Brookhaven Magazine May/June

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

‘Garden soil runs in the family’ REWRITING HISTORY: AUTHOR OPENS THE DOOR TO REVISION

MAY/JUNE 2019 $4.99

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MAY/JUNE 2019 PUBLISHER Luke Horton EDITORIAL Donna Campbell Brett Campbell Gracie Byrne CONTRIBUTING Kim Henderson Hannah Henderson Sarah Elizabeth Balkcom ADVERTISING Kristi Carney Mark Springfield

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

The magazine is published six times a year. For additional information on this issue or other publications or for copies, call 601-833-6961. To inquire about story content, email donna.campbell@dailyleader.com, or to inquire about advertising, email advertising@dailyleader.com.

Copyright 2019 © The Daily Leader

BROOKHAVEN ‘G

arden soil runs in the family’

MAGAZINE

REWRITING HISTORY: MAY/JUNE 2019

$4.99

AUTHOR OPENS THE DOOR TO REVISION

COMPLIMENTARY COPY

BROOKHAVEN MAGA

ZINE 1

On the cover: Flowers at Lucky 7 Greenhouse. See story on page 36.

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FOOD

GATLIN IS GROWIN’ A RESTAURANT

ARTS

REWRITING HISTORY

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12

HISTORY

ICE COLD MEMORIES

DAYTRIP

GOT TO 2, SPEND YOUR TIME IN 1

SHOP

GARDEN SOIL RUNS IN THE FAMILY

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THE REST

PHOTO ESSAYS

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SOCIAL SCENES

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GARDEN

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VOICES

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food MAY/JUNE 19

Story & photos by Donna Campbell 8 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

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Gatlin is growin’ a restaurant

amie Gatlin’s menu on the wall of Bogue Chitto Boys is like a handwritten love letter dripping with sweet sentiment and spicy barbecue sauce.

It’s the kind of letter you read over and over again, savoring each word. Coming back for seconds and thirds.

That’s what you do at Gatlin’s restaurant. Savor.

You know you’re in for a treat when you first pull up to the establishment, a nondescript gray metal building connected to his landscaping business, Growin’ Green. They’re both at 2229 Hwy. 51 SE in Bogue Chitto. Out front you’ll see a few of the menu items before harvest. The heirloom tomatoes are ripe and ready for the tomato pie. The greens and herbs needing to be picked for the salads.

The recipes for his dishes are written on a yellow legal pad, stained almost to the point it’s illegible. No problem there, though, since Gatlin’s committed most to memory. The food he serves is what he grew up on. He calls it now what he called it then.

Mamaw Gene’s sweet pickles and Aunt Earline’s chili sauce. Frani’s beans and YaYa’s chili. Kitty’s cucumber relish and Mamaw Theresa’s red hot sauce.

The latter is a recipe he learned from his mother-inlaw over 30 years ago. He cooks it the way she taught him and sells it by the jar.

It’s like a sweet lava — delicious but deadly. A little bit goes a long way.

Gatlin owned Growin’ Green landscaping for 28 years but dreamed of opening a place like Bogue Chitto Boys since he could reach a pot of roux to brown it.

Very little of his food comes frozen. He serves fresh chicken, Black Angus beef and hand-cut potatoes lightly battered then fried.

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He does the same with long strips of fresh okra for his okra fries, a perfect accompaniment to the brisket sandwich.

His veggies and herbs are grown in a garden right outside, between the front door and the parking lot.

Most of his meat is either smoked out back or cooked on iron over an open flame.

He doesn’t serve his customers on the fly. There’s no drive-thru window. Food is made to order and tastes like it.

Before opening Bogue Chitto Boys, Gatlin had already made a name for himself for his green thumb and delicious grub. He has catered parties and weddings, smoked hundreds of chickens for

fundraisers and church events, and cooked overseas as a member of the Baptist Medical and Dental Mission to Honduras. He’s made that trip for over 15 years.

