BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
PIANO MAN knows the keys
FRIENDS AT THE GUNS Man went through Vietnam with best friend JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 $4.99
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MUFFIN TOP LOVE HANDLES SPARE TIRE FLANKS MOM BOD GOODBYE FAT. POOCH BELLY FAT BELLY HELLO COOLSCULPTING. INNER THIGHS ABDOMEN SOUTHERN SURGICAL SERVICES TIRE MUFFIN TOP LOVE HANDLES SPARE TIRE FLANKS TOP 3 THINGS SHOULDBELLY KNOW FAT ABOUT COOLSCULPTING MOM BODYOU POOCH LOVE HANDLES ABDOMEN BELLY POOCH TUMMY SPARE TIRE What is it? A non-surgical procedure that freezes away fat to contour yourTOP body. The procedure is non-invasive and has little to no downtime. MUFFIN LOVE HANDLES SPARE TIRE FLANKS MOM BOD POOCH BELLY FAT LOVE HANDLES Does it hurt? Most patients report very little to no pain at all. There may be a slight discomfort or pressure, coupled with cold sensation. Is it approved? Coolsculpting has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. There have been over 500,000 CoolSculpting treatments completed.
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BROOKHAVEN Magazine is produced and published by The Daily Leader, 128 N. Railroad Ave., Brookhaven, MS 39601. The magazine is published six times a year. For additional information on this issue or other publications or for copies, call 601-833-6961. To inquire about story content, email donna.campbell@dailyleader.com, or to inquire about advertising, email advertising@dailyleader.com. Copyright 2018 © The Daily Leader
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 PUBLISHER Luke Horton EDITORIAL Adam Northam Donna Campbell Brett Campbell CONTRIBUTING Sarah Reynolds ADVERTISING Kristi Carney Kristie Champagne GRAPHICS Claudia Holifield
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ARTS
PIANO MAN KNOWS THE KEYS
FEATURE
8
FRIENDS AT THE GUNS
14
HAIL TO THE KING
38
HISTORY
HISTORY IN THE MAKING
FOOD
GETTING SOME GRUB AT THE GALLEY
THE REST
26
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF ON SOUTH JACKSON STREET
34
HOME
PHOTO ESSAY SOCIAL SCENES GARDEN VOICES
30 41 49 50
22
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Serving your family with Christian values
The best in Local news, sports and weather is at your fingertips. In print & online.
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Serving your family with Christian Values
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arts JANUARY/FEBRUARY 19
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Piano man knows the keys Story by Donna Campbell Sing us a song, you’re the piano man Sing us a song tonight Well, we’re all in the mood for a melody And you’ve got us feelin’ alright. — Billy Joel
B
efore Blake Scafidel was the piano man, he was the piano kid. Scafidel grew up in Brookhaven with music in the air. His mother, Barbara, was the church organist at Central Baptist and young Blake followed in her keystrokes. He started playing piano about the same time he started first grade. “It was just a fascination with me,” he said. That fascination has been a part of his life for half a century. Scafidel, the son of Bobby Scafidel and Barbara Oster, filled his days with music. His older brother and sister had a passing fancy with music, and though his sister plays, neither pursued it as a career. Scafidel took lessons starting in the first grade, evolving from “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” pretty quickly thanks to his instruction from P.S. Barnett and Martha Bowling. His sight-reading wasn’t great, however, so he learned to play by ear. He played mostly at church, but remembers when he was 10 or 11 years old entering a 4-H talent show and taking home first prize. He jokes that his inability to focus helped him score the win. He would teach himself to play pop songs, but since his limited attention span prevented him from learning any song in its entirety, he racked up an impressive repertoire of intros. He strung those together into a medley of hits and won the show every time.
Photos by Anthony Thaxton, J.B. Lawrence and Bill Perkins
Blake Scafidel learned to play by ear as a youngster.
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“I think I probably had undiagnosed ADD back then, so I’d learn a pop song but I could only stick with it to learn the intro to the song — the thing that was most popular — so what I would do is I would make a medley out of all of those songs and that’s what I would play for the talent shows.” At some point, he discovered the music of John Williams and became interested in movie scores. He admits he snuck a handheld cassette recorder into the Brookhaven movie theater to record the music of “Star Wars.” “That was my first big excitement with movie score music,” he said. And while the music of the intergalactic trilogy — before the prequels and sequels were a thing — was his favorite of Williams’ scores, he loved to listen to anything the legendary composer put his name to. Though he lived with his father in Texas for a time, he came home to attend Copiah-Lincoln Community College to study music. He majored in piano performance, studying at Mississippi College to hone his skills.
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But he couldn’t decide what direction his keyboard was pointing. His passion is composing and creating, taking the music in his head and turning it into notes on paper. “I’ve always loved improvising. I can literally still sit at the piano for hours, improvising,” he said. He enjoys composing soundtracks for scenic videos he shoots himself, like a video of his kids in the yard playing in the snow last winter. He captured their antics on tape and created a score for it, like a mini movie. Scafidel is worship pastor at Lakeshore Church in Byram, while wife Carrene plays piano at Easthaven Baptist Church. His involvement with church music keeps him busy, but he still enjoys creating his own music on the side. Technology has allowed Scafidel to capture the sounds of just about every musical instrument in the world and release them from their five-terabyte prison inside his computer at the touch of a button. He can compose songs and be the entire orchestra while sitting at a keyboard.
That’s what he did for “The Cure for Christmas Chaos,” an album he released last year. He played all the instruments himself. That CD proved to be so popular, he put together a show by the same name that thrilled audiences for two shows this Christmas. More than 650 people attended and know what to expect next time, he said. “Now they know. They’ve had the experience, they’ve connected with it,” he said. A second “Cure for Christmas Chaos” album may be in the works soon. He also wants to bring the Branson-style variety show back to Brookhaven next year. A non-Christmas show could also become reality. “I love bringing these artists in,” he said. Another Scafidel project that’s become popular with audiences is dueling pianos. It started by accident about three years ago, he said. He enjoyed artists like Billy Joel and Elton John, though he was never a huge fan.
