BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
‘We don’t make food, we make art’ SCULPTOR CREATES THUNDER & LIGHTNING MARCH/APRIL 2019 $4.99
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MARCH/APRIL 2019 PUBLISHER Luke Horton EDITORIAL Donna Campbell Brett Campbell CONTRIBUTING
MAGAZINE
‘We don’t make food, we make art’
Robin Eyman Sarah Elizabeth Balkcom ADVERTISING Kristi Carney Kristie Champagne
MARCH/APRIL 201 $4.99
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SCULPTOR CREATES THUNDER & LIGHTNING
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ZINE 1
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
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On the cover: Erik and Lucy Herrera
FOOD
‘WE DON’T MAKE FOOD, WE MAKE ART’ 8
ARTS
CREATING THUNDER & LIGHTNING
PEOPLE
FOR THE LOVE OF NUMBERS
14
HISTORY
THE DEAD CAN’T BOTHER YOU
HOME
THEY BELIEVE IT TO BE TRUE
22
34
THE REST
PHOTO ESSAYS
BOOKS
37
SOCIAL SCENES 18
26-33
38-48
GARDEN
49
VOICES
50
BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 7
food MARCH/APRIL 19
Story by Brett Campbell 8 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
‘We don’t make food, we make art’
G
et a box of hard taco shells and toast them in the oven, or get some flour tortillas, if you prefer. Spoon in some ground beef sautéed with taco seasoning. Sprinkle on some shredded lettuce and cheese that says “fiesta” on the bag and what do you have? Tacos! American tacos, not authentic Mexican tacos. Authentic tacos from Mexico rarely involve flour tortillas, never ground beef, and … let’s just start over. Authentic Mexican tacos usually will have a small corn tortilla, some type of meat other than ground beef, onions, cilantro and sometimes cheese (not the “fiesta” kind). Squirt some crema (sour cream) over it, if you’re into that kind of thing, spoon some spicy salsa onto it and squeeze some fresh lime over the assemblage. Bite in and enjoy. Now you’re tasting more authentic Mexican tacos. “Authentic” means real — made by real Mexican people with real ingredients available in Mexico. Those who have lived in or near New Orleans know that there’s a certain flavor that exists in red beans and rice, jambalaya or gumbo from the Crescent City. The best-intentioned owners of a restaurant in Virginia or Oregon named “The Big Easy” may want to serve up a genuine New Orleans experience with their fare, but more than likely they do not. Either they aren’t truly aware of authentic Cajun food because of a lack of experience, or — more likely — the local clientele just isn’t into that level of spicy rice-based dishes. You can’t sell what people won’t buy. So it is for many in the USA, the desire for Mexican food is more of a desire for southwest menu items, more Tex-Mex or Americanized tacos, or dishes along those lines. Erik Herrera, manager of The Broilers in Brookhaven — better known as Los Parrilleros Restaurant — and his wife Lucy, recently shared some pointers on what a visitor to Mexico would find as “normal, everyday” Mexican food, and what that visitor wouldn’t find.
AUTHENTIC MEXICAN FOOD MORE THAN TACOS, BURRITOS
Photos by Donna Campbell
Opposite, Erik Herrera steals a kiss from his wife Lucy as he reaches for a taco. Above, homemade tortillas are filled with delicious foods to make traditional tacos. Following pages, frijoles Guanajuato, red pork pozole and a variety of peppers and tomatillos.
BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 9
“Burritos,” they both said. “Not a lot of burritos.” They are more specific to certain areas, Erik said, and those are mostly near the Rio Grande. Tacos are common all across the country, as are most of their ingredients. The biggest difference in tacos from the northern, central or southern regions of the nation is simply what meat is used — chicken, beef, lamb or goat. If the taco is rolled up and deep fried, it’s called a taquito, or “little taco.” Fried rolled tacos made with flour tortillas are called flautas. A traditional meal may involve sopes, sopas (soups), quesadillas, tamales, enchiladas, frijoles (beans) and arroz (rice). No matter what foods are served at a traditional Mexican meal, however, rest assured it will be colorful. “The peppers, onions, salsas, everything is to be pretty,” said
Lucy. People eat with their eyes before their mouths, after all. The number one thing about all traditionally-prepared Mexican food is this, Lucy said — “We don’t make food. We make art.” The art is evident in their handiwork as the couple begins to share a meal they have poured much time and love into. The Herreras arrange pots, serving bowls and platters of food. In the center of the table sits a double-handled clay pot that has been in their family for years. Before it cracked on the bottom, it was what they used to cook beans in. “It changes the flavor to cook the beans in a pot like this one,” Erik says. “They taste so much better.” They love this pot, and have named it Filomena — “loved one.” “She is part of the family, like a sister,” he says. “It may sound silly, but that pot is special to us.”
