Leflore Illustrated 2006-2007

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Greenwood, Mississippi

B.B. and the radio show

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A River Country Journal / Fall and Winter 2006-2007

How Miss Sally made ‘the Boulevard’ grand

Leflore Illustrated

FROM KILN TO KITCHEN A hot idea turns into a cool collaboration

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To become an Annual Member contact the BPAC at 662.846.4625.

CE CE WINANS Sunday, September 24 — 7:30

THE PROMISE OF THE BLUES/PEAVINE AWARDS Featuring Diunna Greenleaf and Eden Brent

Wednesday, October 11 — 7:30

CAMELOT Saturday, October 28 — 7:30 Sunday, October 29 — 3:00

OH, MR. FAULKNER, DO YOU WRITE? Monday, November 20 — 7:30

MAN OF LA MANCHA Sunday, January 21 — 2:00 Sunday, January 21 — 7:30 Monday, January 22 — 7:30

DELTA REVIEW Sunday, February 18 — 2:00

THE KODO DRUMMERS Thursday, March 1 — 7:30

WILLIE WONKA Tuesday, March 27 — 7:30

TRICIA WALKER Tuesdsay, April 3 — 7:30

KATHY MATTEA Thursday, April 26 — 7:30

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THE FASTEST GROWING DEALERSHIP IN THE DELTA...

CANNON NISSAN

Hwy 82 West • Greenwood • 662-453-3988 or toll free 1-866-453-3988

CANNON CHEVROLET H CADILLAC

Hwy 82 West • Greenwood • 662-453-4211 or toll free 1-800-898-4211

CANNON FOR D

LINCOLN MERCURY

Hwy 61 North • Cleveland • 662-843-2785 or toll free 1-877-840-2785 Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 1

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A Southern tradition for more than 75 years.

The Crystal Grill has been a dining tradition in the Delta for more than 75 years. This unusual restaurant is located in downtown Greenwood in a building which is listed in the Historic Register. Come join us for a unique dining experience beginning with a mind-boggling lunch menu of homecooked meats and fresh vegetables, and ending with a dinner selection that includes everything from fresh seafood and choice cuts of beef to scrumptious homemade desserts. Our goal continues to be to provide good food at reasonable prices.

Open Tuesday - Sunday 11:00AM - 10:00PM 423 Carrollton Avenue Historic Downtown Greenwood (662) 453-6530 2 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

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Leflore

The Leflore County Courthouse is more than 100 years old.

Illustrated

table of contents PHOTOS BY SUSAN MONTGOMERY

people 6. Friar seeks unity.

14. Family matters: Dr. Rana Skaf.

18. Spensia’s talent for welcome.

20. Guitarist picks Leflore.

22. Carpenter’s king of the Pillow Academy court.

26. Whittaker reflects leadership.

29. Small-town mayor has no small job.

42. A home that’s for the dogs.

51. Hall-of-Famer shoots for a little less pain.

52. Ask the doctor. You can go home again.

55. What’s a massage therapist?

58. The Cade family actors.

places 6. Take a drive. Or hike.

Or just a walk.

16. Tales from the Lake 47. Whittington Park.

A good deed makes a deed good.

53. Historic Places: a sampling from the Register.

Market Street in Greenwood is the home of Staplcotn, which renovated its headquarters in recent years.

features

10. Pottery adds a kick to cooking craft.

24. Hey, Totten! Who’s who from MVSU. 32. An eye to the future makes a whole neighborhood grand. A chapter from a new book by author Mary Carol Miller and photographer Mary Rose Carter.

more 4. From the editor: Place matters.

50. Employment’s top ten.

54. Leflore County stats and a map.

37. These memorabilia collectors are always striking gold.

44. The art of Delta living draws from the serenity of Japan.

46. B.B. King’s first time on the air was in Greenwood.

57. The national media and Leflore.

59. Directory: Who to call.

62. Calendar.

63. Index to advertisers.

64. Lise Foy, Main Street Greenwood’s

ON THE COVER: A hibiscus blooms outside the Blue Parrot Café on Howard new director.

Street.

Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 3

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From the editor

A matter of place “WHERE YOU FROM?” ASKED THE BURLY AUTO MECHANIC. I’VE LOST COUNT OF HOW many times I’ve been asked that question since moving to Greenwood in 1982. Although my relatives in Kansas City think I’ve acquired a Southern accent over the years, there’s no fooling people who know the real thing when they hear it.

“Well, I’ve lived here for 24 years,” I responded to my inquisitor, hoping to defuse the tinge of antagonism in his voice.

Not good enough. “Yeah, but where are you from?” he persisted.

I have learned not to take such questioning personal, even when it comes from someone who is being more than curious.

Place is extremely important to people in Mississippi. It’s how we understand ourselves, and how we try to understand others.

Sure, this obsession with place can reflect a not-so-admirable leeriness of outsiders that dates back at least to the Civil War. It gave Mississippi, during the civil rights movement, a reputation of being a “closed society,” one that resisted ideas or people who challenged the so-called Southern way of life. Yet, as with most of Mississipi’s seemingly negative attributes, there is a flip side that is decent and desirable.

In Mississippi, because it has such a strong sense of place, people feel connected to each other and to their surroundings. Unlike the anonymous existence that marks life in more urban states, in Mississippi, we know not only the people in the next restaurant booth but usually in the next town. It is rare when I travel around the state with my wife, a Mississippi native, that we don’t run into someone she knows from her childhood or from her college days.

It is the nature of the human existence that we crave community, a sense that we belong to something bigger than ourselves. It gives us comfort to know that we’re not on an island but part of a place with history and human connections.

In Mississippi, it doesn’t take much searching to find community. It is ingrained in the people and places of every point on the map.

In Leflore Illustrated, we try to capture, in words and in pictures, what makes the community of Leflore County special. Our mission with this magazine is to tell the ongoing story of Leflore County — from the brick streets of downtown Greenwood to the dusty turn rows of Schlater — in a way that captivates people who have lived here all of their lives and those who are stopping by for the first time. We hope it shows why place matters.

“Where you from?” the mechanic asked.

“From here,” I should have said, “same as you.” — Tim Kalich PHOTO BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

“It is the nature of the human existence that we crave community, a sense that we belong to something bigger than ourselves.“

4 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

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Frank’s Flower Shop

eflore

300 Fulton Street Greenwood, Mississippi 662-453-3642 www.franksflowershop.com

Illustrated

Editor and Publisher Tim Kalich

Managing Editor Leesha Faulkner

Design Editor

Susan Montgomery

Associate Editors

Jo Alice Hughes, David Monroe

Contributing Writers

Bob Darden, Jennifer Neal, Bill Burrus, Elizabeth Kalich, Mary Margaret Miller, Mary Carol Miller

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Volume 2, No. 1 —————— Editorial and business offices: P.O. Box 8050 329 Highway 82 West Greenwood, MS 38935-8050 662-453-5312

—————— Leflore Illustrated is published by Commonwealth Publishing, Inc.

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Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 5

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PHOTO BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

BY JENNIFER NEAL

A multicultural mission

BY SUSAN MONTGOMERY

A good

Look Take a walk

The Rev. Greg Plata sits with a group from St. Francis School. From the left are Albert Burch, Alex Man, Plata, Jakorviyan Pugh, Edee Lyons, Chelsea Freeman and Marixsa Zuniga.

And a vision of unity

A

heavenly call brought Greg Plata to the ministry. An earthbound one landed him in the Delta.

“I had always wanted to come to Greenwood,” said Plata. “I had passed through here many times and loved the spirit of the South.”

He reaches to that spirit — and the other, greater one from God — as he tries to nourish the vision of racial unity in Greenwood.

Plata, 50, is a member of the Franciscan order of Catholic priests. For the past five years, he has served as pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish — a complex on U.S. 82 complete with church, rectory, convent and elementary school.

“My dream is that St. Francis School, which is open to students of all religions, also becomes a center of racial integration,” said Plata.

Before moving to Greenwood, he was working in Green Bay, Wis., interviewing men who were thinking about joining the Franciscan order. He said he has known he wanted to become a friar since he was in high school in his hometown of Philadelphia, Penn., where he had Franciscans as teachers.

“They had a great influence on me and others during that time,” said Plata. “I knew I wanted to become a part of their mission. They were down to earth and

gospel-centered.”

Plata earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Temple University, also in Philadelphia, and then he worked in marketing for an international corporation.

That didn’t last long. He became a Franciscan 25 years ago.

A quarter-century earlier, the province of Franciscans with which Plata is associated decided to open a couple of missions.

One was in the Philippines. The other was in Greenwood.

“The parish here at the mission is my family. Those who worship with us are mainly African American, but we do have whites and Hispanics who attend our services,” Plata said. “I love the multicultural dimension of the parish.”

Plata also serves as pastor of St. Thomas Church in Lexington and Sacred Heart of Jesus in Winona. He volunteers as a counselor at the Life Help Mental Health Center in Greenwood.

“Because we are located near the main highway, we get requests for financial help and counseling from people of all faiths,” Plata said. “Catholic means universal, and we celebrate that. I am committed to stay here and witness the Gospel.”

He said, “My mission in life is to serve God.” LI

6 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

A stroll: East Claiborne Park If you just want to stretch your legs a bit, head for the public park on East Claiborne Avenue. This is a pretty little place with playground equipment, oaks and crape myrtles, and a tennis court sandwiched between the street and the Yazoo River levee. You can stroll eastward on top of the levee. A flood plain to the south is populated by hardwoods, which taper off when the plain narrows to meet the levee. The street follows the same route, and the pavement turns to gravel when the roadway reaches the levee. That’s a nice spot to stand for a moment and just watch the Yazoo.

Distance: A little more than a quarter mile from the tennis courts to the end of the pavement. Or, walk over from downtown. It’s about a mile from the Leflore County Courthouse to the place where the pavement ends.

A hike: The Leflore Trail at Malmaison This enchanting trail starts at the Malmaison Wildlife Management Area, which is about 12 miles north of the intersection of U.S. 82 and Mississippi 7.

Malmaison encompasses 9,483 acres in Leflore, Carroll and Grenada counties and is operated by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. The Leflore Trail is sponsored by the Garden Clubs of Mississippi.

The trail’s a little hilly, so wear some comfortable shoes. The shady path travels through woods and across land that once belonged to Choctaw Indian Chief Greenwood Leflore. There’s an old cemetery and a homesite that belonged to Leflore’s brother. The topography includes loess bluffs and a creek.

Brochures at the head of the trail offer information on flora and fauna, the cemetery, and the life and historical impact of Greenwood Leflore. There’s no charge.

Mary Dent Deaton of Greenwood, who coordinates the Garden Clubs’ sponsorship, said she has been delighted over the

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years to bring children to the trail and let them play freely there. “It is wonderful for children to be able to do that,” she said.

Distance: The whole trail is 3 miles, and there’s a shortcut that slices a mile or two off the distance.

Take a drive A spin: West River Road Extended

A quiet country lane follows the Yazoo River west from U.S. 82 at Strong Avenue, across the four-lane from Greenwood Leflore Hospital. Don’t be deterred by the fact that you will not be able to see the way at first. Turn west off the highway at the intersection and follow the road as it curves around a cottonseed oil mill and a station that generates electrical power.

After that, you can coast — slowly — between pleasant homes and lawns and the river bank, with occasional views of the water. The pavement changes to gravel, with cotton fields on both sides of the roadway. In the winter, these will be bare. By May, they are dotted with new plants that turn into long, lush hedges during the summer, and when there is a heavy crop, the fields turn so white with cotton that people who see them make “ski Mississippi” jokes.

Travelers will be passing through private property throughout the whole trip, so don’t wander off the public road. You can look, however, and there’s a sweet sight in the distance: Brooklyn Chapel Missionary Baptist Church. This whitepainted, wood-frame structure sits beneath old pecan trees, making the drive particularly scenic.

Distance: This is a 6-mile round trip from U.S. 82 and Strong to the Brooklyn Chapel and back.

A journey: County Road 350 Here’s a side trip that mainly travels along the gravel top of a levee and shows the Delta landscape and its inhabitants.

You might see elegant white cattle egrets but no cattle. The egrets live in the cypress-lined brakes along the road, and you’ll pass by one of these as soon as you get there. The road also travels past cotton, soybean and corn fields and through hardwoods. The Yalobusha River winds nearby. Along the way, you’ll see country homes and farm shops. Don’t drive too fast. Gravel’s sometimes slippery.

To get there, drive three miles north on Mississippi 7. You’ll pass over a bridge spanning a sandy creek. Your destination

Brooklyn Chapel Missionary Baptist Church stands among pecan trees in the middle of a cotton field west of Greenwood. The site is located on two plantations, Brooklyn and Elmwood. The church was formed in 1903, and the building here was constructed in 1935. The pastor is the Rev. R.L. Ingram.

PHOTO BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

is immediately after the bridge. Turn left, or west, and you’ll be on County Road 350. Stay on it. There will be woods on both sides of the road. The road runs in a curve for another 9.6 miles and takes you back to Mississippi 7. Take a right there, heading south, and you’ll be on your way back to Greenwood.

Distance: 19.4 miles round trip.

Take a tour Quick excursion: The Civil War

If you have a lunch break, pick up a sandwich and buzz west along U.S. 82 to Cottonlandia Museum and then down the road to the Tallahatchie River site of Fort Pemberton.

The museum has a display about the fort, an important Civil War battle on the river there and the sinking of the Confederate gunboat, the Star of the West, to block the Union’s advance south

to Vicksburg.

You’ll need to pay a $5 admittance fee at Cottonlandia, but there’s so much to see there, if you have the time.

These include a Civil War cannon, the bones of a mastodon, prehistoric pottery, modern Mississippi sculpture, paintings and photographs, and the furnishings of Greenwood Leflore, the 19th century Choctaw chief for whom Greenwood and Leflore County are named.

However, you can skip all that, or come back to it after checking out the Fort Pemberton display.

From Cottonlandia, travel west past Wal-Mart, and before you come to the U.S. 82-49 intersection, take a turn to the right at the roadside park. This has oak trees, a monument about the war and a clear spot overlooking the Tallahatchie at the scene of the battle.

Distance: From Cottonlandia to Fort Pemberton is less than a mile. LI Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 7

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BY JO ALICE HUGHES

PHOTO BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

Tommy Miller’s garden center is called “Delta Gardner” because Southerners don’t say the second syllable of the word “gardener.”

Tells it like it is

Plant man Tommy Miller

W

Tommy’s Tips Best book: “The Southern Living Garden Book” identifies plants of the South with photos and complete descriptions plus the plant hardiness zone.