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“I loved hearing them but I didn’t have anywhere I could perform that music because it didn’t fit in with the church music I was doing,” he said. There was a brief point in Scafidel’s life where his career became an unfinished score with notes trailing off. He pondered his hopes and dreams and wondered if they were unfulfilled. He and a friend were talking about the meaning of life over dinner when “Piano Man” came on and he heard the Billy Joel song in a different way. The lyrics spoke to where he was at that moment. He started listening to Joel more and added some Elton, creating a set based on their music and other similar artists. That turned into solo gigs at private parties and dueling piano gigs. Audiences love the duels. “I had to learn in a very short amount of time about 300 songs,” he said. “You need to know several hundred songs at least. The challenge (for the audience) is to see how many songs between the two guys they know.” One of Scafidel’s dueling partners is his 24-year-old son, Jason, who is
a songwriter, singer and performer in Starkville. “He writes some incredible songs and has a great voice,” he said. His 18-year-old son, Adrian, is also into music. He’s a guitarist studying at Co-Lin. Three other Scafidel kids are at home. Emily is 20, Micah is 13 and Avery is 6. Carrene — the patient Scafidel — teaches piano at Brookhaven Music. They met at Co-Lin three decades ago when Scafidel needed to hire a pianist. She couldn’t take the job, but did take his heart. While Carrene is off teaching, Scafidel is in his home studio creating. He’s working on a few instrumental albums and may do an album of instrumental hymns. He’s playing around with some creative arrangements of pop songs as well. He will continue to perform live because of the feedback he gets from his audience. “It’s that place where what I love comes together and it’s what others love as well,” he said. BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 11
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southwest medical
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feature JANUARY/FEBRUARY 19
Friends at the guns
A field artillery piece barks out a shell during the Vietnam War. Opposite, Louisiana’s Donald Ray Byrd and Lincoln County’s Charles White, both 74, grew up together, served in Vietnam side-by-side and remain close friends today. Pictured are, from left, Byrd and White.
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Story by Adam Northam
LINCOLN COUNTY MAN WENT THROUGH VIETNAM WAR WITH BEST FRIEND AT HIS SIDE
T
hey grew up best friends, graduated high school together, though in a class of 14 people, they didn’t have much choice but to be friends. The got drafted together, shipped off to Vietnam together, because when the government said, “go,” they didn’t have much choice but to go. They got wounded together, on a sunny day in March 1968, when a North Vietnamese mortar round dropped in right on top of them, knocked them both down off the top of the self-propelled gun they were firing, shearing off one’s leg at the thigh and burying steel shards in the other’s head, because when the enemy worked out the range, they didn’t have much choice but to be blown up. And they met again, six months later, both discharged and done with war, to continue a lifelong friendship that began in the hot dirt beside the Red River in Poland, Louisiana, because when not even the supersonic fall of high explosives and the cutting whine of death could separate them, they didn’t have much choice but to keep on as brothers — even now, with 74-year-old Charles White living in Brookhaven for the last 31 years and Donald Ray Byrd still down near Alexandria. “We call each other all the time, and I get down and see him every chance I get,” White said. White, who lives just out of town off Zetus Road, is a retired truck driver who moved to Brookhaven in 1987 to drive for the newly-built Walmart Distribution Center. He was on the road for Walmart for 30 years, and for another 17 before that, retiring in 2015. He attends New Prospect Baptist Church. He grew up about 15 miles south of Alexandria on a family farm, the youngest of five children, his childhood and adolescence spent behind the wheel of a John Deere tractor, raising the crops his father would truck out to sell to Piggly Wiggly and A&P. Byrd lived seven miles away, leading an identical life of farming. “We was side-by-side, just like a brother,” White said. “There wasn’t much to do but farm, and there wasn’t no money to do anything, anyway. That’s just the way it was back then.” They graduated together in 1962. There was no celebration trip, no cruise, no big plans for college. They took off their caps and gowns and went back to farming, until Oct. 19, 1966, when both men, on the same day, received a notice from their local draft board. “We called each other and said, ‘Hey, did you get a letter from Uncle Sam?’” White said. “It was scary. I knew I’d most likely end up over there — Vietnam. I didn’t know much
about what was going on over there, why we was even over there. I’d heard it was a political war, but I don’t know what politics had to do with men dying. My God, the politics was in the U.S. Over there, men was dying every day. But it wasn’t for me to know, it was just my job to go, to do what I was supposed to do.” Both friends reported to Fort Polk for eight weeks of basic training in the U.S. Army — a rigorous course, no doubt, but one made easier for the farm boys by a lifetime of getting up at dawn and working all day. At the end of basic, both were assigned to the 4th Battalion, 1st Artillery and sent to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for gunnery training.
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White stands to be honored at a Veterans Day ceremony last year at Poland Baptist Church near his home on the Red River, south of Alexandria, Louisiana. Opposite top, White works the radio in the shell farm, standing amidst the 175mm projectiles the M107 self-propelled gun, which he crewed, could throw up to 25 miles. Opposite middle, from left, White and Byrd catch some sun on their 23-day sea voyage to Vietnam in 1967. Opposite bottom, White stands near the tip of the M107’s 28-foot barrel.
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There, they were trained to be part of a 13-man crew of the M107 self-propelled gun, a 175mm artillery tube fastened to a 30-ton tank chassis. The gun sported a barrel nearly 30 feet long and could lob 7-inch shells out to a distance of 25 miles, loaded with a projectile and powder charges that were rammed home through a breech-lock and fired with the pull of lanyard. Every crewman learned every job. White was assigned as a driver/assistant gunner, while Byrd, promoted to sergeant, became the gun section chief, responsible for calculating angles and bringing the gun’s rounds to target. “It would take a few times to get your deflection and quadrant just right, but then you could pretty well land it where you wanted it to go,” White said. “On a Charge 3, you had to get off the gun. That barrel recoiled so high it’d come up off the ground. That’s why I can’t hardly hear today. It wasn’t too hard to learn, and it was stuff like me and Byrd liked to do, anyway — we grew up fooling with machinery on the farm, so it wasn’t nothing to learn how to drive one.” The two friends left Fort Sill for Tacoma, Washington, where they boarded a ship for a 23-day voyage to the war, arriving in Da Nang, where new M107s were waiting. The unit went north, clearing firebases out of the jungle as needed, and ended up at Dong Ha Combat Base, north of Quang Tri, a large Army and Marine Corps base near the demilitarized zone. It was the summer of 1967, and the two Louisiana boys were unbothered by the tropical heat, but adjusting to combat took time, if it ever happened at all. “They started shooting at us as soon as we got there,” White said. “They shelled us off and on, a lot, until we could silence them by shooting back. Every day they shelled us, and we’d get fire missions at any hour — we’d have to get out of our bunks in the middle of the night and go to the guns. They’d put it on us, and we’d put it back on them. We was scared to death at first, but it got to where it didn’t bother us. We just did what we had to do and shot back, just shooting back and forth, like the cowboys and the bad guys.” They adjusted. The 52 men servicing the four M107s that made up their unit drank water from a hanging lister bag and set the tin cans holding their rations on the manifolds of the guns’ diesel engines to warm up their chow. Their rations included an allotment of cigarettes, but White didn’t smoke, so he gave all his to Byrd. On the morning of March 12, 1968, the base came under attack, heavier than normal this time, more than just a few mortar rounds. The bombardment intensified, and the artillerists took cover in their bunkers until an officer came in and ordered up a fire mission. Byrd, White and the other gunners left the safety of the bunker and manned their guns as shells fell around them. The two friends, manning Gun 1, got off two or three shots before an enemy shell landed with precision, between Gun 1 and Gun 2, behind White. “It knocked me down. I didn’t really know what had happened,” White said. “I got up and started looking for Byrd and couldn’t find him. And then there he was, laying on the ground, with just skin holding his leg on.”