Today, Filomena is filled with artificial flowers and sits in a place of honor with family. On the corner of the table sits a large, heavy wooden tortilla press. “This is my cousin,” Erik laughs and pats the press. “We call it Juanita.” “We don’t call it Juanita,” Lucy protests. “Yes, I heard you call it Juanita one time.” Lucy shakes her head and makes a face. “No, we need a better name.” “This is my cousin,” Erik says again, “She doesn’t have a name.” As dinner is served and the lid comes off each dish, a new aroma wafts through the air, so heavy with anticipated deliciousness that it almost fills the stomach through the olfactory senses. No one has to call others into the room to eat. Their noses lead them. First is a large bowl of salsa verde — literally “green sauce” — made mostly from tomatillos and peppers. It is smooth, mild, tangy and perfect with tortilla chips. The next entry of the meal is sopes, a small masa (cornmeal) bread shaped like a tortilla with a lip around its edge, filled with grilled steak, onions, pineapple and cilantro, topped with cotija cheese and zig-zagged lines of crema. Next the pozole. Pozole is a hominy-based soup in the same way that gumbo is an okrabased soup. No okra? It’s not gumbo. No hominy? It may be soup, but it’s not pozole. There are three types of this traditional dish, Erik explains — red, green or white. The red is usually made with pork and a tomato-based sauce. The green uses a tomatillo-based sauce and chicken, typically. The white uses a clear broth and often does not include a meat. Today it’s pozole roja, the red. Lucy spoons it out in generous portions and offers garnishes of finely-shredded cabbage and thinly sliced radishes. The cold crunchy vegetables make a perfect contrasting topping to the hot soup. Then it’s pollo con mole, or chicken with mole (pronounced MO-lay) sauce. The classic style of mole is the one the Herreras have prepared. It is brown, made with nearly two dozen ingredients — including three types of dried chile peppers and some dark chocolate — and is poured over chicken, sprinkled with sesame seeds and typically served with rice. Some may shrink back at the idea of chocolate on chicken, but the cocoa flavor is subtle. Moles can be made sweeter or more savory, depending on one’s preference. After dinner comes dessert, and there are many in Mexico, including pan de elote (a sweet bread pudding made from corn), churros, flan and tamales dulces (sweet tamales). There is also tres leches cake. BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 11
Made with whole milk, evaporated milk, condensed milk and heavy cream, it is literally “three milks” cake, very light and sweet. The cake is kept chilled and Erik says whenever Lucy makes it, he cannot help stopping at the refrigerator every time he walks by to take another bite of it. Even if he has to make extra trips through the kitchen to do it. Today the dessert is simple and traditional — it’s conchas and milk candies. A concha is a sweet bread with a design that resembles a conch shell, hence its name. It consists of a sweet bread roll and a crunchy topping of sugar, butter and vanilla, possibly with a bit of cinnamon added. Each is the size of a large cinnamon roll and served room temperature. The milk candies are sugar candies made with corn, milk powder and gelatin. Threequarters of an inch by 1.5 inches and a quarter-inch thick, the soft treats today are a brand called Borrachines, “little drunks.” Flavors to choose from are rompope (similar to eggnog), butter rum, cappuccino, chocolate, whiskey and tequila. Along with every part of the meal are homemade tortillas, of course, and Jarritos brand fruitflavored sodas and aqua frescas. The sodas do not contain as much carbonation as American sodas and the “fresh waters” are a fruit juice cocktail-type drink — no carbonation, but a blend of sugar, fruits and water. All are served room temperature. When everyone around the large table is finished eating, Lucy and Erik are bringing more plates of pollo con mole, steak-piled sopes and bowls of pozole to the diners. Most would love to eat more, but simply cannot. Some just want to save room for more of Lucy’s creamy refried beans — a frijoles recipe she learned from her mother. Erik and Lucy have been cooking and serving food their whole lives, or at least as long as they can remember. Erik’s parents were always cooking for family and friends, 12 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
Frijoles Guanajuato 1 pound of beans cooked 1/2 pound of Mexican chorizo 3 tablespoons of canola oil Fry the chorizo with the canola oil until is completely cooked. Add the beans and smash together. Add the cheese of your preference. We love to use some Cotija Mexican cheese. 3 cups of masa flour (Maseca, minsa, etc.) 2 cups of warm water 2 cups of canola oil Whisk masa flour and water together; stir enough water into mixture until dough is smooth and holds together. Form dough into 2-inch balls. Flatten each ball to a 1/2-inch thick circle. Use a pan to cook the sopes until are almost ready (cook like tortillas). Take it away and pinch some little edges while they are hot. Let cool completely. And reserve. Heat oil to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) in a deep-fryer or large saucepan. Fry dough in the hot oil until sopes are just lightly browned, about 30 seconds per side. Remove sopes with tongs and place on a paper towel-lined plate; cool just until sopes can be handled. Put some refried beans, steak, chicken or the meat of you preference and add the toppings of your preference, onions, cilantro, tomatillo sauce, cheese, Mexican cream.
Chicken Flautas Shredded chicken cooked as you like 1 package of tortillas (We suggest the brand “El Milagro”) 2 cups of canola oil Spread about 2 tablespoons of the chicken in a line along the bottom edge of the tortilla. Tightly roll the tortilla into a cylinder, and secure the ends with one or two toothpicks. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Heat the two cups of oil on a large Skillet to 375°F. Fry the flautas in the preheated oil, no more than four at a time, until golden and crisp, about 4 minutes. Drain the flautas on a paper towel-lined plate. Discard toothpicks and top finished flautas with your favorites toppings. Lettuce, cheese, sour cream, spicy salsa, etc.