“We’re in Zone 7a,” Miller says. “You have to buy plants that are awful tough to stand up to the high temperatures and high humidity of this place.”

Best advice: “Better to prevent than to cure,” Miller says.

For example, it’s easier to use a systemic insecticide early on those plants you know will attract aphids and white flies in the spring and summer than to try to eradicate the pests once they show up.

hen gardeners in Greenwood and Leflore County experience a gardening “911” emergency, they often call Tommy Miller to the rescue.

How can I get rid of these awful aphids?

When do I prune my peonies?

What kind of fertilizer will fill out my phlox?

Over the past six years, gardeners, both novice and experienced, have turned to Miller for advice, help and ideas for one principal reason: his honesty.

“Tommy is one of the nicest men I’ve ever known,” said Mary Ann Shaw of Greenwood, who has called on Miller for large and small landscaping projects.

“He’s certainly knowledgeable about gardening, but I like his honesty,” she continued.

“When you call with a problem, he doesn’t try to sell you something.”

Love of the earth is a family affair for Miller, 70.

“My mama and daddy loved flowers and gardens and trees,” Miller said. “My sister is an accredited flower show judge, and my sister-inlaw is a past president of the state garden club.”

It seems there was no escaping landscaping for Miller.

Closer to home, Sandra, his wife of 26 years, who’s a second-grade teacher in Tallahatchie

8 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

County, and her son, Preston O’Neal, 29, are active participants in the business.

Sandra and Tommy have four other children: Tommy’s son, Kelly, in Oklahoma City and daughter, Amy, in Charlotte, N.C.; Sandra’s other son, Dean O’Neal in Starkville, and the couple’s daughter, Mary Margaret,in Oxford.

Preston is Miller’s partner in their business, the Delta Gardner on West Park Avenue.

“Gardner” is not a typo. Miller is used to the reaction of people who see the sign for the first time — first the quizzical expression and then the question.

“That’s not how you spell ‘gardener,’ is it?” they ask.

No, but that’s how people in the South say it, Miller explains. So that’s how he wanted to spell it.

Miller has worn many hats on his way to owning Delta Gardner, winding in and out of landscaping.

He received a degree in horticulture and agricultural education from Mississippi State University in 1957. He immediately went home to Drew and tried farming, but that didn’t work out.

“We picked the last of my first cotton crop in sleet,” he laughed. “I knew then that I needed to be doing something else.”

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“I will find the answer and get back to you.”

Tommy Miller In 1963, he planted a peach orchard on about 60 acres near Drew and opened Town and Country Garden Center, which grew to nine heated greenhouses.

He sold mainly wholesale to local florists and ferns to plant brokers.

But weather reared its ugly head again.

“A tornado one spring took the top clean off the garden center and landed it on five greenhouses,” he said.

“Nothing was insured. You couldn’t get insurance for that kind of business back then.”

The loss was stunning.

A friend and administrator of North Sunflower County Hospital offered Miller the job of assistant administrator, and he took it. Then, in 1975, a group of local people formed a savings and loan organization in Drew and Ruleville, of which Miller was president for 10 years, leaving in 1985.

He opened a florist shop in Drew later that year — Miller’s, it was called — which also sold furniture and appliances.

But when the economy dipped in 1990, he gave that up and went to work for Scott Petroleum Co. as manager of its Ruleville branch.

Retiring in 2000, Miller said he stayed at home for a month and a half, “pruned everything twice and was bored to tears.”

So he went to work part time for Farmers Supply Cooperative as its nursery manager and stayed there until the nursery was closed later that year.

In 2001, Miller and O’Neal determined that Greenwood needed a full-time, fullservice nursery and opened Delta Gardner in the location that had been Simpson, Stepp and Lott Lumber Co. for many years.

During the same year, Miller and his wife both took the Mississippi State University Extension Service Master Gardener program, which lasted about eight weeks.

In exchange for this training, they were required to provide 40 hours of volunteer service each in their community during the first year, and 20 hours a year thereafter.

Miller considers his volunteer service giving back, and it’s one of his favorite aspects of the career he has chosen.

“I love it,” he said. “I really do enjoy doing that public service.”

He makes himself available to talk to garden clubs and civic organizations when they ask him, and he can talk on a wide range of topics.

But when he’s stumped for an answer, he has virtually all of Mississippi State to fall back on, thanks to the Master Gardener program.

“I will find the answer and get back to you,” he said.

Miller believes the nursery business keeps him young.

“I wouldn’t be as healthy as I am if I didn’t do what I do,” he said.

“It keeps me active, keeps my mind active. I can’t just sit back and wait for something like Alzheimer’s to happen. I have to keep moving, keep growing.” LI

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Burning Willow Pottery is turning out cookware for the new Culinary Arts Center in Greenwood.

Something’s COOKING

P

PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

BY JO ALICE HUGHES

Pottery was always something Butch Mallette was good at and wanted to do, but it took years for him to decide that he and his wife could actually make a living at it.

Now the owners of Burning Willow Pottery in Greenwood, Wallace “Butch” and Amaryliss Mallette never have a day when there’s not an order to fill — a nice “problem” to have if you own a business.

“And sometimes the business owns you,” he said.

Since 1994, he has taught art appreciation, drawing, sculpture and pottery at Mississippi Delta Community College in Moorhead. And that role is

Wallace “Butch” Mallette rolls clay inside Burning Willow’s workshop at his home.

10 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

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“Pottery chose us” Butch Mallette

expanding through a new partnership with MDCC’s Culinary Arts Center in Greenwood, which started in July.

Mallette grew up in Grenada and graduated from MDCC, then earned a bachelor of fine arts degree at Delta State University and a master of fine arts in sculpture at the University of Mississippi.

He entered his career in pottery “through the back door,” he said.

Mallette taught pottery at Mississippi Valley State University in the 1980s.

Although he wasn’t thinking of earning a living with pottery at the time, the more he studied the subject, the more he came to enjoy it.

By the time he started teaching at MDCC, he had started trying to build a business in the art.

“I was spending every spare minute making pottery,” he said.

His wife joined the effort. Amaryliss has a bachelor of fine arts degree in graphic design — a feature that Mallette always appreciates. Besides designing and creating pieces of pottery, she also creates the business’s advertising brochures. “She has good taste and a good eye,” said Mallette. “We bounce ideas off each other all the time.”

The Mississippi Gift Co. on Howard Street is the Greenwood outlet for TOP: Burning Willow Pottery glazes include shades of cinnamon and cream, as shown by potter Butch Mallette. He and his wife, Amaryliss, operate the pottery, and he also teaches art at Mississippi Delta Community College in Moorhead.

LEFT: Partly completed dishes line the shelves of the Mallettes’ backyard studio, also seen below.

Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 11

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Burning Willow Pottery. At any one time, between 10 and 15 stores, scattered all over the state, offer the pottery pieces.

The business took off quickly, once the first items were seen in Mississippi Gift Co., said Mallette. Other store owners started calling almost immediately to ask if they could carry Burning Willow.

“When we saw that making pottery could be a source of income, we took that route. Pottery chose us,” said Mallette.

“I’ve often noticed that God will show us what to do if we just get out of his way.”

The Mallettes try to keep their designs fresh, while still maintaining the distinctive look of Burning Willow.

A professor of Mallette’s at Delta State, the late Floyd Shaman, told him that if you make a piece that pleases you, and six months later, you’re still pleased with it, you’re not making progress.

“The older I get, the truer it is,” said Mallette. “You have to constantly be moving forward, always looking for ways to improve.”

At the same time, pottery-making has taught him patience. Pottery has its own timetable, and if you try to hurry it, you’re always sorry, he said. “Clay dries in its own time. You can’t rush it. And you can only fire the kiln as fast as it’s correct.”

Mallette has begun a project that excites everyone involved — a collaborative effort with the students and instructors at the community college’s Culinary Arts Center.

As with most successful efforts, this one is profoundly simple and elegant.

“Each culinary arts student will come up with a dish — an entrée, a dessert, whatever — to match a piece of our pottery,” Mallette said.

The students in the summer session at the Culinary Arts Center were the first to try this new approach, which merges cooking with principles of design and even photography, said Jackie Fulford, public relations director for MDCC and director of the Culinary Arts Center.

In Phase 1 of the project, she explained, each student saw pieces of Mallette’s pottery and created a dish that would look spectacular in one of them. Lawrence Kenneth, director of the library at MDCC and photographer, will take pictures of the dishes for three uses — the divider pages of a cookbook MDCC is planning, a “coffee table” book and a gallery in the lobby of the Culinary Arts Center.

These efforts will showcase the talents of everyone involved — the Mallettes, the MDCC culinary arts students, and 12 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

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A trumpet vine flowers near the entrance to Burning Willow Pottery’s studio.

“There is so much more than cooking involved in the culinary arts.”

Jackie Fulford, Culinary Arts Center director Kenneth — and it will draw attention to the college’s programs.

“I couldn’t be more excited,” said Fulford. Mallette “asked me if I’d be interested, and I was jumping up and down.”

This fall, students were completing Phase 2 of the project, creating the food to be presented in existing pieces of pottery.

The next step will be for each student to collaborate with Mallette in designing a piece of pottery to be made especially for a dish the student created.

Corey Smith, MDCC’s main culinary arts instructor, is looking past even these collaborations to a day when the Culinary Arts Center can have its own pottery place settings and serving pieces, unique to the center.

“It’s important to get people working together on this,” she said. “There is so much more than cooking involved in culinary arts.”

“All of this was Butch Mallette’s idea, his brainchild,” said Fulford.

Mallette may indeed have created a monster of inspired, visionary genius in his idea to collaborate on the arts of cooking, pottery and photography.

But what a nice “problem” for everyone involved to have. LI

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Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 13

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From Lebanon to Leflore PHOTO BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

Dr. Rana Skaf wants patients to understand, as well as do, what the doctor says.

What a world away

S

BY JO ALICE HUGHES Since moving to Greenwood a year and a half ago, Dr. Rana Skaf talks to her mom on the phone at least once a day. It’s the best way for each of them to keep up with what’s going on with the other.

Skaf’s life as an obstetrician and gynecologist, or OB/GYN, and mother of two active youngsters is hectic, and these precious phone calls ground her, bringing home and family closer.

Skaf practices in Greenwood, but her hometown, where her parents still live, is Beirut, Lebanon.

The war between Israel and Lebanon, ongoing since 1975, has had a role in shaping the relationships in her life.

“I’m more tolerant. Silly stuff, I don’t fuss about,” she said.

The escalation of the war this past summer has taken its toll on everyone in Beirut, and Skaf remained in contact with her family every day.

“There has been so much damage done to souls and buildings,” she said. “People are so frightened, so uncertain — ‘Should we stay? Should we go?’ It has set the country back by about 30 years.”

She feels personally blessed, however.

“My parents are still safe and sound and funny and living,” she said, adding that they got to leave Beirut and spend a few weeks in Greenwood with Skaf and her family in August and September.

Her close family influenced the way she is rearing her children, Sara, 4, and George, 2. Her husband, Abdo Sfeir, 38, and his family own a nursery and flower shop in Beirut, and he is the product manager for a nursery in New Mexico. They see each other whenever they can.

“I look at my children, and I know I need to grab the moment,” she said.

Moreover, Skaf’s close, supportive family has influenced the way she interacts with her patients.

She wants to support them, especially as they start or add to their families, with all the knowledge and understanding she

can give them about their conditions.

“I came to America because I wanted to do American boards, which means I meet American standards,” she said. These are the toughest in the world, according to Skaf.

She earned her undergraduate and medical degrees from the American University of Beirut, took electives at Stanford and Yale universities and spent four years in residency training at the American University of Beirut and four more years at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio.

“I’m a better doctor for being trained here,” she said.

She knew she wanted to be a doctor, but it wasn’t until she took the elective at Stanford with a doctor who has turned out to be her mentor, Dr. Amin Milki, that she knew she wanted to be an OB/GYN. She came to Greenwood on a visa that requires her to practice in a medically underserved area.

Skaf’s supportive upbringing and her rigorous training have combined to provide her with a unique perspective on what it means to be a mother and a doctor.

14 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

“Motherhood is precious,” she said.

“Being a mom is a sacred thing.” She feels so strongly about that perspective that when she tries to get this point across to some patients, she feels she might come across as too honest, too blunt.

“Obnoxious,” she offered.

“I try to be straightforward, but courteous and respectful,” she said. “It saves time and misunderstanding.”

She said, “It pains me to see a 14-year-old pregnant. For her, motherhood is nothing. It means nothing to her. That goes against my upbringing.”

She tries to convey to her patients the understanding — the responsibility, the meaning, the miracle — that is motherhood.

She gives books on pregnancy to her patients at no charge to them. She talks with them, rather than at them, giving them every opportunity to ask questions and encouraging them to get clarification on their conditions.

Most of all, Skaf said, as a doctor, she wants each of her patients to understand what’s going on in her body, whether her condition is a disease or a pregnancy.

“It hurts me when I hear that a patient has said, ‘I don’t know — the doctor said so.’ I need them to understand,” she said.

“I want my patients to know about themselves, their families and how to care for them. A woman needs to be in control of her health and that of her kids.”

That’s what she learned from her parents. Her medical training reinforced it.

And it’s her personal and professional goal to get that point across to her patients. LI

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Strange and still

Lovely lies the lake

T

PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

BY SUSAN MONTGOMERY

Tales from Roebuck Lake will fill a string of story lore.

The lake loops in a 20-mile oxbow west of the Yazoo River and south of U.S. Highway 82’s path across Leflore County.

Some people think Roebuck was formed untold years ago from a shift in the nearby Yazoo. There’s also an old geological theory that the Yazoo used to be a southbound channel of the Ohio River, but the earth rose up and pushed the Ohio westward.

16 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

Roebuck Lake winds in the shape of an oxbow for 20 miles through southwestern Leflore County, including the eastern edge of the town of Itta Bena.

In any case, Roebuck looks like an old river run. It’s about a half-mile wide at points, bordered by cypress-filled shallows and inhabited by water creatures.

Part of Roebuck laps along the east side of Itta Bena. The Choctaw name for this town of 2,200 is translated as “home in the woods.”

Itta Bena folks tell stories about the lake thickening with ice during a freeze.

One version has someone driving a car out over the surface, and another says the

vehicle was a wagon with a pair of mules.

The Rev. Johnny Collins, a retired educator from Itta Bena, likes to fish for crappie on Roebuck. He says there are plenty out there, along with catfish and bass. He and a friend were out on the lake one day when they ran into something strange Or it ran into them. “We were fishing around the middle of the lake, and something hit the boat kind of hard,” said Collins.