Bogue Chitto Boys is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and on Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. |||||

Opposite page, top: Much of the herbs and produce used in the restaurant are grown on-site. Opposite, bottom: Bogue Chitto Boys’ owner Jamie Gatlin uses family recipes scribbled in a legal pad. The pages are stained from frequent use. Above: Gatlin takes an order for regular customer Chris Lunsford.

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arts MAY/JUNE 19

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REWRITING HISTORY

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he Kyle and Pam Grillis home near Wesson is quintessentially Southern. Pink azaleas bloom near its white two stories. A wide porch wraps around a bay window alcove, complete with 10-foot ceilings and a pillowed swing.

Inside, a bank of windows in the kitchen provides views of a pool, a pond, and a pavilion-covered shooting range. In the foyer, a terrier known as Knox (as in John Knox) scoots across a solid cherry plank floor laid by the couple themselves. The barking lets Pam know visitors have arrived for 2 o’clock tea.

While the kettle whistles, Pam, 59, explains her preference for a certain brand’s citrus notes.

“Earl Grey I like in the morning, but Lady Grey I like in the afternoon. It’s nice and light,” she says, steam rising as she pours.

Southern hospitality shows up in a tea cart as well, complete with bone china and a spread of delectables – blueberry muffins, chicken salad croissants, a cheese ring, and something she calls panna cotta.

But Pam’s regional affinities run deeper than tea cups or stakes in their hundred-acre tract of woods. Born and raised in Jackson, the former college professor passed her love for Foote and Faulkner on to students at Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Co-Lin. Her knowledge of Civil War battles delighted participants in Elderhostel programs at Mississippi College. And in her late 20s, the mother of two landed a contract for a bookto-be called “Vicksburg and Warren County: A History of Time and Place.” The readable work about the city once known as the “Gibraltar of the Confederacy” sold well and found its way into high school and college classrooms. But recently Pam made significant revisions to the second chapter.

To put her hands on a copy of the original hardback, Pam uses a rolling walker to move into the home’s extensive library. Nine years ago, she suffered a debilitating spinal cord injury called Cauda Equina Syndrome. The damage was extensive, affecting everything below her waist. A devout Christian, Pam puts it in hindsight perspective: “I was healthy. I was strong. There was no reason to think anything was going to happen. It’s one of those experiences in life when the Lord reaches down and takes you someplace that you would never choose to go, but in the process, He shows you things that you cannot even begin to imagine.”

Sitting is now painful for Pam, so she reclines on a couch in the center of the library, with its walls lined ceiling to floor with books. She’s always been a reader, but never more so than now. “Being a shut-in, my books really are the world because they speak to me and communicate to me and allow me to keep in touch with the world.”

When her son introduced her to a Kindle a few years ago, Pam wasn’t sure she’d like it, but she did.

Closed off from the world, an author opens the door to revision

Story by Kim Henderson Photos by Hannah Henderson

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Still, when a friend suggested Pam make the books she authored available online, she balked. “I thought, no, no, no.

For one thing, when you live in daily pain, you don’t have control over your life, so I never know from one day to the next if I’m going to be able to do something or not. So, I thought, no, that’s too much work. Just leave it alone.”

But something nagged Pam. When she tackled the original manuscript, her editors set limits. They wanted a comprehensive history, but nothing controversial, no hot topics. That meant she couldn’t write about the wrongs of slavery.

“I wasn’t really happy about that, particularly in looking at the issues leading up to the war and immediately after the war, but I was a hired hand. I faced the dilemma of how far can I press and it not cost me my contract?”

Producing a revised eBook meant Pam would have an opportunity to make it the book she wanted it to be in the first place. “I mean, how many people get a second chance like that? Here’s this book that was originally typed on a word processor and stored on a floppy disk, and now with modern technology, I re-create and improve my original work while 14 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

lying on my couch.“ Kyle crafted a desk that adjusted to her reclining position, and she set to work addressing two key issues. First, why did the people of Vicksburg, the majority of whom didn’t own slaves, turn a blind eye to the evil of slavery? “As I point out in this revision, it is exactly like the issue of abortion today.