so he knew a lot about food prep, cooking and service before he took his first job in a “real” restaurant in the capital city that is the most populous municipality in North America. When her father was injured and had to take time off work when Lucy was young, her parents began cooking food in their home and sending out their children to sell it to their neighbors in the city of Guanajuato, the geographical center of the country. “He is from Mexico City,” Lucy says, pointing at her husband with her near-perpetual smile across her face, “but I’m from the heart of Mexico.” His job keeps Erik around Americanized versions of his native fare all day most every day, and he will quickly tell any curious customer some of his favorite items on the menu, or off it. “Have you ever tried this with mushrooms?” he may ask, “or chorizo? Next time, order this same thing and ask them to add chorizo on top of it. It’s so good.” He cups his left hand and makes a slicing or swiping motion over it with his right, describing ideas for how to fix your tacos or tostadas at home. He talks about the food his wife makes and looks to heaven as he licks his lips and rubs his belly. The man is in love. With his wife, too. But when he’s tired and at home and would prefer to have something that reminds him of his boyhood home, what does he turn to? “Enchiladas!” Lucy says, and laughs. Recently, after a long day, Erik fixed a home-cooked dinner for himself of three cheese-filled enchiladas covered in red sauce, and ate it hot straight from the pan. Lucy shakes her head and shrugs her shoulders. What can you do? Describing it, he uses a phrase most people who know him have heard him say many times about this and other authentic Mexican cuisine — “It was so, so good.” |||||
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arts MARCH/APRIL 19
CREATING THUNDER & LIGHTNING
Story by Robin Eyman
W
hile growing up in Monticello, Rusty Reid developed a love of art in grade school and thought about pursuing a career as an artist while in high school. Instead, he became a pediatric dentist in Brookhaven 25 years ago, and quietly became a sculptor whose work has now attracted media attention. Reed is the sculptor who created and donated 8-foot, bronzed statues of “Thunder and Lightning,” Mississippi State University baseball icons Will Clark and Rafael Palmeiro. They had a combined 128 home runs at Mississippi State, though it’s unclear which was “Thunder” and which was “Lightning.” MSU unveiled the statues Feb. 15 at the entrance to the university’s new, $68 million Dudy Noble Field. The statues
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show younger versions of the men in follow-through poses. “It turned out to be the highlight of my sculpting career,” Reid said. “There’s not a ton of opportunities to do monumental bronze statues. It’s such an honor to do a project of this magnitude, to do something I love to do, especially for my alma mater.” Reed attended MSU from 1979 to 1983, but had never met Clark or Palmer, who went on to become Major League Baseball All-Stars. The project came as a surprise to Reid, who still lives in Monticello, after he met with MSU Athletic Director John Cohen. “I just said, ‘If you need any form of art, I’d be glad to be involved in it and it would be such an honor,” Reid said. “John
Cohen told me a new baseball field was coming, and I walked out of there with the Thunder and Lightning project. I never imagined it would be on that scale.” The project was two years from start to finish, and involved the help and approval of the Athletic Department, university officials, Clark and Palmeiro. Reid, who is single, has balanced his work with traveling and working on different art forms. He loves to see art on display in different cities. He has several hobbies, such as oil painting, metal work and ceramics. Reid became interested in working with clay, creating something from nothing. His training in the use of three-dimensional imaging in dentistry made him realize 3-D images can be used in the process of
making sculptures. “In school, we would sculpt teeth out of wax, and I started looking at it differently as an art form,” Reid said. “As dentists, we work with our hands every day. I realized sculpting comes naturally to me.”
First came a bust
His first sculpting job was a donated bronzed bust of Richard Dechamplain on his retirement as director of the Oral Surgery Department at the University of South Carolina, where Reid studied dentistry. “I found working on a head, neck and face are right up my alley,” Reid said. “As a dentist, I’m always doing research and get into measuring. Sculpting became a hobby, not a profession. It takes all the pressure off you when you are doing it as a hobby.” He has since been commissioned to sculpt other subjects, including a prizewinning English mastiff, beloved bird dogs and Indian busts. Reid found a way to balance his dentistry practice with making use of spare time to work on the “Thunder and Lightning” statues. He’s in his dental office Monday through Thursday. He leased a studio in Starkville to do most of his sculpting work, and drove to Starkville after work on Thursdays, returning home in time for his dentistry practice on Monday mornings. “I had the luxury of the Athletic Department to go into archives, pictures, everything I could see to make the statues period correct, like the uniforms they wore, the shoes, the helmets,” Reid said. Clark loaned him the bat he used in college so Reid could use the proper dimensions. Clark lives in Baton Rouge, and Palmeiro lives in Dallas. They opened their homes to Reid for visits, and allowed him to take pictures and film videos so he could create poses in their likenesses.
How he made the statues
Reid created the statues in 2-foot sections for ease in transporting. He sculpted the men’s likenesses in clay, making the images 133 percent of their sizes in real life. It required taking more measurements and reducing them to 2-foot proportions. It took about a solid year of work with tedious processes. As Reid made the clay images, he would show them to Clark and Palmeiro and university staff in person to make sure everyone involved was pleased with the progress, and tweaked them as needed. He continued to send Clark and Palmeiro pictures of his progress, “but they didn’t really know the magnitude of how the statues would end up,” Reid said. It took several months to send the 2-foot sections – one section at a time, starting with the heads – to a company that
provides three dimensional images. Reid continued to work on other sections while Digital Atelier in Mercerville, N.J., performed its scans. Ultimately, the company provided precise 3-D images of the entire statue so the projects could be completed. Reid added clay to connect the sections of the statues. Lugar Foundry of Memphis picked up the statues and made wax molds of each part. Foundry workers put the molds together, and the wax melted out as workers poured melted bronze over them. “I loved every aspect of it,” Reid said. “But I knew up front I had to budget every bit of my time so I could make my marks. When you love doing something like that, it’s fun. You look forward to it. This was the opportunity of a lifetime.” The bigger-than-life statues represent two bigger-than-life men who will be forever tied to Mississippi State, MSU President Mark Keenum said at the unveiling ceremony. “These two guys re-wrote the record books in the Southeastern Conference and in NCAA Division 1 baseball. It was a joy to watch them in their outstanding major league careers,” Keenum said. Palmeiro was a 20-year MLB veteran who started with the Chicago Cubs. “To have a statue in front of the stadium, who could ever imagine something like that?” Palmeiro told reporters. “Even as a Major League ball player, you don’t ever envision the kind of career you may have or how it’s going to turn out. A statue? No one ever thinks of that. I’m so honored. It’s just such an incredible thing.” Clark, born in New Orleans, played 13 of his 15 years in the MLB with the San Francisco Giants (with whom he played with in the 1989 World Series), and the Texas Rangers. He was dubbed “Will the Thrill,” or “The Thrill” for short. Seeing his bronze version in front of the Mississippi State ball field tugged at Clark’s heart “pretty hard,” he told reporters. “Wherever (Palmeiro) goes, and wherever I go, it’s a tag team. It’s Thunder and Lightning. For us to be side-by-side in front of the stadium is really special.” Cohen said this of Reid at the unveiling: “His attention to detail, his love and support of Mississippi State baseball, along with his vision and guidance, has spawned two of the great monuments on this historic campus. We can’t express how much we appreciate all of his help and effort.” Reid thinks back to his youthful thoughts of wanting to work in the arts and how his love of art has come full circle by hobby. “The Good Lord has given me the opportunity to revisit a passion from when I was young,” he said. “I did still have an opportunity, I just happened to be 58 to do it on a large scale and it was so much fun to do. I’m happy to have art as a part of my life.” ||||| BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 15