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“We didn’t know what it was.” They spotted a long, large white tail.

“It was a big albino cat. He had knocked himself out on the boat. He had hit the boat so hard my partner wanted to just leave the boat.”

Instead, they netted the stunned fish.

It weighed about 12 pounds. “We kept him. We brought him in. We wanted to see how he would taste,” Collins said.

Forty years ago, runoff from adjacent cropland of a now banned pesticide, DDT, drove a lot of fishermen out of Roebuck because the fish weren’t safe to eat. But, it’s OK now to enjoy most of a Roebuck catch, says the state Department of Environmental Quality.

Avoid the buffalo and don’t make more than two meals a month out of any fish that is more than 22 inches long.

Fiction writer Lewis Nordan, 67, who lives near Pittsburgh, spent his boyhood in Itta Bena, mainly on Roebuck. He laughed at a passage from one of his novels, “Music of the Swamp,” that describes how boys in town used to jump off a train trestle over the lake to test how far they could stick themselves into the muddy bottom. “That’s not true,” he said.

In fact, he wasn’t even allowed to swim in Roebuck, but he could float around on it, fishing for bream with spears carved from willow branches. He spent all of his free time on Roebuck, either in a raft or a boat.

“My grandfather left me a boat and a two-horsepower motor. I putt-putted on that lake all the time.

Roebuck Lake winds in the shape of an oxbow for 20 miles south of U.S. 82 and west of the Yazoo River. A part of the lakeshore runs along the eastern edge of the Leflore County town of Itta Bena.

“There were a million turtles on logs, and gars turning over and over in the lake,” he said.

There were “herons, cranes and egrets, and turkey vultures just seemed to fill the sky.”

In those days, preachers still led converts into Roebuck for baptisms.

Alcornelius Wilson raised a family next to Roebuck, and she remembers the baptisms that a neighboring church, True Vine Baptist, held in the lake. These took place “once a year, about the last of July or the first part of August.”

She didn’t belong to True Vine, but her husband did, and two of their children.

“They would have on their white gowns and their white head rags and go out in the water singing and praying, and they baptized them there,” Wilson said.“They would sing ‘Amazing Grace.’”

Nordan also has heard the baptismal

music. “I very well remember standing on one side of the lake and watching a baptism on the other side,” he said.

“Songs they were singing a cappella slipped across the lake,” remembered Nordan. Into that exquisite mix of sound and sight, a black-and-white cow waded out into the water, too.

Later, when Nordan was writing “Music of the Swamp,” the sight came back to him. In his imagination, something else happened. A boy dreamed of mice singing and a mermaid rising out of the water.

The baptism had “transformed itself into a magical set of images that included the mermaid for me,” Nordan said.

Carolyn Richardson of Itta Bena, who has lived beside Roebuck since the 1960s, doesn’t pass a day without at least giving the lake a glance. Most of the windows of her house look out toward the dark waters and verdant cypress.

Teenagers go skiing on the lake, and occasionally she’ll spot one breezing past.

Mainly, she enjoys the serene view. “I am sure there are snakes, but I don’t look for them,” she said.

All of this was part of the allure for Nordan, and he missed it after he grew up and moved away. “Not every place on Earth had that incredible beauty,” he said.

“I was sad to lose it. You could live there forever and not realize how beautiful it is. I loved it, and it remains fixed in my memory.” LI

The Rev. Johnny Collins of Itta Bena regularly fishes Roebuck Lake.

Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 17

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PHOTO BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

Spensia The mostest Jones hostess

BY LEESHA FAULKNER

Walk into Delta Fresh Market almost any time of day, and you’ll see her, if you don’t hear her first.

She’s the hostess with the mostest.

Spensia Jones has welcomed folks into what she calls “my house” since the market and deli opened in 2004. She started as a waitress, taking orders and filling beverage glasses.

Something about her had customers coming back. “I love my people,” she said one evening as the hustle and bustle in the eatery began to wind down. “This is like my home – my house. My customers are my guests.”

Watching her work is like watching a

school and has some college under her belt.

Now, she looks back at the neighborhood and sees young people struggling to stay away from drugs and violence. She sees them trying to stay in school.

Jones reaches out Spensia Jones is always welcoming. to them.

“When I can, if perpetual motion machine. She rarely one of them needs a job, I tell them to sits. A crowd of regulars walks in. Jones apply,” she explained. “They have to spots them. She knows the one in the tie come in, you know, dressed and ready to likes a glass of white and the one in the work. And they have to be willing to work heels likes a glass of red but only a certain hard. This isn’t an easy business, baby, brand. you have to work.”

Oh, and the couple’s children. Well, get So far, she’s sent several packing off to them Shirley Temples. college. It makes Jones, the daughter of a That’s standard service for this deli diva. school teacher, feel secure about the But it’s the person behind the laughter, future. the hug and the warm welcome that most “This is God’s work,” she said. “I feel folk don’t see. like this is my mission. I can show people Jones came up on the south side of love who come to eat here, and I can help Greenwood in a neighborhood that’s not those who need a hand. Nothing like it, too safe anymore. She graduated from high baby. Nothing like it.” LI

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Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007 / 19

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PHOTO BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

BY MARY MARGARET MILLER

Guitarist picks

homestyle

Will Freeman’s a natural with the guitar.

sound

W

ill Freeman finds his musical influences in Leflore County, but he’s not particularly inspired by the riffs of Robert Johnson or the blues of B.B. King.

Rather, the guitarist finds his muse in the working musicians he’s grown up around in Greenwood. “My influences aren’t really famous people, but I can go and sit down and talk to my influences every day,” said Freeman.

“It is a special thing. I grew up watching performers at BallonFest and Jazz in the Park, and I always knew I wanted to do what they were doing.”

Freeman, a college student in Oxford, Miss., grew up in a musical family and in a musical neighborhood. His father and former Gants frontman Johnny Freeman was often found in the front of the house rocking Beatles tunes with Jim Turner — Freeman’s uncle and talented drummer.

Upstairs you might find musicians Harrison Holmes, Will Pleasants or Andy Hackleman sharing Led Zeppelin or Grateful Dead chords and toying with whammy bars and distortion pedals.

By the time Will Freeman reached his teens, the family living room had been converted into a virtual recording studio, fully equipped with mikes, amps, speakers and instruments galore.

He says in the beginning he had two goals: one, to learn the intro solo to Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child of Mine,” and two, to earn $100 per week playing rhythm guitar.

“I never thought I’d get to where I am now. I’m a lead guitar player and having a great time doing it. Now, I can’t see myself not playing,” Freeman said.

In the fall of 2002, an impromptu jam 20 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

session with bassist Bubba McCabe and drummer Harrison Smith led to the undeniable beginning of what would become Freeman’s first band, Gunboat.

With the help and direction of Pleasants, the band soon hit the road and was later joined by keyboardist Jonbob Wise.

“The first few Gunboat gigs were horrific. I didn’t think I’d make it due to pure stage fright. But it is swim or drown on the road, and it helps you get over your fears fast,” the guitarist said.

Gunboat performs regular shows at Two Stick in Oxford, The Pub in Jackson, The Loft in Vicksburg and Flatland Grill in Greenwood.

“The one thing you can say about Will is that he always enjoys his music,” said Jo Bright, proprietor of Flatland.

“I’d have people from out of town come in and just watch him play, watching his

fingers the whole time.

He’s just amazing. They all are.”

Freeman describes his style as improvisational and touched by the techniques of Trey Anastasio, Jerry Garcia and especially Jimmy Page.

Yet it is during the holiday season that he gets back to the roots of his guitar guts.

Freeman says three generations of Greenwood musicians come together at Christmas time to play a rock ’n’ roll reunion.

Original members of the Gants, The Craigside Band and Gunboat have performed for a full house at Flatland for three years running. It is during these performances that Freeman gets an annual dose of his initial inspirations.

Freeman says his most monumental musical moments have taken place around Greenwood. His first encounters with guitar, talented musicians and live performance all occurred in the land between the Yazoo and Tallahatchie rivers.

“It can all be tied back to Leflore County,” said Freeman. “Playing guitar is a natural, wonderful feeling. Even on the worst night in an empty bar, I still love playing the music. It has never gotten old or boring, and the music always keeps itself interesting.” LI

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Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007 / 21

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G How to motivate

irls?

Ask Coach Carpenter

D

BY BILL BURRUS

PHOTO BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

Durwin Carpenter with players Lauren Coleman, urwin Carpenter started center, and Laura Hall. playing basketball as soon as he was old enough to bounce a ball.

Growing up in the rural community of Holcomb, Carpenter was heavily influenced at an early age by two older basketball-playing sisters.

“I can remember us having a lower goal on the side of our smoke house.

That was the one I got to play on as a youngster,” said Carpenter, who is in his 13th season as the girls’ basketball coach at Pillow Academy.

As he got older, just about every Saturday and Sunday afternoon, Carpenter and about seven other kids close to his age would gather to play basketball. That’s where his love of the game first blossomed.

“We played like that from the eighth grade through high school,” Carpenter said.

He wound up getting a basketball scholarship to Holmes Junior College, where he played for two years before playing one year at Delta State. five state championships and three Mississippi Private School “When I got into the college game, that’s when I knew I wantAssociation Overall titles. ed to coach,” Carpenter explained. “I had two different coaches Under Carpenter’s guidance, the Lady Mustangs have become with two different styles in my two years at Holmes, so I had a nearly permanent fixture in the Overall tournament, the most three coaches in three years of college basketball. prestigious event of its kind in the MPSA. The team has missed “I picked up a lot about the game from all of them. It gave me qualifying for the Overall just twice in his first 12 years on the a good base to build upon when I started my coaching career.” job.

After graduating from Delta State, he landed his first head Carpenter, 55, took over the Lady Mustang program in 1994 coaching job. He worked for one year as the boys’ basketball and made an immediate impact by going 31-6 and leading the coach and also served as an assistant in football at Grenada Lake team to the Overall tourney for the first time in 15 years.

Academy in Gore Springs.

During Carpenter’s second and third seasons, Pillow won backNow, he’s one of the most successful high school basketball to-back state and Overall championships, including an undecoaches in Mississippi. Carpenter has built a girls’ basketball feated season in 1996-97. dynasty at Pillow, compiling a 375-71 record en route to winning 22 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

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“He has a great relationship with his players” Termie Land, headmaster

In 2004-2005, Carpenter’s team went 40-2 during the team’s most recent Overall championship season.

Carpenter was hired away from Central Holmes by Termie Land, who at the time was in his first year as Pillow’s headmaster.

“That was one of my first hires at Pillow, and, no, not all of my hires have turned out so well,” said Land, who returned this past summer for a second stint as headmaster at PA. “I knew he was a good coach, but I never envisioned him being as consistently successful as he has been.”

Carpenter says having good players has been the big key, refusing to take the bulk of the credit for Pillow’s success.

“I’ve always tried to make the girls really enjoy it, even though they are working so hard at the same time.”

Land says Carpenter’s success hasn’t happened by chance.

“He has a great knowledge of the game.

He knows what he is doing, and he knows how to get the most out of his players,” Land said. “He has a great rela-

tionship with his players and does a great job of getting them to work as hard as he does.”

Mignon Hodges, Carpenter’s assistant coach for six years, is thrilled and honored to work under him. “He is the best coach I’ve ever seen at getting girls to reach their maximum potential. He’s always looking for ways to make the team better, searching for new offenses,

new defenses, new inbounds plays or whatever,” said Hodges, a former Delta State player. “All the girls love him and respect him so much. You see it in the way they play for him. Any one of our girls would dive head-first for a loose ball in a second.

“Pillow Academy is so fortunate to have him, because he definitely could be coaching at a higher level.” LI

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Athletes from Mississippi Valley

Plenty of fame and household names

F

BY BILL BURRUS

For a small college tucked away in the Mississippi Delta, Mississippi Valley State has produced its fair share of famous athletes.

Jerry Rice is by far the biggest name to ever come out of the Itta Bena campus and is arguably one of the greatest NFL players of all time.

Rice, who retired after 20 years in the NFL prior to last season, leaves in his wake 38 NFL records. At Valley, from 1981-84, Rice had 4,693 receiving yards and set 18 NCAA Division II records.

He had 1,845 receiving yards and 28 touchdowns as a senior.

“When you talk about household names, Jerry Rice is obviously at the top of the list,” said Chuck Prophet, MVSU’s longtime athletic director who retired in 2001. “But our school has really produced a lot of other famous athletes.”

Rice became the first and, so far, only Delta Devil to be taken in the first round of the NFL draft.

He played in four Super Bowls, winning three with the San Francisco 49ers, Rice, the 16th overall pick in 1985, may not have ever made it to the NFL if it were not for his college quarterback, Willie “Satellite” Totten.

Totten, who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame last year, put up staggering numbers under Archie “Gunslinger” Cooley’s pass-happy attack. Totten generated so many passing yards in some games that some NCAA statisticians questioned the accuracy of reports from the school’s sports information department.

In the spring of 1999, MVSU honored the legendary pass-catching duo by renaming the stadium in their honor.

The MVSU football field house is named in honor of former Delta Devil defensive back Ashley Ambrose, who spent 13 years in the NFL. In 2002, the New Orleans native put up the money to renovate the football meeting room.

Ambrose, who had 17 interceptions and 110 tackles in his four 24 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

Jerry Rice, who broke 38 NFL records, attends homecoming at his alma mater, Mississippi Valley State University, last fall. years at Valley, was taken in the second round as a cornerback by the Indianapolis Colts and wound up playing for four different teams, including two stints with his hometown New Orleans Saints.

David “Deacon” Jones, a member of the NFL Hall of Fame, is also a product of MVSU. He started his college career at South Carolina State and played his final season at Valley in 1960.

He was then drafted in the 14th round by the Los Angeles Rams and wound up revolutionizing the defensive end spot with his pass-rushing speed.

Some of the school’s other big-name football stars include Purnell Dickinson, Ted Washington Sr., Carl Byrum, Melvin Morgan, Robert Gaddis and Ricky Feacher — all of whom were taken in the NFL draft.

Washington, who played linebacker for the Houston Oilers from 1973-81, is the father of current NFL defensive tackle Ted Washington Jr. Totten, in his fifth year as the head coach of his alma mater, is proud to be among the school’s all-time greats.

“It’s an honor to be considered among that group,” Totten said.

“We often list a lot of these names when talking with recruits to show them that you can make it big from a smaller school like Valley.”

Some of the biggest basketball names to come out of Valley are Marcus Mann and Alphonso Ford.