People say, well, you know, I don’t have anything to do with that.”

Second, Pam wanted to deal with the issue of rights.

“There were many people back then who were what they called states’ righters. They believed that the state had stronger governmental authority than the federal government, and this idea of rights, rights, rights became a mantra to them,” Pam explains.

That includes the famous right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” But Pam points out a problem: The man who wrote those words owned human beings. “In a nation that is founded on freedom, for whatever freedoms people came here for – economic, religious, political, whatever – it is inexcusable that there were people who owned other human beings.”

She states that plainly in her new eBook, now available on Amazon, with a paperback format pending. The book’s Chapter 2 is also different in other ways. It emphasizes the inherent dignity of man as God’s image bearer. It considers the impact of Darwin’s theories on racial biases. It admonishes Christians in Vicksburg and elsewhere who supported slavery, either by ownership or by apathy.

Pam says it’s not so much that her views changed in the 30 years since the original book published.

Instead, her resolve has.

“I was taught to treat people with respect and to do unto others, but I didn’t stand firmly when editors cut down what I had originally written about those issues. But with this opportunity to republish the book, I couldn’t just let it stand the way it was. I took a new look at it with age on me and hopefully more wisdom, but most importantly with the reality of how the Lord has worked in my own heart and life.

The circumstance I find myself in now – it changes you.” ||||| Page 12: Cabinetry in the Grillis library was constructed from antique choir railing Kyle obtained when First Baptist Church in Brookhaven remodeled its sanctuary. Pam is pictured with Knox, the family’s Cairn Terrier.

Page 14: Kyle and Pam Grillis enjoy lunch with Matt Chancey of Persecution Project, an organization that provides relief in war-ravaged Sudan. All royalties from Pam’s revised book will go toward those efforts.

This page: Pam Grillis prepares tea in a Southern-style home she and her husband, Kyle, built near Wesson in 1995.

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GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN AT

GIRLS’ NIGHT OUT THURSDAY | JUNE 20, 2019 | 3-9 PM Over 30 retailers & restaurants participating $20 advance ticket/$25 week of event (Includes special coupons to all participating retailers, official Girls Night Out t-shirt, $10 meal voucher to participating restaurant of your choice, After-Party & MORE!) 601 Sports, B*Dazzled, Beyond the Rainbow, Broma’s Deli, Brookhaven ENT Allergy & Facial Surgery, Bumper’s Drive-In, Castles, Clementine Country Store, CoolSculpting by Southern Surgical Services, Detour 51, Engravables, Erin & Co, Expectations, Expectations Too, Georgia Blue Bakery, Georgia Blue Brookhaven, Hall & Company, J. Allan’s, Judy’s II, Melinda’s Fabrics/Interiors, Picket Fences Vendors, Poppas Buffet and Grill, Roxy Magnolia, Southern Style, Sassy But Sweet Boutique, The Boutique by Southern Style, The Fish Fry, The Honey Pot, The Venue at 550, Three Sisters Boutique, Vendor’s Emporium, Vibe Clothing Company, Zeal Consignment

For ticket info visit www.brookhavenchamber.com or call 601-833-1411

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We love a good

PARTY And so do our readers.

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

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

• Include names and a brief description of your event.

That’s It!

Email them to: editor@dailyleader.com or for more info call us at The Daily Leader - 601-833-6961 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 17

for voting us as business of the year and as the most decorated auto dealer 3 YEARS IN A ROW!

2018 Business of the Year Best and Pre-owned Car Dealership Best Oil Change

Best Auto Service Best Auto Detail

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601-823-7000

Shopping locally not only helps business owners but also boosts the local economy, creating more opportunities right where you live, work and play.

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THE BEST IN LOCAL NEWS, SPORTS AND OPINION IS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS. IN PRINT & ONLINE. BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 21

history MAY/JUNE 19

Story by Brett Campbell

ICE COLD MEMORIES Brookhavenites share their recollections of the downtown ice house 22 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

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business is born, grows, thrives then eventually goes the way of all things — lost except for the memories. But it is there that it lives on in the collective.