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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 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 17
people MARCH/APRIL 19
Story & photo by Luke Horton
FOR THE LOVE OF NUMBERS 18 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
A
lot has changed since Michael Tanner rode his bike through the streets of downtown Brookhaven as a child. The stores are different. The pool that his father supervised for the rec department is gone. Downtown is experiencing a rebirth, but it’s not the same as it was 50 years ago — not much is. The boulevard, where a traffic jam isn’t unheard of at quitting time these days, was home to a restaurant and a hotel and not much else back then. The schools were segregated when he was a child; Tanner was a junior when Brookhaven was forced to desegregate. “Brookhaven was close-knit then,” he said. “It was so close. Any adult had the same rights as my parents if I was acting up. They could spank my butt, and I got another one when I got home.” Tanner, now 64, has seen his hometown change in countless ways. But some things are constant in Brookhaven — Tanner being one of them. Today he’s the controller for Hurst Review Services, spending his days digging through invoices or making sure a bill is paid. He lives with math and numbers and things accountants dream of. It’s always been that way. Tanner’s father, a coach who worked for the city rec department in the summer, taught math and had a passion for numbers. Tanner picked up on that passion as a child, sometimes helping his father grade tests. “We would have to know how to solve the problems,” he said about the tests. “My father used to always talk numbers. So I guess he kinda rubbed off on me. Even though he was a coach, he loved math.” He took that passion for numbers to Co-Lin and then Jackson State after graduating from Brookhaven High School. He started as an accountant at Co-Lin and eventually worked his way up to vice president for business affairs. He spent 38 years at Co-Lin before retiring almost four years ago. “I never saw myself working there long,” he said. “I always thought about going to some metropolitan area and working. As time passed, I didn’t want to leave Brookhaven. I just felt comfortable here.” He still remembers his math and statistics courses at Co-Lin, and the people who taught them. Tanner grew up near Alexander Junior
FATHER GAVE ACCOUNTANT A LOVE FOR MATH — AND HIS FUTURE WIFE High (the black high school at the time), in a house full of children. There were seven total, but the older kids were out of the house when the younger ones came along. His mother was a teacher’s assistant at Brookhaven Elementary and worked at Stahl-Urban until it closed. His parents taught him the value of hard work and dedication — Tanner said he had perfect attendance in high school. That changed when he got a taste of freedom living in the dorms at Co-Lin. “My father insisted that I stay on campus,” he said. “He wanted us to experience that. It was so much fun, I kinda got in trouble. “When I got to Co-Lin, I skipped a few classes,” he said. “After the third cut, they sent a note home to our parents. My father got that note and he wasn’t too happy. He set me on the right path.” When he started as an accountant at Co-Lin — his first job out of college — the business office ran on paper. Everything was recorded on one form or another, filed and stored away. Looking back, he says those days remind him of the “Flintstones.” Computers would eventually change the way business offices operate, and Tanner saw the evolution of computers first-hand. When computers and programs suited for office work eventually arrived, they were comically simple compared to today’s machines. The black-and-green screen of the AS/400 system from IBM looks like ancient technology today, but was revolutionary at the time. “From the time I started to the time I left, the biggest change was the technology,” he said. “When I think about how we used to do things like registration. We had to do everything by hand, all those receipts. When I left, students did it all themselves.
Computers made the job a lot easier.” Tanner’s boss at Co-Lin appreciated his mastery of numbers. “He was an outstanding administrator and my friend during his time at Co-Lin,” former college president Ronnie Nettles said. “He provided quiet but effective leadership during the numerous state-wide budget cuts of the recession years. Michael had an extensive knowledge of the college budget and its operation and we depended on him greatly.” It is computers and programs — far more advanced than the old AS/400 — that make his current job possible at Hurst Review. The company, which operates out of an unmarked office space on Railroad Avenue, provides test preparation for the nurse licensing exam. It does so with streaming videos and online lectures, things that would have been science-fiction when Tanner started at Co-Lin four decades ago. When word got out that Tanner was retiring from Co-Lin, Pat Lowery, CEO of Hurst Review, reached out to him about a job. The two had known each other for decades. “When you retire, people say ‘let’s go play golf, let’s go fishing,’” he said. “Pat said ‘when you retire I want to talk to you about a job.’” “This is the ideal job,” Tanner said. “I don’t have to deal with the stress, don’t have to deal with state budget cuts.” He still works with numbers, invoices, collections — the things accountants and only accountants enjoy. He can thank his father for a lifetime of that sort of work. He can also thank his father for his marriage. Not only did Tanner’s father introduce him to numbers, he also was the reason Michael met Phyliss, the woman he’s been married to for 38 years. Phyliss helped out at the pool, and Michael’s father thought she would be a good match for his son. “He was the driving force in that relationship,” Michael said. The Tanners have three children (all living in Texas now) and seven grandchildren. Michael said he expects his wife to retire soon; she teaches nursing at Co-Lin. He expects he will retire in the next couple years as well. And with the freedom that comes with not having an 8-5, Michael said he will likely do more traveling, keep his grass cut, play some golf — and watch Brookhaven as it continues to change. |||||
BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 19
Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber
2019 Calendar of Events April
September
3rd-6th: • Spring Fair & Fest - Lincoln Civic Center 5th: • Relay for Life - Lincoln Civic Center
4th-8th: • Fall Fair & Fest - Licoln Civic Center
June
October
July
November
14th-15th: • Tri State Rodeo - Lincoln Civic Center 20th: • Girl’s Night Out - Participating Retailer & Restaurants
9th: • Christmas Open House - Participating Retailers & Restaurants
12th-13th: • Brookstock 18th-21st: • Dixie Youth Baseball Invitational World Series - Lincoln Civic Center Baseball Complex & Hansel King Sports Complex 25th-27th: • Exchange Club Fair
August
4th-5th: • 45th Annual Ole Brook Festival Downtown Brookhaven
December
1st-3rd: • Exchange Club Fair 23rd-24th: • Lincoln County Wildlife Expo & MS Logger’s Association 30th Anniversary Lumberjack Event - Licoln Civic Center
5th: • Brookhaven Christmas Parade Downtown Brookhaven 7th: • Movie on the Lawn with Santa MSA Campus
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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 This ad is sponsored by the MS Department of Environmental Quality.
BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 21
history MARCH/APRIL 19
Story by Brett Campbell
THE DEAD CAN’T BOTHER YOU 22 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
W
ayne Williams believes in the supernatural. Jesus is his Lord and Savior. He reads his Bible everyday. He shares Jesus with the young men he meets who he sees taking a wide, well-traveled road that leads to destruction. And he and his family have experienced the supernatural firsthand. Williams’ brother is a minister and a carpenter. Once, while working on a set of scaffolding 25-30 feet high, he fell backward off the top plank. Wayne was on his break in another room. When he returned, everyone was standing around staring at his brother with mouths open and shocked expressions. He was standing in front of them, safe and unharmed. He had somehow landed safely on his feet, not hurt, not even jarred. “That was God,” his brother said. Wayne is maintenance supervisor for the City Cemetery Department in Brookhaven. His office is in a well-worn and rusty metal shed near the back of historic Easthaven Cemetery. But you won’t find him there often. He’s usually out checking on the cemeteries and his upkeep crews. Wayne took over the department after the previous supervisor, Hosner Cameron, died in in the summer of 2012. The first odd things he heard about happening in the city’s places of the dead
came from Cameron himself. “Before they moved the shop over here it was over in Rosehill, and some stuff was happening over there,” Williams said. He and Cameron liked to pick at each other in a joking way, so he didn’t take much seriously when his old boss told him about doors slamming or lights coming on with no one else around. If the boss went to the bathroom when he was the only one in the building, he said the door would slam loudly every time. Once, convinced someone on the crew was trying to scare him, he yelled, “You go on and stop playing now. I’m trying to use the bathroom!” And the whole building shook around him. The experience shook Cameron, too. Cameron even told Williams about seeing people walk toward him in the cemetery and if he glanced away there’d be no one there when he looked back. Williams believed in God, but not ghosts, so he paid Cameron little attention in these matters. But Williams began to experience things for himself. “The wind would slam the doors, and it could be a still day. But I never really paid it much mind, it doesn’t really bother me because I didn’t believe in all that. I thought it was just something he was putting on, but I experienced it for myself
with the doors slamming and stuff happening over there that’s unexplainable. It’s unexplainable. I can’t tell you what’s going on in that side when I’m in the office but I know there ain’t nobody here but me.” Sitting in the patched rolling desk chair in his small office, Williams points to the wall dividing the room from the shop and bathroom portion of the shed. “I’d get here about 5:30 in the morning and come in this office. I’d hear what sounded like people talking in the next part of the building,” he said. He’d go look, first removing the padlock from the rolling door to get in, and confirm there was no one there. Sometimes the bathroom light would be on. Or the office light, when all lights had been turned off and doors padlocked the night before. Williams would later fuss at crew members about leaving the lights on, but often he knew he was the last one to be in each room, and the one who turned the lights off before securing the facility. “I’d turn it off, every time. Checked it for shorts, nothing. Everything would be off and I’d lock up,” he said. “Next morning, it’d be on.”
BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 23
Photos by Donna Campbell
Previous pages, an old sign from Rosehill Cemetery hangs inside the work shed at Easthaven Cemetery; the Confederate Memorial Monument in the Civil War section of Rosehill Cemetery. This page, top: The gated entrance to Easthaven Cemetery welcomes visitors with a long tree-lined drive. Bottom: The work shed at Easthaven, with the shop and restroom area on the left and the office on the right.
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Once when he heard voices and movement from inside the shed, he called out, “Cameron, go lay down.” And the noises stopped. “Now I didn’t really believe it was Cameron, I just said that because me and Cameron were always picking at each other. But it stopped.” Something else that made the noises go away was Williams picking up the Bible with the cracked faux-leather cover that lays on his desk and beginning to read. “Every time,” he said, nodding, “it just stopped.” The one event that convinced him there were more things in this world than humans could see happened in broad daylight, in Rosehill Cemetery. Williams and a crew member were sitting in a truck and saw someone approaching. “A young fellow came up the hillside off Monticello into the cemetery, walking right toward us,” he said. He described him as looking like a high school kid, wearing jeans and a white T-shirt, and with a backpack on his back. “I thought he was a kid skipping school. I said, ‘Where is he going?’” The worker responded he didn’t know. “Dude was coming toward the truck and passed us,” Williams said. “We turned the truck around and before we could move it around he had vanished. He walked right past us and right by the Confederate soldiers’ plot walking toward East Congress.” He was just gone, Williams said, with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide in that amount of time. “I’d like to know where he went,” Williams said. “It was spooky. It was really spooky.” The city worker has always held to the idea that the dead can’t bother you — it’s the living you’ve got to watch out for. “But this is something I wouldn’t want to deal with every day.” Williams says he finds strength in a Savior who rose from the dead and raised others from the dead, and in a Bible that tells about God sending spirits to help people, and about evil spirits, too. Evil spirits “don’t always want to scare you,” he said, “just make you believe something that ain’t true.” It’s been four or five years since he’s heard anything in the building, Williams said. But he admits that may be because he doesn’t spend any more time in the office than necessary. He’s got enough to do to keep him out and about, anyway. “It don’t bother me. I’m not afraid,” he said, shaking his head. “But I keep that Bible right there. And you notice I hadn’t turned that heater over there on. I don’t stay in here long.” Williams smiles and adds, “And you won’t find me here at night.” |||||
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photo essay MARCH/APRIL 19
CHARITY BALL, BEHIND THE SCENES
Photos by Johnny Smith 26 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
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photo essay MARCH/APRIL 19
JAZZED UP, FEELING FINE
Photos by Donna Campbell
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BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 31
photo essay MARCH/APRIL 19
‘GOIN TO TOWN’
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BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 33
Photos by Donna Campbell
home MARCH/APRIL 19
A
They believe it to be true
my McKay fell in love with the quaint cottage on South Jackson Street about the same time she fell in love with Brookhaven. Just like the city that has become her home, the house is both comfortable and comforting. She moved there with her family — husband Bobby, 16-year-old Mary Lawrence and 10-year-old Lydia Catherine — just in time to experience the Old Brook Festival. Not long after that, they opened their home to trick-ortreaters and discovered the annual community tradition that is Halloween on South Jackson. “That was wild,” Amy said. “That was our first time to experience it.” The McKays moved to Brookhaven from Scott County
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about six months ago. Bobby McKay was pastor at Harperville Baptist Church for 10 years until he was called to Pleasant Grove Baptist in West Lincoln to fill the void left when that church’s pastor died. The church allowed the pastor’s widow to stay on for a while and now that the parsonage is empty, they plan to do some much-needed renovations. In the meantime, the church rented the house on South Jackson and the McKays turned it into a home. Amy said the three-bedroom, two-bath house is one of Johnny Lynch’s many renovations in town. The home’s hardwood floors are in the main rooms, while the kitchen floor is black and white ceramic tile. Amy imagines the house, which is catty-corner to the historical Hardy House, also a
Photos by Donna Campbell
Page 34: Amy McKay inside her family’s home on South Jackson Street. This page: Decorations inside the McKay home. Page 36: Lydia Catherine McKay sells pecans and slime outside the family’s home.