Ford, an Amanda Elzy High School product, died of leukemia in 2004. Ford was selected in the second round of the 1993 NBA draft by the Philadelphia 76ers. He later moved to the Continental Basketball Association and then to Europe, where he played in Turkey, Greece and Italy.

At the time of Ford's death, he was a star with an Italian team, Scavolini Pesaro, and was quite popular with fans in Europe.

Mann was one of the nation’s top rebounders in 1996, when he led the Delta Devils to the NCAA Tournament. LI

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Reflective leadership

PHOTO BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

Irvin Whittaker: The Chamber of Commerce improves the quality of life for everyone.

BY DAVID MONROE

I

rvin Whittaker has seen Greenwood and Leflore County make great progress, but he thinks the community can do even better.

The former Leflore County school superintendent has built a reputation for being able to work with all segments of the population.

And as the next president of the Greenwood-Leflore Irvin Whittaker is the 2007 president of the GreenwoodCounty Chamber of Leflore County Chamber of C o m m e r c e , Commerce.

Whittaker hopes to get residents of all races involved in improving the quality of life. “I feel like people. I’m concerned about the betterpeople know that I’m about doing what’s ment of our community — period.” right,” he said. “And I don’t see color; I Whittaker, the chamber’s first black offidon’t have a problem with race. I love all cer, will become its president in 2007. He people and can and have worked with all has been active in the organization since 26 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

the early 1980s, particularly with the education committee.

As a chamber Ambassador, he also has been visible at meetings, receptions, ribbon-cuttings and other public events. He

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was one of the original Ambassadors, having served with them since 1990.

“There’s not another organization in Greenwood that does what the chamber does to improve the quality of life for the citizens of Greenwood and Leflore County,” he said.

W

hittaker, 68, grew up in Carroll County and graduated from Marshall High School there. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biological science from Mississippi Industrial College in Holly Springs and later added a master’s degree in secondary school supervision and administration from Tuskegee University in Alabama.

He served as Marshall’s principal from 1963 to 1968. From there, he became assistant principal at Amanda Elzy High and moved to the same position at Leflore County High before rising to Elzy principal in 1978.

In 1982, he became assistant superintendent in charge of federal programs for the Leflore County schools. At one time, he said he would never run for public office — but when the superintendent retired, Whittaker thought he could step into that job and do it well. He felt comfortable with the system, and he had built strong ties in the district.

He won the election and served two terms before retiring in 1999. Even today, he is reminded of the impact he had as an educator.

“Almost every day I go down the street, and I meet kids who come up and hug my neck and say, ‘You know, if it hadn’t been for you, I would’ve been in jail,’” he said.

E

arning the trust of students and adults helped Whittaker win re-election to the superintendent’s job — unopposed. “I had a tremendous relationship with our white kids,” he said, “because they knew I cared, and that’s the bottom line.”

He also feels that quality has helped him in his work with the chamber. Being a chamber officer is a four-year commitment that requires a lot of work.

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became an officer, I realized just how involved being an officer of the chamber really is.”

As president, Whittaker hopes to bring in even more new members who will be active.

After all, he said, events such as the Fourth of July celebration and the Roy Martin Delta Band Festival at Christmas require the help of many.

He hopes to network with ministers to tell more people what the chamber does.

He would like to bring people together to address crime and improve education.

In the last few years, he has noticed more diversity in the people getting involved with the chamber.

He also has been encouraged by the number of young people who have become chamber leaders. In fact, many of them graduated from its Leadership Tomorrow program, which he would like to expand.

S

ince retiring from the school district, Whittaker has broadened his volunteer work.

He has served on the board of directors of Cottonlandia Museum, including a stint as president, and has been very active at Shiloh Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Education is still a passion for Whittaker, who said the schools often are hindered by the lack of structure in students’ homes.

“The problem comes in when a student comes from a different segment of the community, not having had the proper training, guidance and discipline — which makes it very difficult for school teachers and administrators to control them.”

It bothers him that many people in the community don’t seem interested in their children’s schooling.

“Education’s not stressed as a means of upward mobility like it was when I came along.”

Over the years, he has had offers to go elsewhere, but he has remained dedicated to Greenwood and Leflore County.

“I felt like, as I have worked over the years in this community, that I have been able to make a tremendous difference, and I’ve been able to see that difference,” he said.

“And that’s rewarding.” LI 28 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

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BY BOB DARDEN

PHOTO BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

J

ason Colquett wears many hats daily.

He’s a partial owner of Crossroads Gin, mayor of Schlater, a Leflore Cotton ginner and small-town County first mayor Jason Colquett’s responder, dad duties keep him busy, but he to four daughters and huscan stop a minute to show band to off one of Schlater’s assets, Caroline.

Lake McNutt.

Life doesn’t miss a beat.

Colquett, 41, Since 2000, Colquett has been mayor takes each challenge in stride. Just prior of Schlater.“Being a mayor of a small to September’s ginning season, town, it’s not like being mayor of Colquett talked about the stresses ginGreenwood,” he said. ners and the rest of the agricultural “I don’t get paid. I volunteer. In fact, economy endure. “There’s a lot of it costs me money.” But, he said, “I get uncertainty. The margins are the satisfaction of knowing that the squeezed. I charge the exact same rate business of the town is done and done I’ve charged since 1981,” he right — that there are no shenanigans. explained.

“What little money the town gets is Consider, Colquett added, that labor applied where it’s supposed to be. is four times higher, diesel is five times That’s what I do it for.” higher and insurance is 15 times highThe town is solvent, and it always has er. “Despite the government’s best money in the bank, said Colquett, who efforts, taxes are a bigger chunk of is proud of his work resulting in fiscal what we do now.” responsibility. That’s not surprising, Even before gin season begins, considering he has two degrees from Colquett and a skeleton crew stay the University of Mississippi — one in busy. They disassemble the cotton gin banking and finance and the other in from the ground up. “We put in new managerial finance. saws. We inspect every brush, every Bill Crump, director of governmental bearing, every shaft. Everything gets affairs for Viking Range Corp., is a forpulled out and looked at. If it’s not in mer mayor of Schlater who taught at nearly new or new condition, it gets Pillow Academy during the mid-1970s. replaced.”

Colquett was one of Crump’s students.

The off-season work pays in “He moved to Schlater when he was September. Colquett can’t afford for a young boy,” Crump said. “I rememthe gin to go down with trailers full of ber he practiced his trombone on his cotton on the lot. Crossroads Gin can porch. It sounded like a sick moose all turn out a bale every two minutes, or over town.” about 30 bales in an hour. During the At least one improvement started 30 season, Colquett said, that number can years ago by Crump — the city’s first increase to 45 bales in an hour. water and sewer system — has But ginning is just a portion of his life.

endured into Colquett’s administration.

Colquett’s father prepared him for small-town politics. The father once was Schlater’s mayor.

The junior Colquett recalled the conversation with his dad.

“He said, ‘You’re going to have a headache on your hands.’”

That’s pretty much run true. When there’s low water pressure, for example, or any other problem, Colquett gets the call. “I am the town complaint department,” he said.

His work to get fire insurance for a rental home in Schlater led to Colquett becoming a first responder. He also is one of the founding members of the Schlater Fire Department.

“Ten of us formed and wrote specs and raised enough money,” he explained.

“We started the first private fire department.” The Leflore County Board of Supervisors noticed.

Colquett said, “We were doing it for nothing. The county liked what they saw. They helped us with the fire department.”

Before long the county wanted to upgrade the department so it could handle automobile accidents and other emergencies where people suffered medical trauma.

That’s how Colquett became a first responder — one of the first in the town to receive the designation.

In the future, Colquett hopes to see a park in the town and a Leflore County Sheriff’s Department substation nearby.

It’s part of taking care of business. LI Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 29

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E AT?

F olks around Greenwood, Itta Bena and, really, all of Leflore

County tend to talk about good food in the same breath as good times.

Someone will say, “Remember the shrimp that night?” and another person will add, “What about the time we had those steaks?” Then, somebody will start to talk about the grilled fish on the West Coast or a filet of beef in New York. But was this any better than the pompano and steak in Greenwood? The catfish, rolls, greens, cakes and pies? No way, they’ll say. The food in their own hometown sets the standard — for any meal, any place, any time.

2

WHERE

China Blossom 917 Highway 82 West Greenwood

Type of cuisine: Chinese & American Signature entree: Volcano & House Special Full Bar Hours of operation: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. (Monday-Thursday); 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m. ( Friday & Saturday); 11 a.m.-3 p.m. ( Sunday);

Price range (per person ): Lunch: under $10 Dinner: $10-$20 Handicapped accessible Phone: (662) 453-3297

Crystal Grill 423 Carrollton Avenue Greenwood

Type of cuisine: American Signature entree: Veal Cutlet Full Bar, Wine Hours of operation: 11 am.-10 p.m. (Tuesday - Sunday)

Mockingbird Bakery

Price range (per person ): Lunch: under $10-$20 Dinner: $10-$20 Handicapped accessible Reservations recommended Phone: (662) 453-6530

325B Howard Street Greenwood

Type of cuisine: Fresh Baked Bread, Pastries and Sandwiches Signature entree: Artisan Breads and French Pastries

House

4238 Highway 7 South Itta Bena

Type of cuisine: Southern Signature entree: Catfish Hours of operation:

Hours of operation:

11 a.m.- 4 p.m. (Monday); 7 a.m.- 4 p.m. (Tuesday-Friday); 8 a.m.- 4 p.m. (Saturday); Price range (per person): under

Larry’s Fish

$10

Handicapped accessible Reservations recommended

Phone: (662) 453-9927 E-mail: info@mockingbirdbakery.com 30 / Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated

5 p.m.-9 p.m. (Thursday - Saturday); 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. (Friday) Price range (per person ):

Lunch: $10-$20 Dinner: $10-$20 Handicapped accessible Phone: (662) 254-6001

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Lusco’s

Blue Parrot Café

722 Carrollton Avenue Greenwood

222 Howard Street

Type of cuisine: American with an Italian flair Signature entree: Steaks & Seafood

Greenwood

Type of cuisine: Latin Signature entree: Arroz con Pollo

(Lusco’s Broiled Shrimp, Fried Shrimp & Pompano)

Beer and Setups: You may bring your

(Cuban Chicken with Rice)

own wine or liquor.

Full Bar Hours of operation:

Hours of operation: 5 p.m.-10 p.m.

(Tuesday-Saturday)

6 p.m.-10 p.m. (Thursday-Saturday)

Price range (per person ): $10-$30 Handicapped accessible Reservations recommended Phone: (662) 453-5365

Price range (per person ): $20-$30 Handicapped accessible Reservations recommended Phone: (662) 451-9430 Web site: www.threedeuces.net E-mail: 3deuces@bellsouth.net

Giardina’s 314 Howard Street Greenwood

Type of cuisine: Steak, Seafood, Italian Full Bar Hours of operation: 5 p.m.-10 p.m. (Monday-Saturday)

Price range (per person ): $20-$30 Handicapped accessible Reservations recommended Phone: (662) 455-4227 Web site: www.giardinas.com E-mail: leflore@giardinas.com

Webster’s Food & Drink

216 West Claiborne Avenue Greenwood

Type of cuisine:American Signature entree: Pork Tenderloin, Pasta Full Bar Hours of operation: Lunch: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. (Monday-Friday) Dinner: 4 p.m.-1 a.m. (Monday-Saturday)

Price range (per person ): Lunch: under $10 Dinner: $10-$20 Reservations recommended Phone: (662) 455-1215 E-mail: gnemimcbryde@bellsouth.net

What’s Cooking 309 West Park Avenue

222 Howard Street Greenwood

Type of cuisine: Unique Soups and Sandwiches with a Latin Twist Signature entree: Mexican Burger Full Bar Hours of operation: 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. (Tuesday-Saturday)

Price range (per person ): under $10 Handicapped accessible Phone: (662) 451-9425 Web site: www.threedeuces.net E-mail: 3deuces@bellsouth.net

E AT?

WHERE

2

Greenwood

Type of cuisine: American, Southern Signature entree: PoBoys, Salads, Casseroles Hours of operation: 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. (Monday-Friday); 9 a.m.-3 p.m. (Saturday) Price range (per person ): under $10 Phone: (662) 897-2272

Veronica’s Custom Bakery

Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 31

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Grand for Greenwood

The first oaks were planted along Grand Boulevard in 1916. The first lots in the subdivision were sold in 1910.

The

Boulevard’s almost a century old

PHOTO BY MARY ROSE CARTER

BY MARY CAROL MILLER

W

ith the development of an effective levee system, the arrival of the railroads, improved farming techniques and more durable cotton strains, Mississippi welcomed a second “Cotton Kingdom” in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The first cotton boom had centered around old towns like Natchez, Vicksburg and Holly Springs, but 32 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

this resurgence would be concentrated in the Mississippi Delta.

No town prospered more from the rebirth of the cotton economy than Greenwood.

Even a century later, the effects of those riches can be seen in the architectural grandeur of the Leflore County Courthouse, the Keesler Bridge, downtown storefronts and the newly refurbished Alluvian Hotel.

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ary Carol Miller, writer, and Mary Rose Carter, photographer, reside in Greenwood. When they began to work together, Miller, who grew up in Greenwood, lived in Tupelo. Miller’s first collection of stories about Mississippi places, “Lost Mansions of Mississippi,” was published 10 years ago by University Press of Mississippi, with Carter as a contributing photographer.

Since then, the friends have traveled together throughout the state and produced three collaborative volumes of photos and stories. Two of these are “Written in the Bricks,” Quail Ridge Press, 1999, and “Great Houses of Mississippi,” University Press of Mississippi, 2004.

The third, tentatively titled “Mississippi Treasures,” also is being published by University Press and is expected to be issued soon.

Their chapter on Grand Boulevard is published here.

Page 1

THE COLLABORATORS Mary Carol Miller

Mary Rose Carter

PHOTO BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

River Road was the preferred address for the domestic showplaces built with cotton money. As its lots filled with neoclassical houses, developers began to look north of the Yazoo for open land. The tiny village of North Greenwood, incorporated in 1906 with a population of 127, was a logical site. An iron bridge connected downtown Greenwood with its much smaller neighbor, surrounded on all sides by cotton fields of the J.Z.George plantation. That plantation was hundreds of acres of flat, open vistas

stretching all the way from the Yazoo to the Tallahatchie River.

Capt. Sam Gwin, E.R. McShane and W.L. Loggins bought up most of the plantation and began platting estate-size lots, all fronting on a broad street they dubbed “Grand Boulevard.” Each parcel would encompass up to ten acres, with smaller lots available on side streets. The first deals were closed in 1910, as buyers eagerly anticipated life in the “Boulevard Subdivision.”