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Fragments from the explosion killed a man on Gun 2, all but severed Byrd’s left left above the knee and buried into White’s head, though he didn’t know it. He stayed at his friend’s side, kneeling by his broken body as the guns quieted down. “I was just as upset as I could be to see him like that,” White said. “We had just changed positions about 30 seconds before it happened. It could have been me. He never did pass out. He talked the whole time, but I don’t remember what we said. When the helicopter came to get him, I shook his hand and said, ‘Buddy, it looks like we’re gonna depart right now.’ He said, ‘Yup, looks that way.’” Byrd was off to a series of Army hospitals. White, with shrapnel in his head that would eventually work its way out a year later, stayed incountry another six months without his best friend and “went on as best (he) could.” There were more attacks at Dong Ha, but none as large. In August, with his two-year draft stint almost over, White was sent to Fort Lewis, Washington, and discharged. He made his way back to Louisiana and found Byrd, short a leg, recovering at his family’s home. “What a joyful day that was,” White said. “We was hugging each other just like you’d hug on your wife. Tears was in our eyes — it don’t hurt for a grown man to cry once in a while. That’s part of life. He could have come back in a duffel bag, dead as anything. That would have been something on me then, and it happened to a bunch of guys.” Byrd was nearly in one of those bags. “It was kind of tough on us for a little while. They didn’t know if I’d made it or not, for a couple of weeks or so,” he said. “It was good to get back together.” Byrd went on to work in a feed mill and drove a truck. White went on the road, too. Both men had families. Byrd earned a Silver Star for his part in the battle; both men were awarded Purple Hearts. They were honored in a small ceremony last year at Poland Baptist Church in their hometown, and remain close today. “We don’t talk about the war too much. A lot of men don’t,” White said. “Of course, a lot of men had it worse than we did — the infantry guys caught more devil than us. Sometimes, I wonder why we were even over there. But we had to go, and that was it. We were scared, but we went.” Byrd said it was a wonder he and White were able to stick together through training, through the war and afterward, saying his memories of the years would have been a lot different without his friend there to help him get through it all. “It was worth a lot to me to have ol’ Charles Lee with me,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to say what it would have been like without him. It’s nice to know you had somebody like Charles with you. It was quite an experience.” BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 17
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Indoor Inflatable Playground
Miller
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Open Jump
hiTe a T e d
Birthday Parties
i n c o r p o r c e rT i F i e d p u b l i c ac c o u n Ta n T s
Private Events Kids' Night Out
Mary Helen Miller, CPA, CVA
Outdoor Inflatable Rentals
Korey W. White, CPA
P.O. Box 871 • Brookhaven, MS 39602 106 South Whitworth Avenue • Brookhaven, MS 39601 Telephone: 601-833-5031 • Fax 601-833-5042
www.brookhavencpa.com
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Brookhaven’s Home Owned Travel Service
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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 21 Feb/Jan. indd.indd 21
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history JANUARY/FEBRUARY 19
HISTORY W IN THE MAKING
hen people say someone grew up in a
business, they have people like Johnny Parkman in mind. His father, Malcolm
“Si” Parkman, ran Brookhaven Auto Parts, the
NAPA store on North Whitworth Avenue, and little Johnny was in the store regularly most of his life, from the time he was just an infant.
“I was 11 years old when I started helping at the
store,” Johnny said, “and I’ve been here ever since.” That’s 69 years in the same building. Story by Brett Campbell
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Opposite: Men stand outside Brookhaven Auto Parts Co. in its early days. Below left: A Brookhaven man poses with his car in the early 1900s. Below: Cars on East Monticello Street outside the Inez Hotel, 1904.
The building that houses the parts enterprise is over a century old. It was once owned by V.G. Youngblood, who ran Southern Wholesale in half of the building. K.B. Burns ran a business in the other half. Si Parkman took over in 1937, running the city’s first auto parts store. The automobile itself had only been a part of life in the state since 1910. The building Parkman’s store occupied had served as one of the first GMC dealerships in Mississippi. Roads that supported regular automotive traffic — engineered highways — had only begun to be constructed statewide within the previous decade, and many people in the county still relied on wagons and horses. Although photos of Brookhaven from the time period show that cars were popular in the area, a store that specialized in parts for automobiles was still cutting-edge. The NAPA building sits between Southern Pawn on the northern end of the block and 1905 — once home of T. H. Perkins Furniture Co. — on the southern corner. It is among the oldest buildings in downtown, and thanks to NAPA’s signature colors can claim to be downtown’s bluest structure. One of the former neighboring businesses had
been a century-old landmark, too. “The Lincoln County Co-Op was there close to 100 years,” said Johnny. “Over 100 years.” A sporting goods store was in the building at one time, run by Buddy Radley. When it closed, Parkman combined both halves of the building into one store, occupying approximately 8,000 square feet. As a parts man, Si partnered with T.J. Parker in McComb, running stores in Monticello, Prentiss and Meadville, as well. The store in Brookhaven served as the training center for their employees. “We probably have trained half of the parts people in the state,” Johnny said. “Maybe not the younger ones, but most of the older ones have come through our store for training. We train the parts people as we go.” Johnny took over running the business at age 31, after his father died two days before Christmas, 1969. “He was walking to the bank down the street when he was struck by a car and died. I’ve been running it with my sons since then,” he said. Over the years, the store has sold Yazoo Big Wheel mowers — since that company’s early days in the 1950s; Evinrude outboard motors, for the past 25 years; and “just about anything you needed,” according to Johnny.
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Photos by Donna Campbell
NAPA is located in the same building it has occupied for over 100 years. Johnny Parkman, 80, has worked at the store for 69 years. Above right, pictured are from left, Johnny Parkman and his son Jody.
