as she prepped Rushing’s food at lunchtime on a Tuesday. “Most of the people when they come up, our regulars, we can tell you what they want and how they want it.”

Givens, 71, has been running the Star since her husband, the late Jessie Earl Givens, built the place alongside his father, the late Cliff Givens, a longtime Lincoln County supervisor. It was 1968 when the two serving windows first opened, and the Givens family built two more Stars — one in Summit and another in Magnolia — after that.

She was young then, 21 years old and newly married, and she stepped into the Star to run the place “side by side” with her husband. She’s been there, cooking and serving and managing, since that first year.

“When they opened it, three days later it was so busy they were trucking buns from Natchez over here in big trucks,” Givens recalled. “It was so busy Jessie Earl’s uncle wanted out after three days. He couldn’t take it. So Jessie Earl bought out his half, and I’ve been here ever since.”

Givens said the Star in Brookhaven was the top Coca-Cola seller in the area in those days, and was a preferred hangout spot after Ole Brook football games, when the high schoolers would walk the short distance east down Monticello Street from the stadium and buy hamburgers and shakes for 25 cents a piece.

“They’re $3 now. That’s still a pretty good deal,” Givens said.

The menu hasn’t changed much in 50 years.

The Star still serves up what Givens calls “typical fast food,” but fast food has cheapened since the drive in’s menus were printed up — few of today’s fast food restaurants make their own chili or mix their own milkshakes, or serve shrimp plates and hamburger steaks and po’boys, or cook fries by the serving instead of by the bag.

That kind of service limits growth. The Star will never see hundreds of vehicles per day lined up around its parking lot, will never have to sit folks down and give them a number on a waiting list.

But Givens’ place does good business personto-person.

“We try to treat everybody like we want to be treated,” she said. “I truly enjoy going in and visiting with my customers, getting to see people and talk to them. We know our regulars by sight, and we give quality food for the price. I expect to be the best — maybe not the cheapest — but I put out good food. That’s how I’ve been here for 50 years.”

Opposite: Marilyn Dixon, 62, has worked for the Star since she was a teenager.

Above: Brookhaven’s Randal Rushing waits for his cheeseburger, which he says is “the best burger around.”

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 43

Robin Smith, 18, is too young to know about those old days of quarter shakes and steel-bodied cars. She probably doesn’t care. She just knows the way to the Star, where she comes nearly every day for a cheeseburger and small fries.

“I’ve been coming to the Star Drive In since I was little, and they do the best cheeseburger out of all of them,” Smith said. “It just tastes better.”

Deborah Gautreaux is a newcomer. The 58-year-old and her husband, John, moved up to Brookhaven from Louisiana back in January and her new neighbor told her to try out the Star’s milkshakes.

“And now we come every week,” she said. “The burgers are good, the service is good, and I’d rather support the hometown instead of the big chains.”

But the hometown is tired. Givens has spent her life behind the big glass window of the Star, and she’s ready for a rest.

“It’s been a change without Jessie,” she said. “I’m tired, and I’m ready to retire. I think I put my time in — my kids have been raised down there, my grandkids. I’ve been here 50 years.”

Givens said she’s got a few interested buyers on the line, but no deal has been done. She doesn’t want to sell the Star to anyone who wouldn’t put in the time, who wouldn’t stand on quality.

“I’d like to see a younger family come in and keep it up,” she said. “If I can’t find a buyer, I won’t lock the door — I’ve got too good a business to just lock the door. I’ll keep on until the right one comes along.” |||||

44 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

Top: Star Drive In owner June Givens serves a line of customers, one at a time, during lunch hour in Brookhaven. Givens, 71, has served up food at the Star for 50 years. Above: Dixon builds burgers at the grill.

Fall for our 2018 lineup of great vehicles

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See us at Toyota of Brookhaven for details.

EST

1935

BrookhaveN COUNTRY CLUB

Brookhaven Country Club is the perfect venue for wedding, reception or business meetings, boasting updated amenities with classic style.

Membership Has Its Privileges.

Join today and enjoy our remodeled facilities, local golf course, pool, tennis courts & more.

640 Country Club Rd. NE, Broohaven, MS. 39601 • 601-833-6841 • brookhavencountryclub.net BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 45

Homestead

homestead

At Brookhaven Nurseries

www.homesteadatbrookhavennurseries.com • Weddings & Receptions

• Overnight & Extended Stays

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946 Hwy 51 S | Brookhaven, MS

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Recycling in Brookhaven is successful and ongoing!

35 Gallon Recycling Containers still available at city barn upon request

Plastic bottles and jugs (1&2), steel and aluminum cans, paper, newspaper and cardboard (flatten cardboard boxes if they do not fit in your container) For the continued success of our recycling program, we remind citizens the following CANNOT be recycled: Glass, plastic bags, Styrofoam™, auto fluid or pesticide containers or any type of trash or garbage.