It would have been just another street in a small Mississippi Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 33

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town, albeit one with a grandiose name, if not for Captain Gwin’s wife. Sally Humphreys Gwin was the granddaughter of Reconstruction governor Benjamin Humphreys, and she apparently inherited that forebear’s iron will and determination. Where her husband and his partners saw profit, she saw a flat, boring road lined with houses that deserved a more intriguing landscape. In her mind, it was truly a grand boulevard, destined to be lined with towering oaks. But there were no trees to work with in the midst of acres and acres of cotton fields. That was just a bothersome detail to Mrs. Gwin. She rounded up her husband’s foreman, Horace Greeley Austin, and laid out a plan that would transform North Greenwood forever.

Greeley Austin was a young man who was used to hard work, but he had never encountered the likes of Sally Gwin.

With her husband, she was riding the riverbanks along the Tallahatchie and marking chosen oak saplings with northfacing blazes. Greeley would then uproot the trees, place them in deep water buckets and haul them down the Boulevard.

Carefully spaced and supported by cross beams, they were lowered into the freshly dug holes, their blazes still pointing north.

The work went on for more than six years. Greeley recalled his labors a halfcentury later: “We got the trees — from the very start — at different places: Walker Lake ... (the) Loggins place along the river bank ... a little patch of woods there now by Pillow school ... some from Mr. Paul Montjoy’s place, east of town. ...

Both Mr. Sam and Miss Sally oversee’d the trees, but Miss Sally was out there most. I was responsible to see that the trees were the right distance apart and was in a straight line. Mr. Sam would stand there looking down the line and he would call me and say, ‘Greeley, that tree is out of line,’ or it was too close to the other tree.

He would come along some day and say, ‘Set that tree out, but some day we’re going to have to cut it down.’ I didn’t know what he was talking about, but he was talking about putting in the side streets. ... We hauled the water in three or four barrels in a wagon. The men worked all night watering the trees. Mr. Sam’s orders were to water the trees at night — not every night. It would take a week to get around.� Greeley broke down one night 34 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

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Classic styles for your love

One of Grand Boulevard’s oaks can be seen near a banner for the 300 Oaks Road Race, named for the trees along the race’s route.

in tears, exhausted and at wit’s end when none of the day’s blazes could be found on the young trees.

Most of the oak trees were transplanted from 1916 to 1922, but the last ones were not in place until the 1950s. The Gwins built their own house in 1917 on the highest lot on the Boulevard, halfway between the two rivers. While it was under construction, Mrs. Gwin led a daily entourage on foot across the old iron Yazoo River bridge to inspect the trees and the house. With her big floppy hat and her five small children, she was a familiar sight to the citizens of North Greenwood. Most of the trees were thriving, and in her mind they were already arching across the brick boulevard and meeting high above the street in a mile-long unbroken parade.

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Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 35

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“Miss Sally’s Oaks” would grow to be Greenwood’s most famous landmark.

They survived the flood of 1932, when the Tallahatchie River jumped its banks and came roaring straight down the Boulevard. The water remained waistdeep for weeks, but the social-conscious Grand Boulevard inhabitants refused to let it interfere with the spring party season.

Old photos from that year show fashionably dressed young women being poled through the floodwaters in boats, their best shoes and dress hems tucked carefully into buckets.

Over several decades, the lots along Grand Boulevard came to feature some of the finest architecture in the Delta. The Neoclassic Provine House, Spanish Eclectic Bledsoe House and Tudor-style Hobbes House joined smaller bungalows and classically Southern homes to make this a visual delight.

The oldest house on the Boulevard, a Victorian farmhouse which originally stood in the middle of the proposed road, was jacked up on logs and hauled to its new location by mules. Ironically, the workers set it down facing a side street rather than the Boulevard, and it remains there today, the only house on the road to face south rather than east or west.

Sally Gwin lived the rest of her life in the family manor at the corner of Grand Boulevard and Park Avenue.

She faithfully tended her trees for decades and was lauded by the Department of the Interior for her part in what the New York Times once described as the “Most Beautiful Street in America.” She died in the midst of a violent 1950s storm, listening to the sound of the giant limbs crashing onto the Boulevard.

The “Boulevard Subdivision” is now approaching the end of its first century, and many of the original trees have succumbed to wind and age.

But there are still quite a few standing, identifiable by their massive circumference and their roots, which twist and buck underneath the sidewalks. Recent repaving revealed the original brick roadway and the outline of the wide median that Captain Gwin laid down. Miss Sally’s house, much altered, still occupies the high point of the Boulevard as a testament to an indomitable and far-sighted woman. LI 36 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

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The

TREASURE HUNTERS

Finders and k eepers preserve the p ast

Donny Whitehead has an inexhaustible interest in anything he can learn about Greenwood.

Donny Whitehead

BY JENNIFER NEAL

T

he most exciting element of being a historian is discovering interesting artifacts from the history of Greenwood, said Greenwood native Donny Whitehead.

For 20 years, Whitehead has been collecting and preserving a history of Greenwood in photographs and words.

Whitehead has always been interested in fact-finding and discovery.

“Its a thrilling rush, when you discover something exciting about a historical artifact or place in Greenwood,” he said.

One such interesting discovery was finding out that Living Faith Temple Ministries on Washington Street was built in 1925 as a Christian church that was originally located on Dewey and Market streets.

“One finding can lead to another.

Before long, you have made a discovery that is so amazing, you can’t wait to go on another expedition to discover something new,” said Whitehead.

Whitehead thinks that all places in Greenwood have a historical value.

“I am excited about them all,” he said.

“Just like an archeologist, I discover something I have never seen before.”

One of Whitehead’s bigger missions is to collect pieces of baseball history.

“It is kind of hard to discover historical facts on baseball, but something will turn up every now and then,” he said.

Whitehead gives credit to his good Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 37

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“Before you know it, you have made a discovery that is so amazing you can’t wait to go on another expedition ... .”

Donny Whitehead

Page 1

friends who also share his passion for historical fact-finding — Allan Hammons, Bryan Lott and Keith King.

“Lott has been called the mayor of Howard Street, because he knows many historical facts about the downtown area,” said Whitehead.

Outside of his fact-finding expeditions and his job as a computer operations manager at Staplcotn, Whitehead spends time researching the best cheeseburger in town.

“It’s another hobby that some of my friends and I do for fun.”

“So far, I have discovered that Westside Grocery on Fulton Street has the best burger,” he said.

Whitehead also likes to hunt for the best concerts and shopping hot spots.

Becoming a historian is a self-satisfying hobby for Whitehead.

“It’s fun, and I will keep going until someone takes over ownership of it all,” he said. LI

How many cameras does Floyd Bailey have? More than 100, he says.

Donny Whitehead bought this early 20th century button hook on eBay. The hook’s from Crull’s, a shoe store that used to be on Howard Street.

FLOYD BAILEY

BY ELIZABETH KALICH

I

t has been said that one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. Such is the case with Floyd Bailey and his vast collection of trinkets, memorabilia, automobiles and souvenirs.

Bailey said, “You name it, I collect it.”

A portion of his collection reflects his life.

He has worked at Mississippi Valley State University as an audio visual technician and in the public relations department as a photographer. It was at Valley where Bailey began collecting cameras.

Now he has more than 100 of them.

An avid MVSU fan, Bailey collects memorabilia from the university, including yearbooks.

He began this particular collection in 1955, and it covers college years through 2000.

Floyd Bailey A love affair with automobiles led Bailey to begin collecting cars in 1960. He has more than 30 of them, and 10 of them are in running condition.

The automobiles include a 1951 Ford, a 1952 Ford, a 1959 Dodge truck, a 1986 Camaro, and a 1986 Porsche.

A car is no good without parts. Bailey collects those, too.

He has a giant collection of hubcaps.

Bailey gets most of his items from garage sales, estate sales, the Internet or Tradewinds, a publication of classified ads. Bailey even finds some of his treasures out on the side of the road.

Other items that Bailey collects include bottles, lanterns, televisions, bikes, saws and bathtubs.

When asked what he will do with his collections when he dies, Bailey said he doesn’t know. “Most people say it ain’t nothing but junk.”

However, this “junk” is really valuable to the treasure hunter, and it has become his “pot of gold” at the end of the rainbow. LI PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

“Most people say it ain’t nothing but junk.”

38 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

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Rescue man

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Dogs in the house used to give him pause

BY MARY MARGARET MILLER

Les Shipley and a few friends.

H

e promised himself he’d never have a pet. Now he has pets aplenty.

Les Shipley is a dog rescuer extraordinaire.

He finds the lost and lonely, the abused and abandoned, and gives them a second lease on life.

He’s had more than 25 rescues to date, and he’s been doing this kind of thing for only three years. Some have come straight from the wild, and others have come straight to his door. But all have found respite and care in the company of Shipley.

“I grew up in a dog-absorbed home, and I swore I’d never have an animal in my own house,” said Shipley.

He says that one day his mother asked him to “hang on to an ugly little puppy” while she found him a home. Shipley says that’s all it took to push him over the edge and back into a dog-absorbed environment.

“It got to the point where every time I heard about a dog, I jumped in my car, and I was going to get him,” he said.

Shipley’s current pack of pups is composed of a variety of breeds and personalities.

Although he is seeking homes for his canine companions, Shipley is selective about where they go. “I’m looking for good, quality homes for these animals.”

All Shipley’s rescues are spayed or neutered and have been fully treated for heartworms. They range from 12 pounds to 42 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

60 pounds and from frisky to finicky.

“You get them figured out pretty fast,” said Shipley, who has acquired a wealth of knowledge on animal behavior.

“Some will come in and want to be the alpha dog, and they will get disciplined by the others. They don’t really want to hurt each other. They are just establishing an order or a hierarchy.”

The smallest and sweetest dogs are likely to be at the bottom of the pecking order, said Shipley. You’ll also have “outliers,” dogs that like to be left alone and don’t need a lot of play and interaction.

Shipley says he is able to learn a lot about animal behavior just by observing his own dogs. He also gains knowledge from veterinarian Debby Myers, his friend Aden Pryor and his mother, Margaret Shipley. He says that he has read a few books on canine behavior, but that real life interaction is the best teacher.

“Females are usually more home-oriented, and males are usually very affectionate. I’ve only had one or two incidents where the dogs have showed pack behavior. Food can trigger such an act.”

Three areas are designated for feeding in the Shipley home. The back yard is reserved for the “co-ops,” strays rescued from the grounds of the Cooperative Elevator Co. where Shipley is employed.

The “special attention” pups eat in the den and usually are given extra care in order to bring them back to normal behavior while recovering from an abusive situation. The other dogs dine in the kitchen.

“I like a clean house, so there are some daily chores I’ve got to stay on top of.”

Shipley starts the day around 6 a.m. when he feeds the dogs and cleans the back yard.

He also tries to sweep, mop and dust the house daily. A 50-pound bag of dog food costs around $18 per week. “This is my contribution to society. It is a common interest, so you really meet a lot of nice people.”

Both his grandfather and mother were dog lovers. In retrospect, Shipley says, he never had a chance to be anything other than passionate about animals.

“I guess I just come by it naturally. They are really great companions. It is like having another person around, so it gives me something other than myself to think about.” LI

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ast toward home E A porcelain Fu-dog in Totty and Ham Bishop’s home symbolizes protection of the house.

BY JO ALICE HUGHES

E

Entering the home of Ham and Totty Bishop on River Birch Cove must strike visitors as like stepping into a museum of Japanese artifacts.

“Ohayogozaimasu,” says Totty Bishop, explaining the meaning: “Good morning.”

She offers her guest a bowl of freshly brewed green tea at room temperature, the way the Japanese drink it, in a simple, rustic ceramic pottery cup that might be early McCarty or late Edo. Bishop explains and gestures to screens and scrolls, architectural details and objects of art throughout her serene, whisper-quiet and beautifully appointed Greenwood home.

It quickly becomes clear that the Bishops’ house is not just “decorated in Japanese.”

Bishop, 72, who has traveled extensively but lived almost all of her life in either Greenwood or Greenville, lived for two years in Japan as a young bride. Her home reflects the honest and profound influence of the Japanese culture on the Bishops’ way of life.

44 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

Bishop and her first husband were stationed at Itazuke Air Force Base in Fukuoka, Japan, where the first of her two sons was born. There, she met a woman whom she described as “quite high-born,” but who had become a domestic servant just to be able to make a living after the Japanese surrendered at the end of World War II. Fujita Fujie, or “Fujie-san,” as Bishop calls her with affection and respect, and Bishop became friends immediately.

“Fujie-san and her family had lost everything in the war, including her family’s mansion and their tea house in (nearby) Chikushino City,” said Bishop. “But Fujie-san kept her ability to create elegant flower arrangements and beautiful silk kimonos and to conduct the formal Japanese tea service.”

And Bishop, noting the serenity and beauty of the culture, was an eager student.

She and Fujita, now 94 years old and still living independently, have stayed in close touch. Bishop has returned to Japan several times, most recently in 1990 and 1995, and Fujita’s eldest granddaughter has paid the Bishops a six-week-long visit.

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“It’s so shibui in feeling.”

Totty Bishop

With each contact, more pieces representatreasured piece that was done by one tive of Japanese culture have made their way of Fujita’s father’s art students. to the Bishops’ house, and each has a mean“They have such a love of beauty ingful story attached. and simplicity — flowers, a tea pot, a The Fu-dog, for example, is a mythical simple piece of pottery,” Bishop dog/lion, statues of which have stood in front said. She gestured toward a large soy of imperial palaces, protecting the structures, container on top of a linen press, a since the third century B.C.E. simple, nearly spherical urn with a The male traditionally holds a globe symboldark glaze and no adornment. izing his protection of the structure; the female “It’s just mesmerizing,” she said. holds a single cub, symbolizing her protection Calligraphy hangs in a hallway. It means, from “It’s so shibui in feeling.” the left, “Dream,” “Everybody’s happy,” “Love of the people inside the structure.

In the Japanese aesthetic, Bishop prevails” and “Your kind heart.”

When Bishop visited Japan on a vacation trip, explained, shibui means elegantly one of Fujita’s longtime friends, a retired simple, subtly beautiful, university professor, entertained her for not obtrusive or ostentaa day and presented her with a housetious. As a modern statewarming gift of a male Fu-dog statue. side example, she cited Bishop carried it home to the States with early pieces of pottery her on the plane like a baby. done by the McCartys in Today the statue sits on a table in Merigold.

Bishop’s living room.