Such is the case with a business that once stood in a block building on the corner of North Railroad Avenue and East Court Street in Brookhaven. Where now the parking lot of The Daily Leader newspaper exists, there once sat an enterprise that encompassed part of the existing Daily Leader building. It was a business people loved — a business with a heart of ice.

The Ice House, as it’s remembered, was a place to get ice, temporarily store food items that wouldn’t fit in home freezers or refrigerators, chill watermelons and take a break from the heat outside.

Several current or former Brookhaven/Lincoln County residents shared fond memories of the business recently on social media (Memories of Ole Brook, a Facebook community).

Pam Jones Reid, Brookhaven: “I know my old neighbor on Chippewa Street Mr. Robert Smiley worked there.”

JoAnn Richardson, Brookhaven: “Mr. Smylie ran it for a company. He gave away ice picks. My father-in-law would haul ice to Hazlehurst in 300 pound blocks on a flat bed truck for them. The Nalty’s Ice House was across the street from Serio’s (South First Street).”

Note: A modern-day 300 pound block of ice measures 40 by 20 by 10 inches.

Joy Moak, Brookhaven: “I remember going to the Ice House (on the corner where the Leader’s parking lot is now) with my family. We would get ice to make ice cream. They would bring out a block of ice using a pair of tongs.”

Joe G. Brown, Norfield: “I remember Central Baptist picnic and softball. We went to the ice house to pick up watermelons chilled there.”

Steve Altman, Brookhaven: “We used to take a watermelon by there and leave it all day to get it cold in a hurry, in the 50s.”

Gerald Williams, Brookhaven: “We got our ice from there.

Red Adams delivered ice around the county and would pick the amount you needed and pick it up with tongs and carry it into the houses and put it in the ice boxes, on the bottom of course.

The Ice Plant had a strong smell of ammonia that leaked from the piping. That was what they used back then to freeze water.”

Larry Morgan, Hattiesburg: “I used to hang out at the ice house when on breaks from working at the Lincoln County Advertiser, later the Leader-Advertiser when (it) merged with the Leader Times, and later The Daily Leader when the paper went to daily publication. I well remember those large blocks of ice that were pulled up through the floor to sell. People also would leave things in the ice house that were too big for the home freezer. We had a fish or two stored temporarily there a time or two. It was nice to spend a few minutes in there during the summer heat.

The people who operated the ice house were very nice to let us enjoy the cool temps as we did so quite often.

Sherry Allgood Varriale: “My grandfather Willie Allgood worked delivering ice. That was how my dad said he met my mother by helping his dad on the route. I think I have the wood piece from an old ice pick from there. My brother has the ice tongs that were my grandpa’s.”

The Crystal Ice Company in Brookhaven was owned

by Brookhavenite John B. Nalty (1857-1936), a son of Irish immigrants, according to The St. Louis Lumberman magazine/newsletter. When the company relocated from land adjoining the Illinois Central Railroad the owner and manager of Crystal Ice, now having undergone a name

change to Home Ice Company, was identified as John’s son, Eugene Aloysius “E.A.” Nalty (1893-1967). Having run the company for 15 years at the time of the move, it seems E.A. took over the business around the time of his father’s death at the age of 45.

The elder Nalty was a well-known and well-respected lumberman who, The St. Louis Lumberman reported in 1916, “has been mixed up in mostly every other kind of an enterprise that makes for the progress of Brookhaven and the county roundabout. Nalty’s most recent enterprises are the Dixie Creamery and the Crystal Ice plant which is something Brookhaven is duly proud.”

John and his wife Mary Cecilia “Mamie” Halpin Nalty (1867-1948) raised one daughter and six sons in the Victorian home he built with lumber from his East Union Mills Sawmill Company in 1897, on the corner of South Jackson and West Chippewa streets.

The ice house was known for its ice and courteous service, both at the plant and through its delivery service. The “fine, clear solid ice” was available night or day.