Lynch makeover, could have been home to a Civil War soldier and his family at one time. “We love that they kept the old feel of it,” she said. The windows flanking the front door in the living room look out onto the busy corner where Natchez Avenue meets South Jackson Street just past their mailbox. Their home is where the sidewalk ends. “That’s why Lydia had the idea to sell slime,” Amy said. Lydia Catherine, who will be 11 in April, is the entrepreneur in the family. She’s already thinking like a CEO. “Her mind never stops,” Bobby said. The weather was cool when they unpacked those first boxes, but there was still enough of that Mississippi heat to cause a hankering for an ice cold beverage. “First it was lemonade,” Amy said. “When we first moved here, she said, ‘I’m making a lemonade stand.’ She did very well. It was during the Ole Brook Festival. She had several people come by and get lemonade.” “Then we discovered we had pecan trees,” Bobby McKay said. Lydia figured out there was a huge market for the nuts around the holidays. “She would go out and pick up buckets and buckets of pecans,” Amy said. Then she started making slime to sell. Neon slime. Glitter slime. Slime with the scents of fruits and berries. It’s nothing for the pre-teen to take in $200 on a good Saturday. For the homeschool student, it’s a lesson in economics. “She will take her earnings and then go right back and stock her inventory. She will buy for herself very rarely. She has a journal. She has bookkeeping,” Bobby said. She’s trying to grow the business and wants to try marketing. “She wants me to go online and get her some business cards,” he said. Her mother considers their choice of names for their youngest. “When we named her, we were thinking about hospitality, but you know, Lydia in the Bible is a seller of purple linen. She’s just really taking on that side of her name,” Amy said. “It’s amazing. You don’t really believe that when you name your children that it means something sometimes. But for her, it’s definitely her. It’s her calling.” Mary Lawrence, with a double name sans hyphen, is named for her great-grandfather. She’s into singing and the theater. Mary Lawrence wants to see her name in lights, her younger sister wants hers in slime. BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 35
The kitchen in the McKay home has white walls with battleship gray cabinets. The white wraps around the corners into the living room and dining room, where it then crashes into a suede brown wall on the opposite side of the house. Bobby McKay remarks that he didn’t think the color theme should work, but it does. Amy collects artisan objects — mostly handweaved baskets — on her mission visits to Haiti. Those are scattered around the house on mantles, tables and walls along with splashes of greenery Amy acquired at Inside Out downtown. She’s been to Haiti three times with their previous church and hopes to take a fourth trip soon with families from Pleasant Grove. The furniture she chose is both functional and inviting. A row of bar seats line the kitchen counter which make for a great spot for Amy’s daughters to gather to discuss life choices and algebra with their mother while she fixes one of the family’s favorite dinners — salmon and asparagus. Mary Lawrence admits it’s their most-requested dish and mom happily obliges. In the living room, a comfortable couch is paired with an antique chest that holds memories and family keepsakes. An oversized chair makes a perfect spot for the pastor in the house to prepare sermons and catch up on his reading next to the floor lamp. The McKays’ master bedroom is adjacent to the kitchen. The living room and dining area divides the house. The girls’ bedrooms are on the other side of the home and are joined by a Jack-and-Jill bathroom, though for them it’s a Jill-and-Jill. The fireplace in the McKays’ bedroom caused squeals of delight when Amy first spotted it. Though it’s filled with black brick, the mantle and mirror over it were the perfect touch for the couple’s retreat. “This was my favorite when we first came in. I thought, ‘Aww, how romantic,’” she said. A camellia bush reaches to the eaves of the house just outside one of the windows in the bedroom. A few red blooms left on it are beginning to wither. “That’s natural artwork. I have taken so many pictures of that thing,” she said. “It was prettier maybe a month ago.” A train rattles past on the tracks that are two yards and a few trees behind them. It took them a few weeks of unpacking to get used to the frequent whistle blows as trains approach crossings downtown. “Honestly, some days I don’t even hear it anymore,” Amy said. One of the many baskets she has strategically placed throughout the home to decorate sums up the family’s thoughts about their new hometown. Printed along the bottom of the oval basket is one word: “Grateful.” They believe it to be true. ||||| 36 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
books MARCH/APRIL 19