“They’re reminiscent of “Fujie-san told me about her family’s the peasant tea ceremony tea house, where her father taught art to pottery,” she said, referhis students, and she performed the tea ring to the tea pot and service,” Bishop said, describing the small bowls used as cups. family’s life before the war. She still has On another wall in an aged black-and-white photo Fujita Bishop’s house hangs a had given her of the tea house, set in a framed series of Japanese walled garden, next to a pond, with mistcharacters done in outshrouded mountains in the distance. sized calligraphy by “It has such a calming effect,” Bishop Fujita’s granddaughter, said. “It looks so peaceful and quiet.”

Fusako.

Several years ago, Bishop was “just Interpreted on the back poking around,” she said, in an antiques of the frame, the characThe living room in store in Merigold, when she came upon a ters mean “Dream,” the Bishop home large silk screen in an obscure area of the “Everybody’s happy,” honors Japanese and Southern tradi- “Love prevails,” and store. The screen caught her attention tions in its decor. immediately because of its resemblance “Your kind heart” — Totty Bishop, left, to the photo of Fujita’s family’s tea house. another keepsake Bishop received the All the elements were there — the tea treasures. porcelain Fu-dog and the screen, house, the garden, the pond, the misty Other Japanese touches center, from mountains. include Hakata ning yo, Japanese friends.

“I had to have it,” she said. The owner traditional Japanese potquoted a price, and Bishop left with the screen. She later had it tery dolls first made by clay workers in the 16th century in the appraised and found it was worth far more than she paid for it. But ancient city of Hakata, now named Fukuoka. the dollar value was almost irrelevant, she said. What matters is The Japanese influence is not confined to the interior of Bishop’s how the painting makes her feel and how she associates it with her house. In one of her two courtyards, Bishop has fashioned a medifriend’s life. The screen is displayed prominently in Bishop’s din- tation garden that includes plants, stone and water — elements freing room. quently seen in a Japanese meditation garden. Bishop’s spot feaIn the same room, Bishop has hung a silk scroll, a print of a work tures pottery by local artist Henry Flautt, a McCarty frog, bamboo from the Sung Dynasty in China, called “Pigeons with Pear sticks and a live bamboo plant, rocks, and a Japanese lantern.

Blossoms,” another representation of the fascination of Asian art The Japanese influence on Bishop is indelible. She recently spent with nature and natural surroundings. time on the Gulf Coast helping with the Katrina relief effort, and “Every Japanese house has a tokonoma, or alcove,” Bishop she travels frequently, often with friends. explained, with a kakemono — a hanging scroll with a weighted But she said, by design, she feels the calming influence of her base — for admiring and meditating. A scroll in a different location, house — the memories, the history, her closeness with Fujita and the entry, depicts fluffy cherry blossoms on silk, a very old and her family — as soon as she enters. LI Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 45

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PHOTO BY AMY COLLINS

B.B. had jitters over first radio per for mance

“I never thought I would be a blues singer”

BY DAVID MONROE

B.B. King immediately picks one word to describe his first radio appearance about 60 years ago: “frightening.”

But that appearance, made in Greenwood on WGRM as part of the St. John Gospel B.B. King first performed on the radio Singers, starto n WGRM, Greenwood, ed him on the in 1925. Above, he path to a legconducts a 2006 endary music w orkshop at Mississippi Valley State career. King University in was born in Itta Bena.

1925 on a cotton plantation outside Itta Bena.

Of course, he made his mark as a blues musician, influencing scores of others in that genre with songs such as “The Thrill Is Gone.”

But at the time of that first radio show, he and the group were hoping to emulate the success of the Golden Gate Quartet and other top gospel groups.

“I never thought I would be a blues singer,” he said. “That wasn’t on my mind at that time.”

WGRM was housed in the building on Howard Street that now contains the Greenwood Blues Heritage Museum and Gallery.

The show that first featured the group aired each Sunday, sponsored by a furniture company in Inverness. Sometimes they featured live music, and other times they just played records.

King didn’t know the owner of the furniture company, but the group’s manager, John Matthews, did. So Matthews made the arrangements for the singers to perform “They didn’t pay us, but if you were good enough, they wouldn’t play records on the radio that day; they would feature

you,” King recalled. He and his bandmates had no doubt they were good enough — and they went on to a number of subsequent performances on radio in Greenwood and Greenville.

They could perform and advertise to the public what they would be doing. “We thought we were very good, so every

46 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

week we tried to make it,” he said.

For King, who grew up in church, there was something special about performing on Sundays.

“Sunday was always sort of a sacred day,” he said. “Sundays you eat well.

Sundays you might get a pork chop — if you could beat the preacher there.” LI

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How things get done

The Whittingtons, the park and the trees

BY DAVID MONROE Aven Whittington Sr. remembers that his father, W.M. Whittington, believed strongly in the importance of parks.

That’s why W.M. Whittington gave 40 acres to the city of Greenwood for park use around 1940, as well as some additional land later. These days, Whittington Park is used seven days a week for a variety of activities. But at first, it didn’t even have trees.

At the time, Greenwood had only the City Park, which included a wading pool for children.

Other than that, there was no other place for them to play.

Whittington, a congressman, made sure the land would be used the way he wanted it. “The gift to the city had a stipulation — that it had to be used for park purposes,” Aven Whittington said. “It couldn’t be used for anything else. And if it were not used for park purposes within five years, it was going to revert.”

Unfortunately, as that five-year deadline approached, World War II broke out, and the city had to turn its attention elsewhere.

“The city didn’t do anything, understandably, toward the development of the park at that time,” Whittington said. “So the time was about to run out on that stipulation of the deed.”

So, one day, his father called him and told him to get some people together and plant some oak trees in the area. “That turned it into a park — the fact that it had some trees growing on it and not just bare land lying out there.”

Originally, the park just offered open spaces where the children could play and families could gather for picnics and other events.

After the war, the city developed the land with ball fields, a performance area and other features.

When U.S. 82 was constructed in the 1950s, it left a block of land between the south end of the park and the highway. So that tract was given to the city as well. The city established a parks commission to develop the site according to the people’s wishes.

The commission also oversaw the other parks that were added later. Now the parks fall under the authority of the department of public works.

For years, Whittington Park’s performance area was used for a hot-air ballooning festival. Now the park is consistently busy. It hosts sports such as baseball, softball, football and tennis as well as family and class reunions and other community events. LI

Aven Whittington Sr. and a crew planted the trees in Whittington Park to prevent the land from reverting to its donor, who was a congressman and also Whittington’s father.

Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 47

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109 North Street Cleveland, Mississippi (662) 843-3311 Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 49

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Leflore County’s

Top Ten Employers

1. Viking Range Corp.

1,200 employees. Commercial-type kitchen appliances for the home 2. Greenwood Leflore Hospital 874. Health care 3. Mississippi Valley State University 775. Higher education 4. Leflore County Schools 490. Elementary and secondary education 5. Greenwood Public Schools 475. Elementary and secondary education 6. Staplcotn 450 (seasonal); 248 (office) Cotton cooperative 7. Heartland Catfish 420. Catfish processing 8. Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp.

400. Electric drills, saws, grinders and rotary hammers 9. America’s Catch 372. Catfish processing 10. John-Richard 350. Pictures, lamps, mirrors and decorative accessories

It’s Y our T urn To H ear B etter.

Serving the Delta since 1984

Greenwood Hearing Service

Visit Us This Thursday

202 W. Park Ave 453-0646

Audiologists Krisha Boren & Dawn McCarty

50 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

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Lusia Harris-Stewart

PHOTO BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

Challenges

A

for a champion

BY DAVID MONROE

1997, when the drive from Greenwood to Marks got to be too much, she moved to Greenwood High School, where she worked until 2003. Some of the girls she coached knew about her accomplishments, but most didn’t. She enjoyed working with the ones who were eager to learn and become better players. “I really enjoyed coaching,” she said. “I miss that.”

Harris-Stewart started having problems with her knees in 2003, to the point that she could hardly stand. One day, she left her office to go down the hall to a classroom and had to stop halfway because of the pain in her knees.

“They had been giving me trouble,” she said. “I had been saying, ‘Well, I’ve got to have my knees done, got to have my knees done.’ Just never did do it — and then it just went out completely.” The pain got worse, and it began to affect her emotionally.

The lack of mobility drained her energy, and depression set in.

“The only place I really went to was to the doctor’s office,” she said.

“And that was a challenge — just to be able to get up and get ready to go.”

She also suffers from rheumatoid arthritis — mostly in her hands, but also in her knees and shoulders. The pain from the arthritis remains, but she’s feeling better overall than she once did. She goes to Greenwood Comprehensive Medical Clinic and receives a shot for the arthritis every three months, and “it helps tremendously,” she said. For one thing, it takes less time to get dressed. “In previous years, it took me almost an hour and a half just to get ready,” she said. “Now I can get dressed in about 45 minutes.”

For a while, she got around in a wheelchair borrowed from her church. But with the help of donations from the community, now she has a better chair.

Because of an ulcer on one leg, she has to go to Jackson three days a week to have the leg cleaned and wrapped. Any physical therapy or knee replacement will have to wait until the ulcer has healed.

But she’s not going through this alone. Friends such as Jessie Hill, Birdia Byrd and Barbara Davis have been a big help.

In her spare time, Harris-Stewart enjoys reading, and she has been working on a book about her life. She also enjoys watching WNBA games on television. She can drive a little, and she was planning to attend the National Basketball Hall of Fame induction in September in Massachusetts.

Her twin daughters, Crystal and Christina, are seniors at Ole Miss and Millsaps, respectively. Her son Christopher is a student at Notre Dame, and another son, Eddie, is a teacher in Texas.

Harris-Stewart’s basketball career left her with many great memories, such as the game the team played in Madison Square Garden.

That was a thrill for someone who had never visited New York.

“Delta State felt like the headliners. It was like the ultimate event was to see the Lady Statesmen play,” she said. “To us, that was fantastic.” LI

Lusia Harris-Stewart is a member of the National Baskeball Hall of Fame.

s recently as 18 months ago, Lusia HarrisStewart could barely raise her arm to comb her hair. “It hurt so bad, I’d just cry,” she said.

The wear and tear caused by years of playing and coaching basketball had damaged her joints and limited her mobility.

Sliding her foot back and forth across the floor repeatedly, she recalls that she couldn’t do that 18 months ago, either.

But with the help of others in the community, she now has a bigger wheelchair, and some modifications have been made in her house to accommodate her. The house now has a wider exterior door and a permanent ramp, and more improvements are planned.

“It’s much easier to get out of the house,” she said. “Before, I couldn’t wheel myself out.”

For years, she taught school and coached basketball all over the Delta, but she kept her home in Greenwood. And she never considered moving. “This is really home,” she said.

Harris-Stewart, 51, grew up playing basketball in Minter City. After a successful basketball career at Amanda Elzy High School, she moved on to Delta State University, which was reviving its women’s basketball program.

In her career at DSU, she scored 2,981 points — an average of 25 a game — and also pulled down 1,662 rebounds.

She played in the Pan American Games in 1975 and earned a silver medal on the first Olympic women's basketball team in 1976. She is a member of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, the national Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.

She didn’t know what to make of the recognition at first. She recalled that in 1992, when she was notified about her acceptance into the Basketball Hall of Fame, she didn’t think it was a big deal.

She was working in Ruleville then, and one day she was told that someone from the Hall of Fame was on the phone.

“I said, ‘Hall of Fame? What Hall of Fame?’” she said.

But the impact of the national honor hit her when she returned home that day. The Hall of Fame was a very select group that at the time had few women. “When I came home, I had a letter — and it talked about the Hall of Fame and all the people that had been inducted,” she said. “And I said, ‘Whoa!’”

After all, there was no separate hall of fame for women then. “That was THE Hall of Fame at the time,” she said. “There are others now, but that was the thing to be inducted into.”

Harris-Stewart served as assistant women’s basketball coach at Delta State from 1980 to 1984 and then spent two years at Texas Southern University. In 1986, she returned to Amanda Elzy, where she coached and taught health. She later took jobs at Bankston Elementary and in Greenville, Ruleville, Drew and Marks. But in

Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 51

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PHOTO BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

The Batman ideal:

Health and happiness for all

BY ELIZABETH KALICH

Anita Batman, a former senior public health adviser to the Office of the Surgeon General, shares her know-how these days with her hometown, Greenwood.

To call her interesting is an understatement; Anita Batman is beyond that. She’s intriguing.

Batman was born in Greenwood, but she claims she “never even dreamed” that she would “come home to Greenwood.”

Batman said she was so eager to see the “world north of Memphis, Tennessee” that she took the highest-paying scholarship that would send her to school as far away as possible. That ended up being Smith College in Northampton, Mass.

However, when Batman decided on an engineering degree, she came on home to Mississippi State.

Corps, and Batman serves as its commander. This surge team is Batman worked for a while as an engineer, building floating docks. designed to maintain public health after a disaster.

She began to feel discouraged, though, as women weren’t supposed Its members were first on the scene after Hurricane Katrina hit the to do more than “pass the coffee.” Batman said, “It got to be so frusMississippi Gulf Coast Aug. 29, 2005. “As the winds were dying trating being a non-person so I decided to go back to graduate school down, we were there,” she said. “We were there 21 hours after the at Columbia University in New York.” storm hit.”

In 1973, Batman felt the “call to go to medical school.” She did, Batman’s second goal is for Greenwood to open a federally funded graduating from the University Medical Center in Jackson in 1977. community health center. “Leflore County is eminently entitled to She went on to serve 17 years as a doctor for high-risk and underthis money,” said Batman. served populations. Batman said, “I got to serve people in Young families and children are heavily uninsured, rural underserved areas and urban inner cities. I also so a community health center that would charge helped migrant farm workers and was involved in according to a family’s income would be benefifamily planning and HIV clinics.”

1. Medical Reserve Corps cial, she said.

As a result of her work with the poor, she has Batman said that a person “has to be crazy to served on many medical boards and has volun2. Community health center want to be a doctor these days,” since it seems teered in numerous health-care projects. Batman 3. Aid to animals that doctors are “overworked and underpaid.” With served as a regional clinical coordinator and then as a community health care center, tort claims are covered a regional health administrator with the U.S. Public for doctors so that they don’t have to buy malpractice insurance.

Health Service. Her last position before she came back to Federal funding would provide money to treat the underserved and Greenwood in 2000 was serving as senior public health adviser in the fairly compensate the physicians.

Office of the Surgeon General of the United States.