They’ve even had an automotive machine shop in the back. Johnny said earlier this month that his retirement was just days away — Dec. 31 — and the octogenarian will step away from the daily business of selling parts and all that goes with it. Until then, he’ll continue going in every day from 8 a.m. until early afternoon. He’ll walk back and forth through the same area that generations have visited, seeking parts for tractors and mowers and automobiles. When he leaves the store on his final day of employment, the building may still be standing, but its soul will forever be changed. Though owned now by Bozeman Autocare and Tire, the business is still locally managed by Johnny’s sons,
so the Parkman presence will continue, minus a 69-year tenant. But he has plans. “I have plenty to do around the house, plenty of projects,” he said. With a spot on his property already prepped for a spring garden, a list of kinfolks to visit and his main hobby — collecting, buying, selling and trading Native American artifacts all over the nation — he imagines he’ll keep himself busy. And he thinks Brookhaven will do just fine. “I see Brookhaven changing a lot. I think it’s for the better,” Johnny said, “and I hope to see a lot of progress.”
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LP&L Lowery, Payn
Leggett
Certified Public Accountants
Ring in the New Year TRULY right.
Sharon E. Payn, CPA Stacy B. Leggett, CPA Lowery, Payn and Leggett, CPA’s strives to ensure our clients accomplish their financial goals by providing the highest quality accounting, tax, audit and consulting services. 207 South Railroad Avenue Brookhaven, MS 39601
601-833-1456
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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) GARAGE DOORS THAT MAKE A STATEMENT
Residential • Commercial 601-684-4141 608 W. Presley Blvd., McComb, MS qualitydoorsllc.com
This area’s only locally owned garage door dealer.
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Recycling in Brookhaven is successful and ongoing!
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 This ad is sponsored by the MS Department of Environmental Quality. BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
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food JANUARY/FEBRUARY 19
Story and photos by Donna Campbell
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Getting some grub at the Galley S
tarting a new restaurant, even one on wheels, is a new experience for Brandy Walters. The 32-year-old opened Galley Grub in late October in a food truck her husband bought for her earlier this year. It’s located at 101 Hwy. 51 North, next to the building that houses Hudgey’s and Sassy But Sweet. It’s a yellow truck with a big pineapple painted on the side. “My son loves SpongeBob,” Clark said. SpongeBob SquarePants is the star character on a cartoon about a square yellow sponge who lives in a pineapple with his pet snail, Gary, in the city of Bikini Bottom on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. Pineapple is also incorporated into her menu. But before pineapples and food trucks, she was a 14-year-old slinging burgers at 583 Grill in Enterprise. She also worked at The Inez, Mitchell’s and Georgia Blue, learning the trade and honing her skills at each restaurant. At The Inez, she traded her order pad for a spatula and finally found her spot in the kitchen. She learned to love the creative side of cooking. “Food’s where I’ve always wanted to be,” she said. “Ain’t never wanted to do anything else.” Walters, a 2005 graduate of Brookhaven High School, honed her craft in the different kitchens. She learned the management side of the business at Georgia Blue. This past year, she took some time off from work to be a full-time mom — son Nathan, 10 — and visit her husband, Josh, in New Mexico.
Above, Brandy Walters’ son, Nathan, enjoys chicken tacos after school. Opposite, Daphne Montgomery gives change to customer Whitney Clark. Following pages, the menu at Galley Grub features a variety of dishes using shrimp, tilapia, chicken and steak. Page 29, at top, Alana Lambert sprinkles salt on a batch of fries.
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Josh and his brother were working in the oil fields out west and when she’d visit, she noticed the unusually large numbers of food trucks. She liked the concept and the dishes. She thought about one day owning one herself, but didn’t realize how soon that wish would come true. “The opportunity came up to where they were able to buy one and they called me up one day and said, ‘Hey, got you a food truck,’” she said, laughing. Her husband bought a fully operational food truck called Buckin’ Bronco that was used in Wyoming. They drove it to Brookhaven from New Mexico. When it arrived, it was solid black, like a lump of coal on wheels. Now it’s bright and cheery in seafoam blue with the aforementioned pineapple painted on the side with her GG logo in the center. She covered it with an outdoor canopy, like a portable carport, and added a building next to it for office space and bathrooms. They arranged a few picnic tables in front and added an outdoor heater. She filed all the necessary paperwork, paid for a license, hired her staff and created her menu. “It’s always been a dream, but it wasn’t planned,” she said. “It really lets you focus on the food aspect of it. When you’re working in a restaurant you have so many other things to worry about. It just kind of frees you up as a chef to focus on the food.” One of the challenges involved in running a food truck is the small confines — the order window, prep area, kitchen and storage is all in one room. Three people are usually manning each of the stations, which means there is a certain amount of two-stepping and bumping. With practice they’ve managed to get a good flow going. It helps that her crew is either family, or like family. Walters is the force in front of the grill, keeping flour tortillas heated on a cast iron comal and chicken, fish, shrimp and steak grilled to perfection. Her mother-in-law, Tammy Ricks, puts the food together in the prep area, assembling tacos, salads, burgers and grill combos. Walters’ younger sister Alana Lambert helps in the afternoons after her classes at Copiah-Lincoln Community College. She assembles food when Ricks isn’t there since the spot allowed is only big enough for one person at a time. Daphne Montgomery runs the register, taking orders from the walk-up window or by telephone. She also works the drive-thru at Dude’s Hot Biscuits so she’s a pro when it comes to making do in crowded conditions. Walters chose to focus on a grill-heavy menu though she also offers french fries and homemade fried tortilla chips. The chips are a perfect accompaniment to her pineapple salsa, which she makes from scratch. Most of what Walters serves is homemade, or rather truckmade. She makes the pico de gallo, using green bell peppers instead of jalapenos so it won’t be too spicy. She mixes the pico with grilled pineapple to make the salsa. She offers sriracha for those who need more heat. 28 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
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Walters isn’t able to offer an extensive menu, so she created options using just five proteins. She makes grilled combos, burgers, tacos and salad. Everything is interchangeable. “That way even though the menu is small, it gives them something new every week to try,” she said. A combo is a three-step process for the customer. Pick a protein — chicken, sirloin steak, tilapia or jumbo shrimp. Select one of Walters’ homemade sauces — Jamaican jerk, which is like a spicy barbecue, teriyaki, chimichurri, garlic lemon-pepper and Cajun remoulade. And decide between two sides — Mac and cheese, fried cabbage, confetti rice, French fries, squash and zucchini and side salad. All grill combos come with a slice of grilled buttered French bread, too. Tacos can be made with any of the four proteins and are topped with lettuce, pico, shredded cheese and cilantro lime sauce. Burgers come on a brioche bun and topped three ways. Classic is lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion and cheese. Philly is peppers and onions with provolone cheese. Hawaiian is grilled pineapple and onions with teriyaki sauce and lettuce. Bacon, pineapple, peppers and onions, any of the proteins, cheese and bacon can be added to any menu item for an additional charge. The only other option is a grilled chicken salad. Walters tried offering it with a choice of proteins, but most customers only wanted chicken anyway so that’s how it’s on the menu now. Walters grills the shrimp in a little margarine with salt, pepper, paprika, onion power and garlic powder. The steak and chicken are marinated in soy and Worcestershire sauce. Walters also features a soup each week. Loaded potato sells out quickly, she said. She’d like to try pasta specials on Fridays. Customers have asked for breakfast but she doesn’t have the space for ingredients, but she takes every suggestion under consideration. Galley Grub is open Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. She expects to start opening on Saturdays before too long. She’s got a regular group of customers who are working their way through the menu. “Every other day you see the same faces,” she said. “The new ones will trickle in because you’ll hear them, ‘This is my first time. Tell me what to do.’” They take a lot of call-in orders, especially from the regulars. “It takes 15 or so minutes because we’re cooking everything to order,” she said. “The ones who don’t have time to wait, who have those short lunch breaks, they’ll call ahead and we’ll just have it ready for them when they get there.” To order, call 601-265-2362. BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 29
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photo essay JANUARY/FEBRUARY 19
A TOUR OF THE HISTORIC HARDY HOUSE
Photos by Brian Emory
The Capt. Jack C. Hardy House is a completely restored 6,400-squarefoot Italianate town villa with six bedrooms and four and one-half bathrooms.