For more information: www.brookhavenms.com 46 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

This ad is sponsored by the MS Department of Environmental Quality.

We love a good

PARTY And so do our readers.

Keep the party going and the memories alive by submitting your pictures to the Social Scenes section of the Brookhaven Magazine!

When submitting your photos, please keep the following guidelines in mind: • The higher the resolution of your pictures the better!

• Include names and a brief description of your event.

That’s It!

Email them to: editor@dailyleader.com or for more info call us at The Daily Leader - 601-833-6961 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 47

social scenes SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 18

ALEXANDER JR. HIGH REUNION

Annie Morris and Flora Jackson Woods.

Annie Morris and Flora Jackson Woods.

Eloise Griffin and Helen Griffin.

Ladette Brown Jett and Bernice Haynes Smith.

Misty Sias Wall and Vernell Hooker.

Nikki and Dexter Holloway.

48 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

Ruby Newson and Kathaleen Crump.

Warren Cox and Willy Harrison.

Sadie Beatiest, Michael Beatiest and Bertheria Gaston.

Below: Sadie Beatiest, Johnette Hollaway and Felicia Gaston.

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 49

Bert Fortenberry Jr., Darlene Coleman and Henry Coleman.

Carolyn Humphries and Trelva Harvey.

Denetta Rawls and Benita Waite.

Doris Coleman and Arlevia Brice.

Kenny Gills, Willard Blue Jr. and Emmett Harris.

50 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

Misty Sias Wall and Patricia Sias.

CHIEF COLLINS’ BIRTHDAY BASH

Dispatcher Christopher Lambright, his grandmother Joyce Foster, computer tech Keith Mazer and his son, Det. Clint Earls and officer Phillip Purvis.

Jackie Malone, daughter Sarah Grace Malone, officer Eric Malone, officer Jonathan Hart, Lt. Rob Smith, wife Dana Smith and daughter Kaylea Smith.

Officer Samantha Beach, daughter Laila and husband Tyler Beach.

Cassidy Robinson, Lipsey School principal Rita Robinson, Pastor Burnell Robinson and officer Tyrus Daniels.

Former police chief Pap Henderson, police chief Kenneth Collins and Lincoln County sheriff Steve Rushing.

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 51

BROOKSTOCK

Donna Lefevers of Oakland, California; Brookhaven High graduate Linda Taylor Brien of Anaheim Hills, California; and BHS graduate Marilyn Bankston of Dallas, Texas.

Brookhaven’s Blake and Carrene Scafidel, and Ricky Brown.

Brookhaven’s Julia and Chuck Ivey.

Iddo and Lynn Davis of Brookhaven, with Brookhaven native Marybeth Davis, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Brookhaven’s Lilly Hodgson; Monticello’s Haley Perrien, Joy Russel and Chloey Russell; and Pike County’s Lucas Morgan.

52 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

RECEPTION FOR CO-LIN PRESIDENT JANE HULON

Jane Hulon and members of her family.

Tommy Stewart, Hulon and Jennifer Stewart.

Will Hulon, Jane Hulon and Drew Hulon.

Ronnie Nettles, Billy B. Thames, Hulon and Howell Garner.

Janet Smith and Billy B. Thames.

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 53

KDMC FOUNDATION TOURNEY

Don Coleman.

Jeff Richardson.

Melissa Leggett and Thea Middleton.

Ryan Adair, Byron Stockstill, KDMC chief operations officer Tom Hood and KDMC chief executive officer Alvin Hoover.

54 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

MEADVILLE, MS

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Why advertise in The Daily Leader’s Brookhaven Magazine?

“It’s the smart choice” GUARANTEED DISTRIBUTION

Brookhaven Magazine is delivered to all Daily Leader subscribers and placed in racks, offices and retail locations throughout the area.

WHO READS BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE? Middle-to-upper income residents who have an interest in or a love for the Brookhaven lifestyle.

The magazine is targeted to homeowners in the area, particularly women.

Brookhaven Magazine is created by locals for locals.

Make the SMART move and advertise your business where it matters ... right here at home.

Kristi Carney - 601.265.5300 • kristi.carney@dailyleader.com Kristie Champagne - 601.265.5301 kristie.champagne@dailyleader.com BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 55

garden SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 18

Pumpkins, squash and corn ... oh my!

By Gary. R. Bachman

I

came to a shocking realization this past weekend: Even though it still feels like summer, the signs are all around us that fall is about to begin.

First, we see the tropics heating up with storm activity. T.S. Gordon made landfall in Pascagoula Sept. 5 and spread rain all the way up to north Mississippi.

Behind it were several more tropical storms.