Batman’s last goal for Greenwood has to do with nature’s furry She is especially proud of the storefront family planning clinic in friends. She wants to help improve methods of dealing with stray Camden, N.J., she established. With the clinic, many women animals. “There need to be policies and objective criteria for pet improved dramatically. They no longer were prostitutes or subadoption.” stance abusers who couldn’t afford to care for their own children, and Batman serves as president of Town and Country Garden Club, they didn’t bear children they couldn’t afford. Batman said that and she gardens with as much energy as she advocates for proper many of these women simply “got a life.” health care. “There is something very satisfying in living in peace When Batman decided to retire from the medical field, she felt a with God’s earth and God’s creation.” strong urge to come back to Mississippi. “I was like a salmon swimShe also is interested in music and the Greenwood Little Theatre. ming upstream to the place of its birth,” said Batman. “It’s been She serves as president of the Business and Professional Women’s wonderful being home.”

Club and is involved in the American Legion Post 29, where she is But she hasn’t stopped working. only one of two women serving. “I’d love to meet other women vetBatman has three main priorities for the community now — goals erans.” that she desperately hopes to attain.

In speaking of her position in American Legion, she said that she Batman is pleased that a surge team has been put in place to aid in “wants to be part of a grateful nation.” LI medical emergencies. It’s called the Mississippi Medical Reserve

Priorities

52 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

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Registered by history

Barbara and Moses Newsome show their home at the corner of West Washington and Henderson streets — Greenwood’s Four Corners Historic District that includes a library and the Confederate Memorial Building.

The Newsomes’ house is believed to have been built in the 1920s by R.T. Jones.

PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

BY BOB DARDEN

Dozens of sites on the national listing Leflore County has 35 places, including several districts, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The sites range from prehistoric ceremonial grounds to those from the 20th century that are historically significant.

Johnson, Cotton and Fulton streets.

The district includes examples of Queen Anne, Bungalow/Craftsman and 19th and 20th century Revival styles of architecture. The district includes downtown business and professional buildings.

by architect George Mahon and built by cotton merchant Will Humphrey in 1915.

Cotton crashed, and the place was sold. It was eventually purchased by a Staplcotn founder, W.M. Garrard. Rosemary now is the home of Charlot and Guy Ray.

Williams Landing and Eastern Downtown

First United Methodist Church of Greenwood

Whittington House

* Roughly bounded by Front, McLemore, Lamar, Market and George streets.

Williams Landing is named after John Williams, who secured a land patent from the government in 1834. Williams, a merchant, had operated a small port on the Yazoo River, in then-Carroll County, in the vicinity of the present-day Front Street in Greenwood. The area wasn’t known as Greenwood until Feb. 16, 1844. Leflore County was formed by the state Legislature in March 1871.

Architectural styles in the district include Queen Anne, 19th and 20th century Revivals and 19th and early 20th century American movements.

Central Commercial & Railroad Historic District

* Roughly bounded by Washington, Main, Lamar, Avenue F, Vardaman,

* 310 W. Washington St.

The sanctuary, described as Romanesque, was designed by Chattanooga architect Reuben Harrison Hunt and completed in 1899. Hunt’s other buildings include the Leflore County Courthouse, Davis School, First Presbyterian Church, the Elks Lodge on Washington Street and the Stein hotel, now The Alluvian.

Marclare

* West River Road Extended

Also known as Austin-Hull, it was designed by architect Henry Sisloff, in the 1870s, and the home predates the arrival of the railroad in Greenwood.

Rosemary

* 1440 Grand Blvd.

This Tudor Revival home was designed

* 401 E. Market St.

Built by architect Ben Price, the house, the former home of Congressman W.M. Whittington, is of the Prairie School and Colonial Revival style. Built in the early 20th century, the house is now the state headquarters of the Garden Clubs of Mississippi Inc. Daisy

* 414 Fulton St.

The Queen Anne-style home was owned by the late C.E. Wright, who played a critical role in the establishment of Greenwood Utilities, the city-owned water and electrical utility. The house, built in the latter part of the 19th century, remains in the family.

Provine House

* 319 Grand Boulevard.

Designed and built by architect H.C. White, this home is an example of the Colonial Revival style of architecture.

Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 53

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Leflore County

POPULATION Leflore County’s population of 36,431 is blacker, younger and slightly more female than the state and national averages.

By race: Black White Hispanic/Asian By age: Under 18 years old 65 years old plus By gender: Female Male

69% 30% 1% 28% 11% 52% 48%

Commuting time

CLIMATE

One of the great benefits to life in Leflore County is avoiding the hassles of long commutes to work.

Workers here spend 65 hours less a year traveling to and from the office than the U.S. average.

Temperature Average high Average low

74.2 degrees 53.3 degrees

Average rainfall Average snowfall

51.37 inches 1.50 inches

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PHOTO BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

What does a massage therapist do?

Makes you feel like a VIP

BY JENNIFER NEAL

Christie Beattie has been a massage therapist for eight years.

H

er job is to make people feel good about themselves. This philosophy is a way of life for Christie Beattie, Alluvian Spa wellness coordinator and massage therapist.

“I have been practicing massage therapy for eight years,” she said.

Originally, from Indiana, Beattie has lived in Greenwood for 22 years.

Prior to becoming a massage therapist, Beattie made a career as a professional trainer and aerobics instructor.

She attended the Natural Healing Arts School of Massage Therapy in Grenada and is nationally certified in massage therapy and body works.

Beattie is also the president of the American Massage Therapy Association.

The spa incorporates wellness programs with spa training, yoga, fitness and nutrition, she said.

“My job as a massage therapist is to help calm — ease tension and stress in the body.”

Clients find the massage therapy quite soothing, especially for those who may require therapy for some type of physical ailment, said Beattie.

“My career is rewarding,” she said. “I have made quite an achievement if a client leaves the spa feeling better about their overall body image.”

The spa does get VIP clients who enjoy the luxurious amenities of the spa, she said.

“People from all walks of life come through our doors. Yet, our staff treats everyone like a VIP. The majority of our clients have a satisfying experience,” said Beattie.

When asked if she has ever had a massage by a co-worker, Beattie laughed.

“Yes, I have,” she said. That’s how “ we

know whether or not we can give good massages.”

Beattie said the spa is part of the Viking hospitality group that promotes the spirit

of a lifestyle of fine food and hotel accommodations.

The spa is open seven days a week. It takes clients by appointment only. LI Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 55

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56/ Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

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MEDIA ATTENTION

Delta Heart & Vascular Center, P.A.

Eyes on Leflore National and international media keep glancing at Greenwood.

Publications such as the New York Times have taken a particular liking to the hometown commercial-style stove company, Viking Range Corp. The Times has credited Viking for a large part of the nation’s new interest in the kitchen and cooking, quoting patrons as saying, “It’s not just a range, it’s a whole way of living.”

The Times — similarly to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Travel+Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, Gourmet and the Boston Globe —– hails Greenwood as a must-go destination for every culinary enthusiast. Viking’s cooking school and tours and the likes of Greenwood eateries such as Lusco’s, The Crystal Grill, Giardina’s and Spooney’s barbecue keep them enchanted and enthralled.

Travel+Leisure wrote in 2004 that The Alluvian is “ firmly hitched to local culture and history. Comprehensive packages ferry hotel guests into the Delta, offering lightly spooky moonlit rambles to blues legend Robert Johnson’s probable grave site, Fear of Frying cooking classes, jukejoint forays, and stops at civil rights landmarks.”

High-profile furniture designer and manufacturer, John-Richard, received the Best of Market 2006 award from Home Accents Today, a national decorating magazine, for a harlequin-print chair. With offices in India, China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, the JohnRichard name and style is recognized worldwide.

Blues history consistently draws journalists, who seek out entrepreneur Steve LaVere for the facts on Robert Johnson and other area musicians. LaVere’s research led in 2000 to the location of a grave site for Johnson at Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church that is generally accepted as where he was buried.

Rolling Stone magazine, The Chicago Tribune and The Miami Herald featured the discovery. LI

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LEFLORE COUNTY M I S S I S S I P P I Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 57

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Following

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Little Theatre’s

Yellow

Shelby

BY SUSAN MONTGOMERY

brick road

Conchetta KK

W

hen

Shelby Cade flew over the rainbow and onto the stage at Whittington Playhouse, she took her whole family with her.

That’s how they turned her heart’s desire into their own.

The Cades — parents Chip and Conchetta, with Shelby and KK, her sister — are among several Greenwood Little Theatre families who have made the stage into a second home.

There’s no place quite like it, says Shelby, a freshman at the University of Southern Mississippi. She’ll be a theater major there, and even before she left for college in August, she was trying out for three campus plays. “I guess I could be in all three,” she speculated.

For Shelby, there’s no cutting back. In the past seven years, she’s been in 20 plays, including eight regular-season Little Theatre productions. She had her first role as a sixth-grader at Pillow Academy in the school’s production of “Bye Bye Birdie.”

At first, she was cast as an extra, but then someone backed out. The director asked who wanted the part. Shelby spoke up. That’s how she was cast as “Shy Girl.”

“You have got to start somewhere,” her mother, Conchetta, said.

Since then, she’s had school and Little Theatre roles in comedies, dramas and musicals. Some of her roles were large.

Shelby was “Shelby” in “Steel Magnolias,” for example, but other roles were small. She was just an extra in “Oklahoma!”

“I don’t think I had a line, but I didn’t care,” Shelby said.

Her dad, Chip, started working with her on “Guys and Dolls.” She was a young teenager, but she played a “Hotbox,” or nightclub dancer. Chip, 58 / Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated

Chip

then a detective with the Greenwood Police Department, was a “nerdy” dancer.

He helped build sets for “The Lion in Winter,” and Shelby played a mistress of King Henry VIII. Then came “Steel Magnolias,” and along with it, the skills of KK and Conchetta. They worked backstage, and Chip again built sets.

Then, Shelby landed a dog’s role. She wasn’t at all sure about portraying Snoopy in “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”

“I really didn’t get the character,” she said. But “I got the costume, and I felt like a dog,” she explained.

“I learned that I really can do more than I think I am capable of doing.”

When Little Theatre put on “Dearly Departed” in January 2006, all of the Cades found themselves on stage as part of an ensemble cast. KK played a young girl, and Shelby was the girl’s self-glamorizing redneck mother. “She thought she was all that, and a bag of chips,” Shelby said.

Chip had the role of a preacher, and Conchetta — a home health nurse and administrator — made her Little Theatre debut as a slut.

Conchetta laughed, saying the director was wondering who would be good in the role, and another actor remarked, “Oh, Conchetta can do that.”

These days, KK, an eighth-grader, does more playing in the band than on stage.

But she directed a play for the Little Theatre’s student workshop this summer, and Conchetta says KK’s interested in participating in Little Theatre productions this winter.

Chip’s not likely to be doing much that way, however, because he has a new career in Afghanistan. He left in June and is working with a company that supplies Afghans with technical expertise. He’s an adviser working with the Afghan National Police.

He was asked, via e-mail, what Little Theatre offers families.

“I believe that it is a great place for children,” he answered. “My children knew that if they were going to be in a play, they had to get their homework done first. Then they had to learn their lines and dedicate themselves to practice and the play itself. This taught them time management and working as a team, all while having fun in a controlled environment with adult supervision.”

Some kids learn these lessons on a diamond, field or court. But, said Conchetta, “we are not a sports family at all.”

For Shelby, a line is something she says, and a play happens on stage.

“We read books,” Conchetta said. By the time Shelby was 3, she could recite the texts. “She had the books memorized and would act out the parts,” her mom said.

Shelby knew “The Wizard of Oz” from Kansas to the Emerald City. “She had to watch the movie every day,” Conchetta said.

Shelby insisted that she was “Dorfy,” and wore red shoes with a Dorothy dress.

“After a while,” Shelby said, “it didn’t fit.”

But she never outgrew the feeling it gave her.

One day, she might take this to Broadway, or maybe a classroom.

Teaching seems like a good idea, Shelby said.

She already knows what Dorothy had to learn. There’s plenty to dream about in her own back yard. LI

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The Address Book: WHO TO CALL EMERGENCY NUMBERS GENERAL EMERGENCIES 911 AMBULANCE SERVICE MedStat 1505 Carrollton Ave. Business office: 283-1110

1700 Hwy. 82 West 453-6352

455-7660

ENTERGY 1-800-368-3749

TIME WARNER 801 W. Park Ave. 1-888-683-1000

GREENWOOD UTILITIES 101 Wright Place 453-7234 WATER

GREENWOOD FIRE DEPT. CHIEF: Larry Griggs 404 Main St. To report a fire only: 453-1414 Other purposes: 455-7610

EAST LEFLORE WATER AND SEWER DISTRICT 100 Meadowbrook Road 453-8860

GREENWOOD LEFLORE HOSPITAL 1401 River Road 459-7000

GREENWOOD UTILITIES 101 Wright Place 453-7234 GAS

GREENWOOD POLICE DEPT. CHIEF: Henry Harris 406 Main St. 453-3311

ATMOS ENERGY 120 E. Church St. 453-6461

LEFLORE COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPT. SHERIFF: Ricky Banks Leflore County Courthouse 453-5141 ELECTRICITY DELTA ELECTRIC POWER ASSOCIATION

GENERAL AVIATION

CABLE

VOTER REGISTRATION LEFLORE COUNTY CIRCUIT CLERK Trey Evans Leflore County Courthouse 453-1435

GREENWOOD-LEFLORE AIRPORT 502 Greenwood Leflore Airport Blvd.

453-1526 TRAIN SERVICE AMTRAK PASSENGER SERVICE 506 Carrollton Ave. 1-800-872-7245 CITY OF GREENWOOD OFFICIALS

DRIVER’S LICENSE HIGHWAY SAFETY PATROL 510 11th St. 453-4515 CAR TAGS LEFLORE COUNTY TAX COLLECTOR Sara Kenwright Leflore County Courthouse 455-7907

TELEPHONE BELLSOUTH 1-888-757-6500 GARBAGE/TRASH PICKUP CITY OF GREENWOOD PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR: Benny Herring 101 W. Church St.

COMMERCIAL AVIATON MID-DELTA REGIONAL AIRPORT 166 Fifth Ave. Greenville 662-334-3121 Distance: 52 miles

Retreat

MAYOR: 101 W. Church St. 453-2246 (work) GREENWOOD CITY COUNCIL: WARD ONE: Johnny Jennings, 299-3400 WARD TWO: John Lee, 453-3235 WARD THREE: Ronnie Stevenson, vice president, 455-4268 WARD FOUR: Charles E. McCoy Sr., 455-6049 WARD FIVE: Tennill Cannon, 299-0471 WARD SIX: David Jordan, President, 453-5361 WARD SEVEN: Taylor Dillard, 455-6274 or 392-0705

Your complete Viking outdoor kitchen.