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Owner John Lynch created a website, www.205natchezavenue.com, to highlight the historic home’s renovation.
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home JANUARY/FEBRUARY 19
Photos by Sarah Lowman Reynolds and from historic collections
At left, the Capt. A.E. Moreton home. Below left, Capt. Moreton sits on the front steps on his home. Below right, the Roberts Cohn house. Bottom, the twin bungalows of Robert and Alred Moreton. Opposite, the twin Cohn houses.
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History repeats itself on South Jackson Street
BROOKHAVEN’S TWIN HOMES HOLD A CENTURY OF STORIES
I
Story by Sarah Lowman Reynolds
t may be a stretch of the imagination, but Oscar Wilde could have easily walked down South Jackson Street when he wrote his famous words, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Imitation or not, any visitor to Brookhaven would assume the original families may have lacked a sense of originality. On the south end of the street towards Natchez, it seems the same three (yes, three) house plans were used for six houses. Over time, each house developed its own sense of style and personality. Landscaping and additions reflect the different names on the deeds. But one thing is undeniable — there must have been something in the water when they built these homes. Most of their histories have been passed down orally from one generation to the next. While other, larger cities may have similar streets, the transient nature of citydwellers means much of a house’s history is lost. Thankfully, many Brookhaven natives have stayed or returned home, keeping the stories of each historic house alive with reminiscent conversations on front porches, drinking sweet tea. Michael Crawford is on one of the branches of the family tree whose roots spread up and down South Jackson Street. It’s easy to hear his love for the MoretonCrawford family, as each historical fact is bookended with a smile and laughter. The houses on the street are tangible reminders of beloved grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. “It was a privilege to grow up and live in a home that had already housed three previous generations,” said Crawford. “The Moreton houses have provided a lifetime of interesting people and events. And I’m still learning about them and continue to be fascinated.” His great-great-grandfather, Capt. A.E. Moreton, built the white Queen Anne on the corner of South Jackson and Minnesota in 1868. As each child married, the newlyweds spent a year in the master suite of Moreton’s house while he built them a house down the street. Upon completion, each couple walked into their new home, greeted by brand new furnishings and a completely stocked kitchen. The oldest son, Samuel, was given the Victorian on the corner of Natchez and South Jackson in 1897. Fannie Moreton Mills was given
a Queen Anne similar to her parent’s home in 1904. Robert and Alfred were given the “twin” houses in 1904 and 1905, respectively. The Crawford-Moreton home, as Robert Moreton’s house would later be called, stayed in the family for 112 years. The current owners, Charles and Bette Dixon, have a strong connection to the house. “Ann and Bill Crawford, who were longtime friends of my parents, Chester and Jonnie Clark, hosted our engagement party 50 years ago at this house, and they also hosted our daughter’s engagement party here 24 years ago,” Bette Dixon said. “Their son, Michael, was the ringbearer in our wedding. Moving to this house was like coming home. And having Michael live practically in our backyard makes it even more special.” The Moreton twin houses are more fraternal than they are identical. Their floor plans are mirrored — each room is on the opposite side of the house in comparison to the other. In addition, Alfred Moreton’s home has a door in the center of the porch, while Robert Moreton’s home has a door to the side, flanked by a bay window. If all this seems confusing, the easiest way to distinguish the two is the lack of shutters on Alfred Moreton’s house. He had to burn them for firewood during the Great Depression. The Moreton residences were designed by a prominent architect in the late 19th century named George F. Barber. His home designs are scattered throughout the United States, parts of the Philippines and Japan. His residential designs were purchased through a mailorder catalogue. Four homes in Brookhaven bear his signature — the Sproles House, a green Queen Anne on Natchez; the Nalty Home on the corner of Chippewa on South Jackson; and the two twin houses. Barber combated the impersonal nature of ordering a house plan through the mail with this request, found in one of his catalogues: “Write to us concerning any changes wanted in plans, and keep writing till you get what you want,” he wrote. “Don’t be afraid of writing too often. We are not easily offended." BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 35
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His homes were built to last. Among the hundreds still standing, 48 are on the National Register of Historic Places, including the twin houses. The identical twins, known as the Cohn homes, sit next to each other on the east side of South Jackson Street. Both are painted white and built in the Beaux Arts style. They were built within two years of each other. Emile Cohn of Hazlehurst built the northernmost house between 1902 and 1903. His wife, Bertile, had a sister named Natalie, who married David Cohn, Emile’s brother. Dr. Solon Wilson, brother-in-law to Natalie and Bertile, was building an identical house next to Emile Cohn’s, and even though David was in the midst of building a home further up the street, Natalie fell in love with Dr. Wilson’s house. According to Charlotte Graves, who passed the story on to her daughter, Claudia Smith, David chased Dr. Wilson on a train headed for New Orleans to convince him to sell him the home. In 1966, the David Cohn family sold their furnished home to Charlotte Graves, who had been their devoted caretaker and bookkeeper, for $25,000. “My oldest brother was in the Navy at the time and Momma asked him if he could get a federal loan for the house — he wasn’t able to because the house was too old,” said her daughter, Claudia. “So she got a loan all by herself and paid it off in five years.” Upon the death of Dorothea Cohn, Emile Cohn’s daughter, the second house was also left to Ms. Graves. “When Miss Dorothy left Momma her estate, Momma said, ‘What am I going to do with two houses?’ She gave me hers and moved to Miss Dorothy’s house, where she died in 1993,” she said. “Anyone who knew Momma would