Second, I’ve been reading the ads that pumpkin patches all around Mississippi are opening soon.

Third, I saw the first garden center display of autumn favorites: pumpkins, squash and gourds. There were also mums just starting to show color.

These are all the makings of autumnal decorations.

One of the great controversies of the fall season — OK, maybe moderately debated is a better term — is what’s the difference between a pumpkin, a squash and a gourd?

Common thoughts include the simple distinctions that pumpkins are carved, squash are cooked and eaten, and gourds are purely aesthetic and meant to be admired as decorations. But I’ve found many people use these terms interchangeably, calling all these fruit either pumpkin, squash or gourds. The only exception is the Halloween Jack O’ Lantern, which is always called a pumpkin.

Scientifically speaking, pumpkins, squash and gourds have an intertwined agricultural and cultivation history. This is appropriate, as all three are produced on vining plants. They belong to the family Cucurbitaceae. Most are in the genus Cucurbita and are spread out across three species: C. pepo, C. maxima and C. moschata.

Cucurbita pepo includes the true pumpkin, with bright orangish skin and hard, woody stem that is perfect for using as a handle. Other member of this species include patty pan, zucchini and

56 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

Cucurbita pepo such as these are the true pumpkins, with woody stems and bright orange skin that are perfect for carving. (Photo by MSU Extension/Gary Bachman)

summer crookneck squash.

C. maxima has fruit that look like pumpkins but display far more yellows colors. These are the giant “pumpkins” that folks grow to enter in those largest pumpkin contests. These giant pumpkins can reach weights greater than 1,000 pounds. Culinary varieties we enjoy are the winter squash: hubbard, buttercup and acorn squash.

Moschata varieties are more oblong, with tan or almost brown outer skins. A fun fact is that these varieties are grown and processed for much of the delicious canned pumpkin used in pumpkin pies and other desserts that many folks enjoy in the fall and holiday season.

There are some Cucubita gourds, and they are small, funny-shaped fruit with

bumpy and lumpy skins and almost unnaturally bright colors.

But gourds are also found in a couple of other genera. Lagenaria gourds are large with smooth skins. These are the popular birdhouse gourds. The final gourd species is the Luffa, also called vegetable sponge. These gourds are valued as natural washcloths and kitchen scrubbers.

Come to think of it, maybe it is just easier to stick with the simple distinctions between pumpkins, squash and gourds: Do you carve it, eat it or look at it?

Bachman is an Extension/Research Professor with Mississippi State University.

voices SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 18

Why I love Brookhaven Why do I love Brookhaven? It’s really not a hard question to answer, especially if you’ve lived elsewhere even for a short period of time. Life is about relationships; relationships with family, friends, coworkers, church and most importantly with God. I grew up in Brookhaven living on Jennifer Street which had an abundance of kids. We played outside almost every evening until dark. According to the time of year, we were playing basketball, football or baseball in somebody’s yard.

Growing up behind Mamie Martin, oftentimes we would play on the softball field with kids from other neighborhoods such as Crider Drive and White Oak Street which also had kids our age in nearly every home. I have great memories of playing baseball at the B-Minor/Little League fields and the smell of creosote in the evenings, Pee Wee football league at Exchange Club and Wiffle Ball and basketball leagues at First Baptist Church. With me living inside the city limits, I also went to Loyd Star through ninth grade and finished at Brookhaven Academy, which allowed me to make friends from all three school systems.

After high School, I graduated from Copiah-Lincoln Community College and Southern Miss, got married to my wife Malisia, and moved away to Washington D.C. where I started my career. It didn’t take long for us to realize that Washington was not where the Lord wanted us to be. We moved back to Brookhaven and have never left.

My wife and I don’t stay in Brookhaven simply because of the great memories of childhood. But that quality of life certainly did influence us being back in Brookhaven, to raise our son Garrett, and develop our careers in this environment. We love the small-town atmosphere and supporting our local community and

charitable events. We love the diversity of churches and the fact that you can go to any church in the area — despite the denomination — and worship beside neighbors and friends. I also believe a big part of us loving Brookhaven has to be our local businesses. I’ve worked at King’s Daughters Medical Center for nearly 25 years, where our mission is to provide quality health and wellness in a Christian environment. You can’t talk about quality of life without talking about your health.

The people that walk through our doors are our neighbors, our families and our church members. We want to always get it right and be the very best we can be because we love the people we take care of.

Things have changed a lot over the years. We no longer have Gibsons, TG&Y, Progressive Men’s Shop, Sullivans or Loftons.

Life changes. But love and relationships remain.

New memories are being made. And I can’t think of a better place to be than Brookhaven.

Carl Smith is the chief information officer at King’s Daughters Medical Center where he is responsible for all information systems, software and technology.