®

1-888-845-4641 vikingrange.com

Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 59

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WHO TO CALL CITY ATTORNEY: Billy Bowman, 453-3445

Johnson, 299-5193 or 455-2273 BOARD ATTORNEY: Willie Perkins, 455-1211

CITY CLERK: Deirdre Mayes, 101 W. Church St. 453-2246

TAX ASSESSOR: Leroy Ware Leflore County Courthouse 455-7900

LEFLORE COUNTY OFFICIALS CHANCERY CLERK: Sam Abraham, Leflore County Courthouse 453-6203 BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: DISTRICT ONE: Phil Wolfe, 455-4644 DISTRICT TWO: Robert Moore, President, 392-0423 DISTRICT THREE: Otis Abron, 299-5556 DISTRICT FOUR: Wayne Self, Vice President, 299-9294 DISTRICT FIVE: Larry “Kite�

CORONER: Debra Sanders, 453-9700 ITTA BENA CITY HALL MAYOR: Thelma Collins, 254-7231 POLICE AND FIRE DEPTS.: 254-6333 GREENWOOD CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU DIRECTOR: Suzy Johnson 111 E. Market St. 453-9197

GREENWOOD-LEFLORE COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT: Beth Henderson 402 Hwy. 82 West 453-4152 GREENWOOD-LEFLORE INDUSTRIAL BOARD 402 Hwy. 82 West 453-5321 CHAIRMAN: Donnie Brock VICE CHAIRMAN: Ronnie Robertson BOARD MEMBERS: Bill Crump, Dennis Sanders and Moses Newsome

MAIN STREET GREENWOOD EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Lise Foy 212 Washington St. 453-0365 EDUCATION Greenwood Public Schools Bankston Elementary School 1300 Grand Blvd.

455-7421 Davis Elementary School 401 Dewey St. 455-7430 455-7440 Threadgill Elementary School 1001 Broad St. W.C. Williams Elementary School 1300 Carrollton Ave. 455-7445

Business Directory Old & New Books

St. John’s United Methodist Church For All Ages!

Warren Coile, Pastor

Dancing Rabbit Books

SUNDAY SERVICE 8:30 AM Worship311 Howard 6:00 PM Youth Street 9:45 AM Sunday School 6:00 PM Evening Worship (Across from the Alluvian) 10:55 AM Worship

Greenwood, MS 38930 1001 Grand Boulevard ¡Greenwood, MS ¡662-453-7522 662 453 5995 email: stjohn2@bellsouth.net

Delta Gardner Tommy Miller • Preston O’Neal

320 W. Park Avenue • Greenwood, MS

662-455-22934

A Southern Gardener

Delta Gardner Tommy Miller • Preston O’Neal

320 W. Park Avenue • Greenwood, MS

662 455 2934

THE Western Best WHOLE AFFAIR Greenwood 635 Highway 82 West • Greenwood, MS Telephone 662-455-5777 For Reservations Call 1-888-455-5770 www.bestwestern.com/greenwood

+Z\ West *UHHQZRRG 06 3+ )$;

60 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

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WHO TO CALL Greenwood Middle School 1200 Garrard Ave. 455-3661 Career and Technical Center 616 Sycamore Ave. 455-7414 Greenwood High School 1209 Garrard Ave. 455-7450 Leflore County Schools Amanda Elzy Elementary School 604 Elzy Ave. 453-9677

Claudine Brown Elementary School 3827 County Road 363 453-8622 East Elementary School 208 Meadowbrook Road 453-9182 Leflore County Elementary School 401 Lakeside Drive Itta Bena 254-6225 T.Y. Fleming School 19928 Hwy. 49 East North Minter City 658-4817 Amanda Elzy High School 604 Elzy Ave. 453-3394

Leflore County High School 401 Lakeside Drive Itta Bena 254-7762

How far is it?

Distance from Greenwood to: Jackson, Miss.

Memphis, Tenn.

New Orleans, La. Atlanta, Ga. Dallas, Texas Chicago, Ill. Miami, Fla. Washington, D.C. Denver, Colo.

New York, N.Y. Los Angeles, Calif.

Anchorage, Alaska

Private Pillow Academy (K4-12) 69601 Hwy. 82 West High School: 453-1266 Elementary School: 4533600 Parochial St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School 2607 Hwy. 82 East 453-9511

96 miles 130 miles 286 miles 374 miles 465 miles 666 miles 996 miles 1,002 miles 1,163 miles 1,239 miles 1,912 miles 4,230 miles

Business Directory Buying • Selling • Friendly Advice

100-C East Claiborne• Greenwood, MS (662)455-9333 www.greenwoodhomes.net

Tish B. Goodman Owner/Agent

Old Greenville & New Books Fly

GREENWOOD ANIMAL HOSPITAL

For All Ages!

For Northwest Airlines Dancing Rabbit Books 311reservations Howard Street call

Dr. E. Andrew Johnson

453-7 7672

7 0 5 Hw y 8 2 B y p a s s G re e n w o o d , M S

DELTA FARM AND AUTO 1607 Hwy 82 W • Greenwood • 453-8340 110 Hwy 7 • Greenwood • 453-4054 20100 Hwy 82 • Itta Bena • 254-6204

Old & New Books For All Ages!

Dancing Rabbit Books

Greenwood, MS 38930 1-800-225-2525 662 453 5995 (Across from the Alluvian)

Charles Gardner Peel, Jr. Delta Manager

Tommy Miller • Preston O’Neal

320Wilson W. Park Avenue • Greenwood, &K night FMS uneral Home

662 455 2934

910 Highway 82 West • Greenwood, Mississippi • 662-4453-33636

Belva J. Pleasants Owner/Broker

311 Howard Street (Across from &the Alluvian) High-Speed Wireless Internet • Microwave, Refrigerator Coffee Maker In All Rooms Greenwood, MS 38930

335 Highway 82 West, Near Church’s Chicken • Greenwood, 662 453 5995 MS • 662-453-4364

Delta Gardner Tommy Miller • Preston O’Neal

309 East Market Street • Greenwood 453-0016 or toll free 1-888-736-0016 Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 61

WH

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Roy Mar tin Delta Band Festival

Keep an eye out

for these!

December 2006

1 — Chamber of Commerce’s 71st annual Roy Martin Delta Band Festival Parade 2-3 — Civic Center Crafts Fair 4 — LeBonté Tasting Tea 5 — Chamber of Commerce’s Governmental Affairs Review/Preview Breakfast 5 — Chamber of Commerce’s YELL (Young Emerging Leaders of Leflore) Graduation 7 — Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Tomorrow Graduation 18-19 — First Presbyterian Church’s Singing Christmas Tree October 2006 1 — Cottonlandia Museum’s exhibit of oil paintings by Cristen Craven Barnard and Amber Carraway continues (through Oct. 27; opened Sept. 10) 9-13 — Fall Break for Greenwood Public Schools 14 — Second annual Books ’n’ Blues festival 14 — Mississippi Delta Community College’s Homecoming 17 — Chamber of Commerce Salute to Elected Officials 22 — First Presbyterian Church’s Kirkin’ of the Tartans 24 — Mississippi Valley State University Homecoming concert: The Ink Spots, 8 p.m., Carpenter Auditorium on campus 26-29 — Greenwood Little Theatre’s production of “Bye Bye Birdie” November 2006 5 — Cottonlandia Museum’s second Biannual Youth Art Competition opening 7 — Chamber of Commerce’s Holiday Open House 11 — Greenwood Leflore Hospital’s Heart Walk 30 — Main Street Greenwood’s holiday Courthouse Lighting 30 — Main Street Greenwood’s Upstairs Downtown 62 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

January 2007 6 — Greenwood Leflore Hospital’s “Happy, Healthy New Year Health Fair” 7 — Cottonlandia Museum’s exhibit opening: African-American Artists (through Feb. 23) February 2007 19 — Mississippi Delta Community College Greenwood/ Carroll Chapter Annual Meeting 24 — Greenwood Junior Auxiliary Charity Cotton Ball 28 — Ebony Fashion Fair April 2007 18 — Mississippi Delta Community College’s Ambassadors Spring Revue 20-21 — Main Street Greenwood’s River to the Rails 21 — Mississippi Delta Community College’s Ambassadors Anniversary Show 26 — Mississippi Valley State University’s Founder’s Day Convocation, 10 a.m.

26 — Mississippi Valley State University’s Preeminence Awards Presentation and Gala 27— American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life

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INDEX OF ADVERTISERS Ad page

Ad page AIRPORTS Mid-Delta Regional Airport ANTIQUES Olde World Antiques Neysa’s Fireside Shop ATTORNEYS Upshaw, Williams, Biggers, Beckham & Riddick AUTOMOBILES Cannon Motor Co.

61 21 49

39 1

FINANCIAL Bank of Commerce First South Farm Credit Land Bank South Planters Bank & Trust Co. State Bank & Trust Co.

15 27 13 46 34

FLORISTS Frank’s Flower Shop Indoor Garden

5 27

FRAMING The Frame Shoppe

49 61 12 41 41

AUTOMOTIVE PARTS Delta Farm & Auto

61

FUNERAL HOME Wilson & Knight Funeral Home

BEAUTY SALONS Legends Mane Tamers Tangles

39 25 60

FURNISHINGS Cargo Dock Baird & Fisher Elegant Touch Interiors

CELLULAR PHONES Cellular South

25

FURNITURE Malouf Furniture Port Eliot

CHILDCARE Susie M. Brooks Childcare Center

43

CHURCHES St. John’s United Methodist Church

60

CLOTHING Abraham’s/Indianola Abraham’s/Cleveland Anthony’s/Ola’s Shoes Caterpillars & Butterflies Simply Elegant Smith & Co. Stubbs Traditions Young Ideas

40 49 36 56 56 50 56 49 41

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce

13

COTTON MARKETING Staplcotn

39

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Greenwood-Leflore-Carroll Economic Development Foundation

13

ELDERLY LIVING Golden Age Inc. Indywood Glen

23 19

FABRICS Timily’s Home Fabrics

49

FARM EQUIPMENT Johnson Implement Wade, Inc.

60 50

FARM SUPPLIES Agriliance

57

inside back cover 19

GAMING Isle of Capri Casino

54

GIFTS Carriage House, The Cleveland Commons Crosstown Pharmacy Fincher’s Inc Gift Box, The Mississippi Gift Co., The Pocket Full of Posies, A Red Hat Eatery & Gifts

41 48 21 28 56 21 25 41

GOVERNMENT Leflore County Board of Supervisors

57

HEALTH CARE Delta Heart & Vascular Center Greenwood Clinic for Women Greenwood Hearing Service Greenwood Leflore Hospital Mississippi Blood Services Murphree, Dr. Rick C.; Pernell, Dr. Dottie; Jacobs, Dr. Erin Northwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center North Sunflower Medical Center

Ad page MANUFACTURING Viking Range Corp.

59

MOVIE THEATER Nelco, The

61

MUSEUMS Cottonlandia Museum

28

NEWSPAPER Greenwood Commonwealth

18

NURSERIES Delta Gardner

60

PERFORMING ARTS CENTER Bologna Performing Arts Center inside front cover PHOTOGRAPHY Jennings Photography Lamb’s Photography

57 19

REAL ESTATE Bowie Realty DuBard Realty E&H Realty Short Street Realty

15, 61 9 27 61

RESTAURANTS Blue Parrot Café & Veronica’s Bakery China Blossom Crown in Town, The Crystal Grill Flatland Grill Giardina’s Larry’s Fish House Lusco’s Mockingbird Bakery Webster’s What’s Cooking?

43, 31 30 41 2, 30 23 31 30 39, 31 30 12, 31 28, 31

57 19 50 36 60

SCHOOLS Learning Tree, The Mississippi Delta Community College Miss. Valley State University Pillow Academy

25

SEWING Johnnie B. Designs

61

SWEETS Caramel Factory, The

49

TOURISM Greenwood Convention & Visitors Bureau

34

UTILITIES Greenwood Utilities

43

VETERINARIANS Greenwood Animal Hospital

61

5 35

HOME IMPROVEMENT Home Front

60

JEWELRY Jewelry Etc. Lynbar Jewelry Russell’s Antiques

56 35 37

LODGING Best Inn & Suites Best Western

61 60

27 60 back cover 42

Fall and Winter 2006-2007 Leflore Illustrated / 63

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BY JENNIFER NEAL

PHOTO BY JOHNNY JENNINGS

THE

MAIN IDEA the Southern hospitality of the Delta.”

“The people of Greenwood have made me feel more at home,” she said.

Foy’s goals for Main Street include more revitalization on Howard Street. “I would like to see more businesses Lise Foy has a new romance, but her husband needn’t in the downtown area,” she explained.

“One of many future projects I am working on involves worry.

“I have fallen in love with Greenwood,” said Foy, exec- renovating old building spaces in the downtown area and converting them into district apartments.” utive director of Main Street Greenwood Inc. In her spare time, Foy likes to ride her horse at her parFoy’s job has her overseeing Greenwood’s downtown ents’ 300-acre farm on the outskirts revitalization and economic restrucof Winona. She enjoys growing flowturing. ers and vegetables. “It is so much She helps business owners profun to grow something, pick it and mote their businesses, and she cook it,” said Foy. assists with grant projects and other Some of Main In Greenwood, she has another fund-raising events.

Greenwood’s project.

She and her husband have Simply put, Foy said, her job is fun. Street downtown street bought a house. “I look forward to The Winona native moved to signs. decorating it. I have all the color Greenwood in February 2006. “I schemes for the house in my head.” enjoy working with the Greenwood Foy said she also wants to visit every state in America. community and look forward to becoming more a part of “I have already visited 38 states,” she said. everything going on here,” she said.

“I went to Alaska in March, got a boat and had the She and her husband, Jamie, lived in Sheridan, Wyo. for more than five years. She worked as a landscape breath-taking experience of seeing some of the tallest mountains in the world. By far, Alaska was my favorite.” designer for an architectural firm.

Outside of Mississippi, of course. LII But, “we moved back to the South because we missed

Focus includes more revitalization downtown

Main Street Greenwood’s Lise Foy stands on Howard Street, where the downtown revitalization organization that she directs has helped stage an economic turnaround.

But there’s still plenty to do there, and in other parts of downtown, she said.

Main Street Greenwood Inc. 662-453-0365 / greenwoodmainstr@bellsouth.net / P. O. Box 8326, 212 Washington St., Greenwood, MS 38935-8326 64 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2006-2007

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