say she was a great lady. Divorced when my siblings were 1, 2, and 3 years old and never remarried. She truly gave her life to us and the Cohn family.” The floor plans for the Cohn houses differ slightly, even though it’s not apparent from the outside. The kitchens are in different locations. A sunroom was built in the back of David Cohn’s home for his brother, Louis, who suffered from tuberculosis. Next to the sunroom is a large safe with the words “Louis Cohn Brothers” engraved on it. Claudia Smith says her mother was the only one who could figure out how to open it, and it was accidentally locked the last time it was opened. Inside are the original house plans and letters from Claudia’s father from World War II. The last set of twin houses may come as a surprise, as they bear little to no resemblance to one another now. The bungalow-style houses between Alfred Moreton’s house (the one with no shutters) and the oldest Cohn house were built in the 1920s by Capt. Moreton and Milton Whitworth in an effort to attract more merchants to the area. Harold Samuels, a future mayor of Brookhaven, moved in with his parents, Harry and Pauline Samuels, in 1924. They were joined next door by the Buchman family, who were kin to the Samuels. A remodeling of the southernmost bungalow (now painted cream) in the 1960s by the Cannon family changed the front elevation of the house. The owners wanted to add a New Orleans flair, seen in the front courtyard and
ironwork inside the house. Longtime Realtor Betsy Smith is one of the few people in Brookhaven who can truly speak to the intangible worth of historic homes. “The history of an older house encompasses not only the facts of its initial coming into being but include the stories and character of all who have called it home,” she said. “It continues through the decades — sometimes centuries — to benefit from the contributions of each homeowner, resulting in the totality of its place in history. As one assumes the privilege of residing in a historically treasured dwelling, be assured you will leave your own legacy. Live gently — it is akin to an almost spiritual responsibility.” Anyone can find the square footage, color, and architectural style — the bones — of a house online. The soul of a house, however, can often only be found in the oral history. As each new residential steward adds their names to the deeds, stories of the families coming before them are given along with the keys to the front door. Between the cracks in the entryway floorboards and saturated into the sky-blue paint on the front porches are life experiences — birth, life, death, and everything in between. Keeping these stories alive not only gives respect to those who came before us, but enhances our lives today through the shared experiences of Brookhavenites separated by the thin veil of time. Special thanks to: Michael Crawford, Claudia Smith, Sue Dorman, Karen Braden, Bette Dixon, Jan Melancon, Norma Hamill, John Roberts, Phyllis Spearman and Betsy Smith.
Above, the National Registry of Historic Places plaque on the front of the A.E. Moreton Jr. house. At right, pictured are, standing from left, Louis Cohn and Emile Cohn. The man seated on the left is thought to be Judge Tom P. Brady. The other man is unidentified.
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for voting us as business of the year and as the most decorated auto dealer 3 YEARS IN A ROW!
2018 Business of the Year Best and Pre-owned Car Dealership Best Oil Change
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feature JANUARY/FEBRUARY 19
Hail to the King WESSON MAN IMPERSONATES ELVIS PRESLEY Story by Adam Northam Most days, Ricky Beall wakes up as Ricky Beall — a retired homebuilder, now in the T-shirt business, living way out east of Wesson, in cattle country, around the Stronghope community. But there are a few days each year, especially around Christmas and Valentine’s Day, when the 61-yearold wakes up and transforms, with an hour’s worth of makeup and a homemade suit and a heavy wig and little black hair dye, into a king, living worldwide, in a time of diners and slick hair and rocket power. He transforms into a king. Into the King. Into Elvis Presley. “You don’t do it for the money — you do it just for the enjoyment of interacting with the people, because it keeps you young,” he said. “When people come up to you, like at a show at a nursing home, and say, ‘You’re really him,’ that’s what I like about it.” Beall is an Elvis impersonator, traveling the region a few times a year with his stage and sound system, the colored lights shooting off the gemstones sewn to his gaberdine suits while he reaches out to old ladies in
the audience, moves among them at their tables, bending his top lip in a snarl and throwing his old gospelraised voice down to a Tupelo pitch, recreating those early days of rock ‘n’ roll when the King came into the living room with Ed Sullivan and moved his feet and his hips and made families reconsider fun and decency and what’s allowable in a God-fearing nation. He’s available for booking through the website GigMasters and does birthday parties, reunions, receptions, church shows, corporate events, nursing homes and any such place where two or three are gathered in the name of Elvis. He’s done shows all around Southwest Mississippi and beyond, from Hattiesburg to Monroe, Louisiana, and up to Pennsylvania. He charges a fee for bringing the King to live audiences — except for nursing homes — but My Way Productions isn’t really a moneymaking enterprise. Beall has spent thousands on equipment and travel to bring Elvis back to life in hourlong intervals, and the true currency is the experience.
Photos submitted
Above: Wesson’s Ricky Beall, 61, performs as Elvis Presley in his banana-cream “Aloha” costume. Beall becomes the King after an hour of makeup, donning a wig and putting on his two homemade suits — the “Aloha” suit and the red “Burning Love” costume, both hand-sewn by his wife, Elaine.