He and his wife, Malisia, are parents to one son, Garrett, who is 23 and a senior at Mississippi College. Carl and his family have also been involved in ministry for over 20 years and love serving the Lord and the community. He served as a youth minister for many years and served as pastor of Beauregard United Methodist Church for 13 years. Carl is currently serving as worship leader for Southway Baptist Church, and speaks at churches and camps throughout the state. He is the son of Frank C. Smith, who worked for Mississippi Power & Light for many years, and Mary Ann Smith, who retired from Mamie Martin Elementary as a second-grade teacher.

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 57

voices SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 18

Run like a scalded dog Why does everybody think Southerners care so much about dogs?

We don’t, do we? I don’t.

I mean, I have a dog, and I think she’s a swell old mutt, but I do not address or describe the world around me by jamming a reference to her or the rest of the genus canis into every sentence when I exclaim, or declare. The vocabulary, especially the Southern one, is too big for such nonsense.

Whatever you do, don’t tell the Yankees, or Hollywood, or the media.

Apparently, they think this world is beyond our coping abilities, lest we have a dog nearby to help us make sense of it.

I saw it recently in an online post from “Garden and Gun,” of all places. They published an entry on dogs in their “A Brief Guide to Southernisms” series, which claimed the first rule was to include canines.

Claiming this is how we talk, they listed every B-movie Southern phrase about dogs you’ve ever heard that immediately left you feeling awkward.

“That dog won’t hunt.”

“You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog.”

“Run with the big dogs or stay on the porch.”

First of all, not every dog is a hunter — mine’s a lay-around. The second example was spoken by Elvis, and nobody else. The third phrase is for football players and sports drink marketers. Nobody in the South really talks like this.

The magazine goes on to ask, “Is it even possible to be Southern and not have a dog — or many dogs, probably? Not really.” My Grandmother Northam never liked a dog on earth but Lassie, and my Grandmother Smith never owned a dog, and named all dogs “damn ‘ole dog.” Is “Garden and Gun” trying

58 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

to say my grandmothers aren’t Southern?

By god.

No, “Garden and Gun” has it wrong, just like when any other big movie or book that doesn’t know what it’s talking about tries to make every Southerner sound like Scarlett O’Hara at one end, Gomer Pyle on the other.

But it just ain’t so. My grandmothers never talked like that, never spoke in cliches or used the artificially-sweetened junk-talk you hear on Country Music Television, or in advertisements for Cracker Barrel.

That kind of talk was made up by charlatans who never heard the beauty of the old language, who’d never come around the hardened folks who spoke it, before they all died out.

Growing up, I heard it. It was a mix of Scripture and red-clay reality. It sounded like this.

“He ain’t no count,” is what Inez Byrd Smith would say about someone living a little beneath their potential.

Or simply, he’s a “no-count.” One got in that sorry condition by spending all their time “just ‘a messin’.” And if you did your messin’ where she could see you, her old wrinkled face would twist into a long frown and, having given up on you ever amounting to anything, say, “just look ‘atcha.”

“Flitter,” is what Granny Smith would say about unfortunate trivialities, like when the spoon disappeared into a skillet of corn.

When she said “flitter fire,” that meant whatever choice you’d made was ridiculous, and if something a little worse than a sunken spoon occurred, she’d combine the “fire” with a little cussin’ — but she never added “and save the matches.” I think some Yankee came up with that.

“That ain’t fittin’,” is what Wena Fikes Northam would say

as she flipped through 40 channels of basic cable and turned the TV off, disgusted. Granny Northam would not invite “filth” into her home on a television screen, and her standards for decency were pretty high. “They’re just ‘a messin’ and a gummin’,” she would say about folks going wrong in the spiritual sense, or “you look like Ned in the First Reader” when things went wrong in the physical.

She would tend the house and yard every day, sweeping leaves with a dogwood besom she’d tied together with an old hem, even when it was “hot as blue blazes” in the Alabama summer, or “cold as a frog” in the brief winters. When the weather got bad, it “came up a big cloud.”

That was how my grandmothers talked, in an ancient language of milk cows and cotton fields, of sewing plants and one-room school houses, of hard times. We in this softer age can no longer speak that language, and can hardly understand it.

They didn’t go around talking about dogs all the time, or mentioning sweet tea in every breath. Sweet tea became a Southern staple because it was cheap for poor people to make, so please stop writing country music songs about it like it’s ether from the gods.

Next time somebody tries to get cozy with you by pretending to sound Southern with a bunch of surfacelevel drawl, remember, they’re probably just trying to sell you something. Don’t be fooled. Run. Run like a scalded dog.

Adam Northam is managing editor of The Daily Leader and Brookhaven Magazine.

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 59

Life Is Hectic

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60 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

EQUAL HOUSING

LENDER

Proverbs 4:11