PERSPECTIVE IS EVERYTHING Voltaire. Candide, or Optimism. Henry Morely, trans. NY: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003. First published in 1759 in French, Candide was the work of Francois-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire, the pen name he adopted while imprisoned in his early 20s for allegedly writing two libelous poems about the duke of Orleans, the French regent. By the time Voltaire wrote Candide, the 65-year-old man was a successful playwright, poet and historian. A few years prior, he had privately rejected the optimistic outlook of German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who claimed the universe was rational and well-regulated — the sum of everything being the best it could possibly be, all things considered. Soon thereafter, the Seven Years War began in a confluence of 11 countries perpetuating the colonial rivalry between France and England. It was in the middle of this conflict that Voltaire wrote his philosophical tale that the editor of this volume describes as “an attack on the evils of religious fanaticism, war, colonialism, and slavery.” In 30 brief chapters contained in 120 pages, the author takes his sharpened wit and hits every glimpse of optimism he finds as harshly and head-on as possible. Though his criticisms of life and love are brutal, they are not without a good bit of humor. As a fan of British comedy — its dry wit and deadpan delivery — I found myself chuckling with the pronouncements of Candide’s antagonists even as I disagreed with much of their arguments. I shook my head at Candide’s naïve stubbornness even as I admired his persistence in looking for the good no matter his unfortunate circumstance. In just a matter of paragraphs, the hero of the story is wrongfully accused of a great crime and must run for his life, beginning his comedic tragedy of a life, or perhaps it is a tragic comedy. Perspective is everything. In his training for the Bulgarian army — in which he unwittingly enlisted by drinking to the health of the Bulgarian king — he made the grand mistake of thinking he
was free to go for a walk. So he “marched straight forward, conceiving it to be a privilege of the human species, as well as of animals in general, to make use of their legs how and when they pleased.” But the naïve one was considered a deserter, caught and bound, and presented with court-martial. “He was asked which he preferred: to be flogged 36 times by the whole regiment, or to have his brains blown out with a dozen musket balls.” Because he had free will, he reasoned, Candide responded that he chose neither. But the Bulgarians obviously still rejected the protagonist’s idea of free will. Candide chose the flogging, because he wanted to live, and after each of the 2,000 men in the regiment had taken their second strike at him — with 34 more to go for each one — he decided to exercise his free will once again and “begged as a favour [if ] they would be so obliging as to shoot him through the head. The favour being granted …” Candide was about to be shot when the king happened by and granted him clemency because he was a foreigner and ignorant of their laws. This sort of thing happened again and again to Candide to such effect that he vacillated between deep despair and confident hope in life, passing frequently through confused wonder in the middle as he traveled back and forth from one to the other. If you enjoy dark humor, look for the good in everything and everyone — or even the worst — and enjoy reading esoteric philosophical fiction, then I highly recommend this tale of the worst of the worst happening repeatedly to someone who ultimately refuses to give up hope. Voltaire saw his work as a biting critique of Leibnitz’s best of all possible worlds, but I saw it as also saying one makes the best of what he has been dealt, even if it is the worst. Perspective in this tale is everything. — Brett Campbell BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 37
social scenes MARCH/APRIL 19
MOZART BY CANDLELIGHT
Joan Schuetzle and T.A. Boyd
Norma Hill, Dott Cannon, Joann Davis and Carole Bennett
Patrick Murphy and Sarah Feather
Hope Ratcliff and Jesse Freeman
Joe and Wanda Fernald
Baine Adams, Bryant Johnston, Betty Johnston and Katie Adams
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Dr. George and Zoula Huffman
Will and Pamela Womack
Hannah Mason, Kim Jordan and Quinn Jordan
Mandy, Steven and Lovedee Laiche
Shirley Estes, Phyllis Spearman and Anne Matthews
Hunter Martin, Kathy Martin and David Martin
BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 39
BOGUE CHITTO STRONG
Lynn Butler, Nash Durr and Hayden Barnes
Don and Nancy Burns, and Glenda and Jackie Besseonette
Keasha Dickerson and Anna Brooke Dickerson
Tamarya May and Vincent Mitchell
Elizabeth BurageJackson, Phillip Burage, Brittany Burage, Osheonna Jackson, Micaiah Jackson, Kinslea Burage and Bobby Jackson Jr.
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DOWNTOWN JAZZED UP
Back row, Nic Ricceri, Richard Balkcom, Andrea Balkcom and Jillian Ricceri. Front row, Hannah Elaine Balkcom and Owen Balkcom
Mary Blalock, Bradley Rushing, Jaimee Rushing and Camryn Hart
Front row, Oliver English, Kody English and Nolan English; back row, Mandy English, Lyndsey Fortenberry and Michelle Johnston
Lamease Lenoir, Kenneth Harris, Jacqueline Harris and Kia Porter
Marquita Ratcliff, Kaitlin Poole, Paul Lyons Jr., Kali Porter, Jennifer Lewis and Lang Porter Jr.