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“I don’t try to be Elvis. All I want people to do is be able to realize the aspects of an Elvis show, to feel those effects, to give them that Elvis feeling, just a little bit of that experience,” Beall said. It started nearly 10 years ago. Beall’s wife, Elaine, celebrated her 50th birthday with a costume party, and 135 people attended dressed as the icons of the Baby Boomers. She, a redhead still without a hint of gray, dressed as Lucille Ball — John Travolta was there, as was Olivia Newton John and a group dressed as The Supremes. They parked a 57 Chevy Bel-Air in the front yard and roasted peanuts. Beall was Elvis. Elaine made the suit. He sang. “And people liked it,” he said. “Someone said, ‘Man, you ought to do this all the time.’” So he gave it a shot. His first show was a 50th wedding anniversary on Lake Serene in Hattiesburg. He was driven into the performance standing on the rear end of a golf cart, his white cape flowing behind. The act was a hit, and Beall was on the road. Elaine set about making him appear more like Elvis. She’s skilled with a sewing machine, so instead of buying replica Elvis costumes — the good ones can cost up to $15,000 each, she said — she made them. She studied pictures and film of the King online, even traveled to Graceland in Memphis to see the real jumpsuits on display. She measured Beall from head to toe, bought some gaberdine and flash and started working on two suits — the fiery red suit from Elvis’ 1972 hit “Burning Love,” and the banana cream (not white) getup from 1973’s “Aloha from Hawaii.” “It took hours and hours,” Elaine said. “I think I did alright.” Beall made the gaudy belts and buckles himself with big leather strips and door parts from the hardware store. Impersonating Elvis came naturally to Beall. He was raised up singing in the church, but ditched the art in favor of sports and motorcycles when he got older. Later in life, his daughter, Jennifer, urged him to sing a duet with her in their church. He did, got back into the habit of Sunday-morning singing and joined a gospel group. He took piano lessons at age 50 — his two recitals featured one old man and a bunch of children at the keys. “When you quit learning new things, you might as well get canned up,” he said. And, like everyone else in his generation, Beall grew up with the King. BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 39
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“Music has always been in my life. I can’t listen to music without moving — I guess I’m like Elvis in that regard,” he said. “I can’t sing in church without slapping the pew and stomping my feet. I’ve always liked Elvis, since I’ve been living. I remember learning who Elvis was in the first grade. I think he had the best voice of any singer that’s ever been.” He tries to imitate the voice, starting his shows slow and building up to the higher-tempo tunes. His favorite songs to perform are “An American Trilogy,” the King’s 1972 cover of a Mickey Newbury medley; “You Gave Me a Mountain,” originally written by country artist Marty Robbins in 1969; “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” a 1970 Simon and Garfunkel hit sang by Elvis; and “How Great Thou Art,” the classic hymn. But Beall also likes the dancing
tunes — Chuck Berry’s 1958 rock song “Johnny B. Goode” was staple at Elvis’ live shows in the early 1970s, and Little Richard’s 1956 tune “Long Tall Sally,” another Elvis hit. Beall’s audience, mostly Boomers like himself, appreciate his efforts — sometimes too much. “Yeah, he’s got some groupies,” Elaine said. “A little old lady reached up and grabbed him by his scarf onstage one time. She ripped that scarf off his neck and pulled out a handful of chest hair, too.” Beall remembers walking around Monroe in-costume and hearing a rush of footsteps before he was surrounded by people hollering for Elvis. “When you dress up like Elvis, and you got out in public, you gotta have some cajones,” he said. “I’m just a regular ‘ole person, but put yourself in
Elvis’ shoes, and that’s a lot to put up with. If he wanted to go to a ball game, he had to rent out the stadium. If he wanted to stay in a hotel, he had to rent the whole floor. He just had magnetism — it was a true rags-to-riches story. The boy started with nothing and used his God-given talent.” Beall can be booked for an Elvis show by calling 601-695-2924, or by visiting My Way Productions on Facebook. He travels much of the year, visiting trade shows and arts and crafts exhibits with the T-shirt company, AllyGraceWoo, named after his grandkids. But when the call comes, the King makes time. “I’ll keep on being Elvis until I just can’t do it,” he said. “When you get up there and get involved with the crowd, the music starts going, you don’t feel like you’re 61 no more.”
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social scenes JANUARY/FEBRUARY 19
TASTE OF THE TRUST
Abby Rials and Molly Burke
Mason Smith, Nic Ricceri and Jillian Ricceri
Carl Craig and Anne Houston Craig
Tina Smith and Kim Rogers
Kathy Case, Pat Williams and Sandra Martin
Cal Hodges and Cortney Hodges
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TASTE OF THE TRUST
Jeff Mullins and Amy Mullins
Amanda Hodges, Valerie Sterling and Nyia Shelby
Glenda Hux, Emily Phillips and Jeff Phillips
Billy Hay, Diane Hay, Prentiss Smith and Isabel Smith
Trey Maddox, Erykah Walker, Teegie Hargro and Becky Walden
Abbi McDonald and Jason Snider
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A NIGHT OF HOPE FUNDRAISER
Latrice Johnson, Victoria Johnson and Tracy Johnson
Lilly Franklin, Linda Kelly and Mary Shannon
Lydell Sanders, Phylethia Sanders, Horace McDaniel Jr. and Horace McDaniel III
Maggie Wade Dixion, her granddaughter and Akura Brown
Rosie Jackson, Britney Burage and Dorothy Kelly Fields
Board members Destiny Kees, Tamptha Byrd, Ty’China Byrd, Akura Brown, Montoria Sanders, Tracy Brown, Amira Al-Rai, Delora Al-Rai and Daisy Watkins
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LIBRARY ART UNVEILING
Henry Swalm and Dr. Richard Rushing
John Lynch, Ed Williford Jr. and Thomas Wilson
Kim Sessums, Celeste Carty, Henry Swalm and Henry Ledet
Kristy Sessums and Diane Ledet
Pam Womack, Ann Boyd and Bettie Bull
Phyllis Spearman, Judge Mike Taylor, Becky Taylor, Janie Mooney and Kelly Scott
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CHAMBER BANQUET
Katie Nations, Garrick Combs, Jennifer Foster, Jillian Ricceri and Nic Ricceri
Kathy Morgan and Tiffany Haleyh
Glenda Hux, Sherrie Welch and Rob Welch
Bob Logan, Jill Logan, Cathy Bridge and Kim Bridge
Clay McMorris, Colby McMorris, Jeff Richardson and Stan Foster
Wayne and Heather McKenzie
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KDMC RECEPTION
Sarah Reynolds and Dr. Asa Reynolds
Diane Hay, Kay Calcote, Mary Lou Redd and Bette Dixon
Bette Dixon and Joan Burt
Dr. Matthew Gaines, Ashly Gaines and Alvin Hoover
Dr. Stephen Brown and Kayla Brown
Holly Slay and Tim Slay
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JUDGE ED PATTEN RETIREMENT
Hazlehurst Police Chief Byron Swilley and Justice Court Judge Teresa Bozeman
Margaret Smith, Wayne Smith and Brady Kellems
Joseph Durr, Michelle Mangold and Vince Mangold
Amanda Wilson, Olivia Wilson and Jacqui Patten
Dudley Lampton, Barbara Starrett and Bill Boerner
Dee Shandy, Ed Patten, Ed Bean and M. T Shareef
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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 48 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE Feb/Jan. indd.indd 48
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garden JANUARY/FEBRUARY 19
Butterfly bush, weed not the same By Gary. R. Bachman