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DOWNTOWN JAZZED UP
Sydney Richardson and Jaide Prather
Becky Hurst Dunn and Debbie Pepper Nix
Cohen Wolfee, Chris Wolff, Sabrina Wolff, Tiffany Shelton, Braylen Shelton and Blakelynn Shelton
Avery Douglas, Justin Douglas, Cohen Douglas and Coty Douglas
Charlie Hewitt, Ron Donegan, Kristi Bridge, Tyler Bridge and Libby Hewitt
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SPRING FLING
Don Walley, Roger Leggett and Sue Leggett
Mayson Merritt, Katie Adams and Tyler Adams
Megan Case and Adam Case
Melanie Moak, Saylor Moak, Remi Kale Vines and Chanie Vines
Kristy Smith and Leslie Smith
Darrius Bass, Michelle Butler, Victor Nelson and Demetrie Butler
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JUNIOR AUXILIARY CHRISTMAS
Kristina Mason, Amy Mason and Stephanie Henderson
Ashley Choudoir, Anne Houston Craig and Erin King
Lisa Breazeale and Libbi Hobkirk
Latoya Butler, Jillian Ricceri, Lindsey Abdalla and Brenda Orr
Mary Katherine Franklin and Laura Broxson
Chaunci McIntyre and Tiffany Blackwell
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Juliana Adams and Kristina Mason
Mary Katherine Franklin, Kristina Mason, Haley Thibodeaux, Paula Welch, Mary Clare Hemleben and Laura Broxson
Katie Furr, Abbey Bozeman, Anne Houston Craig, Stephanie Henderson, Ashley Choudoir and Amber Wilkinson
Emma Coleman, Mendez Vaughn and Brenda Orr
Sheila Sartin, Hannah Laporte, Aimee Mason, Mary White and Sarabeth Hall
Chelli Durr, Amy Mason, Tracy Freeny, Wendy Hall, Whitney Holmes, Juliana Adams, Heather Martin and Charlsie Estess
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JASMINE MURRAY CONCERT AT MSA
Cindy Moore, Becky Currie and Jennifer Whittier
Suzanne Hirsch, Patton Rice and Jennifer Jackson
JaDorra Bailey, Jayona Wells, Savana Mars, Telvin Thomas and Maleah Biggs
Katherine Balkcom and Jasmine Murray
Johnny Ray Hall, Sheila Day, Roberta Barnett, Jennifer Barnett, Paul Barnett and Brenda Hall
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CHARITY BALL
Anne Houston Craig, Trent and Eleanor Hartzog
Eleanor Hartzog, Amy and Dennis Valentine, Lindsey Robinson, Kevin Smith and Kathleen Calcote
Elizabeth Iles, Dr. Jay Ballard and Bethany Ballard
Jeff and Vanessa Richardson
Jennifer Hutson, Kellye Sicks and Kay Boykin
Joey and Sarah Norton, and Dr. Richard Rushing
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LeAnn Griffin and Courtney Owens
Lucy, Sully and Lizzie Donegan
Stephany Smith, Rachel Powell and Melissa Leggett
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Lisa Shann, Cristina Craig and Amy Mason
Queen AnnaRachel Breeland and Tristan Peavey
Stephany Smith, Sandy Barker and Peggy Breeland Opeiola
garden MARCH/APRIL 19
Try colorful, delicious heirloom tomatoes By Gary. R. Bachman
M
any folks have been waiting for this moment: the day it’s warm enough and past the main threat of frost to become tomato planting time. An old garden tradition is planting tomatoes on Good Friday. The only problem is that Easter moves around, and where you live in Mississippi makes a difference. When Easter is early, the planting date is just right. This year, Good Friday is April 19, which is a good planting date for the northern part of the state but too late for coastal counties. April 5 is the optimum planting date on the Coast. Everyone has their own favorite tomatoes to grow in the garden, but one group of tomatoes creates a lot of buzz. I’m talking about heirloom tomatoes. Heirlooms are not your typical, grocery store Stepford tomato. They come in every shape, size and color imaginable. These tomatoes are treasured for being more flavorful, nutritious and beautiful than other varieties. And, to some, growing heirloom tomatoes is a status symbol. But what makes an heirloom tomato different? In a word: tradition. Heirloom tomatoes were commonly passed down from one generation to another within families, in much the way furniture or dishes are inherited. A great example is the Nebraska Wedding tomato. The seeds of this “love apple” are still being given to brides as part of their trousseaus. It keeps alive the farming tradition of giving part of the farm and wishing fertility to the newlyweds. Some say a tomato variety must be at least 50 years old to be considered an heirloom. But this is an arbitrary definition, like saying all cars in Mississippi older than 25 years are antiques. Heirloom tomatoes are openpollinated, which means they breed true from collected seed. From the gardening standpoint, once you find an
heirloom tomato you really like, saving seed each year can ensure you will continue to enjoy it in the future. This is also an important characteristic in helping maintain genetic diversity. Heirloom tomatoes have been selected for taste and flavor, and they have regional environmental preferences. As such, they suffer more from environmental influences than their hybrid cousins, which are bred for consistent performance around the country. So, picking good heirloom performers for the hot and humid Mississippi climate is important. I’ve grown more than 70 different heirloom tomatoes. A few of my favorites include Black Ethiopian, Angora Super Sweet, Cherokee Purple
and Homestead. Unfortunately, these delicious tomato varieties probably won’t be available at garden centers this spring. But look for other heirloom varieties available. It may already be too late to start your own heirloom tomatoes this year, since seed needs to be sown six weeks before transplanting. But now is the time to start planning for next year. Heirloom tomato seeds are readily available in seed and gardening catalogs. Check online sources like Tomatofest and Totally Tomatoes for available varieties. With so many choices for heirloom tomatoes available, there is no reason not to try some this year. Happy gardening! BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 49
voices MARCH/APRIL 19
Why I love Brookhaven B
rookhaven, Mississippi, is one of the small Southern towns that just feels like home. Lots of friendly folks and it seems that most everyone knows one another. Visitors are always welcomed and some of them decide to move here. The Brookhaven city government services are second to none. Our Brookhaven city officials and associates work very hard to provide the very best service to the citizens of Brookhaven. The fire and police departments go above and beyond to serve the people and protect life and property, and the same can be said for the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and the Lincoln County volunteer fire departments. The King’s Daughters Medical Center EMS provides exceptional emergency medical care to people in need. There are recreational and outdoor activities to participate in, from hunting and fishing to boating and camping at some of the state parks that are in the Brookhaven area. In addition, there are several public events on can attend through the year such as the Exchange Club Fair or the Hog Wild barbecue cook-off, just to name a couple. The Brookhaven and Lincoln County school systems are some of the best in the state. My two children graduated from Loyd Star High School. There are multiple churches of all denominations to tend to one’s spiritual needs. My family and I are members of Easthaven Baptist Church. These are a few reasons to love Brookhaven, but I think the main reason I love Brookhaven is that it is my home. I could not imagine living anywhere else. Tony Weeks has been a Brookhaven firefighter for 34 years and fire chief for 10 years. He and his wife, Ann, have two children, Matthew Weeks and Emilee Weeks Travis. He is anxiously anticipating the birth of his first grandchild.
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