The questions being emailed to me are literally filling up my inbox. I thought I’d share a couple of these questions, along with and my answers that should help home gardeners before we head into the 2019 spring and summer gardening seasons. “Gary, I want to plant some plants to attract butterflies next year. What’s the difference between butterfly weed and butterfly bush?” One of the best butterfly-attracting plants for our home landscapes is butterfly weed, known botanically as Asclepias. Butterfly weed is low maintenance, attracts a lot of butterflies besides Monarchs and is deer resistant. Several species are native to Mississippi, but one you should consider is Asclepias tuberosa. This perennial grows well all across the state. Its clusters of tubular flowers become prominent in late summer and early fall. They bloom in various shades of orange, but some have flowers that are more yellow or red. Tropical milkweed is a species of butterfly weed that is not native, but it blooms from spring through fall. I wouldn’t rely entirely on this species as there is concern about tropical milkweed being a host for parasites that can harm butterflies. But a couple of these fastgrowing plants would provide a good source of forage until our native species start producing more foliage. Butterfly bush, known botanically as Buddleia, has panicles of sweetly fragrant, tiny blooms in various shades of white, blue, purple, pink, red and even yellow. The flowers are displayed on arching graceful stems. Butterflies, bees and hummingbirds love these flowers. Plant butterfly bush in full sun for best flowering, as shade reduces flowering, and the plant becomes thin and leggy. Butterfly bush tolerates any soil type as long as it’s well drained. When new shoots start to appear in the spring, prune last year’s growth back to about 6 inches from the ground. This step encourages new growth, and the flowers are produced on new
Asclepias tuberosa is a perennial variety of native butterfly weed that attracts butterflies with its prominent flowers in late summer and early fall. (Photo by MSU Extension/Gary Bachman)
wood. Deadheading will help side shoots develop larger flower heads. “Gary, there’s gray-green, moldylooking ‘stuff’ on my oak trees. Is this going kill my trees?” The green, moldy stuff is called lichen, which is a very interesting organism found throughout the world. Lichen is an unlikely combination of fungi and algae living in a symbiotic relationship on the plant’s bark. Trees and shrubs are only used for support. The algae supply food via photosynthesis, and the fungi gather water and other needed nutrients. When shrubs and trees struggle, their canopy tends to thin out, letting more light into the interior. Lichens, which naturally occur on the trees’ bark, are opportunistic and increase their growth as a tree canopy declines. As trees and shrubs continue
to decline, the lichens become more noticeable, giving the illusion that they are causing the problem. As a result, homeowners think the lichen is responsible for the tree and shrub decline. Lichen will grow outdoors on any hard surface. You may have seen it on wooden bird houses, and I’ve even seen lichen on a satellite dish. There really are no compounds to remove lichen, but there’s also no real need to remove it. The best way to discourage lichen growth is to have a healthy and well-growing plant. Do you have a question about something related to your home garden and landscape? Send it to me at southerngardening@ msstate.edu, and I’ll get the answer for you. Gary Bachman is an Extension/Research Professor with Mississippi State University. BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 49
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voices JANUARY/FEBRUARY 19
Why I love Brookhaven Much like a successful marriage, God intentionally chose Brookhaven for me, and I continue to choose it every day. I arrived in east Lincoln County 28 years ago to live on a cattle farm with my sister and brother-in-law. The experience had every element of a clash of cultures and its impending shock to my youthful, ambitious soul; however, it was precisely at that time when I met my husband. He was a senior in high school, and I was a new student in his school who didn’t speak the local language. Fast forward three more years, after excelling in academics and graduating a few days before my 17th birthday, I was eager to promptly move to any sizable city I chose. My husband and I continued our friendship and courtship, and in 1999 as we were contemplating our promising future, we chose Brookhaven as our home. We selected it because of its low crime rate, its smalltown atmosphere, its thriving healthcare community and the heart of its people. As a big-city native, there was a certain longing for greener pastures I succumbed to in my younger days when more prestigious career opportunities invariably arose. Despite it, as I traveled to numerous cities for advanced training in my field, I didn’t find any other city with Brookhaven’s intangible assets. This year I passionately committed and invested in downtown Brookhaven when I opened my occupational therapy consulting practice on Cherokee Street. We own land in Lincoln County; my husband built our home there from the ground up; and there we raised our beloved daughter, Lillian. Lillian was an extraordinary child with complex medical and developmental needs. In Brookhaven, we found her expert cardiologist and pediatrician; the most qualified pediatric physical therapist in the state; our highly trained speech therapists; the most caring and dedicated teachers; our loving faith family and friends. Home Seekers Paradise provided every intangible and tangible element we knew would support her development. In my prevailing opinion, Brookhaven is not only a Home Seekers Paradise because of its oak-lined avenues, historic neighborhoods filled with Victorian mansions, and a vibrant downtown where the roaring sound of the
train regularly links me to its historic past, but it is also a generous community which never stops giving. At the beginning of my career as an occupational therapist for a home health company, I roamed along every road in Lincoln County. I enjoyed the privilege of being welcomed into people’s homes of every ethnicity and socioeconomic status. I encountered a genuine desire to graciously welcome me, an extensive collection of crocheted gifts of every kind, and warm invitations to sample their delicious meals. As a previous president and current Life Member of the Junior Auxiliary of Brookhaven, I encountered even more generous spirits always willing to fervently support our worthy causes, always closely acquainted with their neighbors in need. In my family’s grief after the loss of our daughter in 2017, Brookhaven has generously supported our fundraising efforts through Lillian’s Legacy. To date, our beloved community has donated close to $60,000 to champion worldwide research on the medical cause to which she lost her battle. Brookhavenites compassionately care for one another in their local churches, schools, neighborhoods, and sporting arena circles. Our local leaders zealously aspire to care for our chosen town, its people, and to preserve Brookhaven’s intangible assets. My fundamental question is in fact, why wouldn’t I love Brookhaven? Glenda Hux is the owner of GO TO Specialty Therapy at 109 West Cherokee St. She has more than 17 years of experience in occupational therapy. She is serving her second term as president and her fourth term as legislative chair of the Mississippi Occupational Therapy Association. She is a member of the Circle of Advisors for the American Occupational Therapy Political Action Committee and an avid advocate for access to advanced rehab services. She’s a past president of the Junior Auxiliary of Brookhaven, and a past VP of the Brookhaven Trust. She resides just outside city limits with her husband Kevin Hux. They are members of Faith Presbyterian Church where she serves in the women’s ministry team, special connections team, and FPK team.
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