“The factory is ideally located for convenience to the public when they desire to purchase ice from the factory where it can be secured at any hour, day or night. Ample parking space is afforded all around the new plant, which is extremely easy of access for cars,” states the newspaper clipping.

“A branch ice house for the convenience of uptown purchasers is kept open just north of the Perkins Furniture Company, Inc., for use by those who desire it during daylight hours.”

The nostalgic joy that comes to people remembering ice like this from their younger days is so contagious one can’t help but smile with them as they share their memories.

“When I was very young, we would always go there in the summer to get a bag of crushed ice to make homemade ice cream,” wrote Richard Case of Brookhaven.

“They would go in the freezer and get a block of ice and come out and put (it) in this big grinding machine. There would be a double-lined paper sack at the bottom and it would fill up … as the machine would grind the ice,” he said. “I can hear it now making that noise.” ||||| Pictured on this page and opposite are postcards from the early 20th century. Opposite: The Crystal Ice Company building operated in its original location adjacent to the Illinois Central Railroad. Above: Crystal Ice Company owner John B. Nalty’s home on South Jackson Street.

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photo essay MAY/JUNE 19

Photos by Donna Campbell

Flying toward the sun

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Paul Barnett of Brookhaven flew a WWII Grumman Avenger Torpedo Bomber Fighter from Brookhaven-Lincoln County Airport to an air show in Lakeland, Florida. The plane — which belongs to a friend — is special to him because his dad, the late Dr. Jim Barnett, flew Grumman TBF Avengers in the Korean War.

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photo essay MAY/JUNE 19

WALKING FOR A CURE 28 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

Relay for Life of CopiahLincoln saw a large turnout this year after moving to the covered arena at the Lincoln Civic Center. The annual fundraiser for the American Cancer Society was held in conjunction with The Mississippi Spring Fest and Fair. Opposite bottom, LaMarcus Simmons and D’asia Franklin show off the goldfish they won in a game during the relay.

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photo essay MAY/JUNE 19

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AspenOfBrookhaven.com 500 Silver Cross Drive, Brookhaven, MS Phone: 769-300-5380

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daytrip MAY/JUNE 19

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GO TO 2, SPEND YOUR TIME IN 1

o truly appreciate Two Museums in Jackson as a daytrip, the best advice is to cut it down to just one museum. It is impossible to cram the experience offered from the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the Museum of Mississippi History into just one visit.

When you enter the doors of the museums, you pass first through a security check. If you are bringing drinks or food in with you, you’ll be asked to exit with them or dispose of them in the trash before being allowed into the museums’ lobby. And if you’re chewing gum, you

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may have a harder time.“No, no, no, no, no,” the security officer said to a woman behind us as we passed through the metal detector. “Is that gum in your mouth? No, ma’am.”

We turned to see the bewildered woman looking up at the uniformed man who was pointing to the trash can and looking at her like a father who’d just found his child with her hand in a cookie jar.

The lobby is spacious and the museum workers helpful and gracious. If you need a wheelchair during your visit, they are free to use — just ask at the ticket counter — but

you’ll need to leave a photo ID at the 1955.

Story by Donna Campbell desk until you return the chair, and the “These museums are telling the stories chairs are provided on a first-come, firstof Mississippi history in all of their served basis. Bathrooms, the gift shop complexity,” said Katie Blount, director of and a cafe’ are all accessible prior to entering either of the the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, which twin museums — the Museum of Mississippi History to operates the two new museums. “We are shying away from your left and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum to your nothing. Understanding where we are today is shaped in right. every way by where we have come from in our past.”

Each museum can take a visitor a full day to experience.

MCRM is composed of eight galleries, chronicling the It’s not uncommon to become engrossed in certain exhibits events of the Civil Rights Movement across the Magnolia to the point where you realize you’ve spent an inordinate State. The first two galleries contain a timeline illustrating amount of time. If you plan to see all there is to see, that the history of Africans in Mississippi, slavery and the is. Two Mississippi Museums, as they are billed, are origins of the Jim Crow era. interconnected in one building and carry visitors on a Floor-to-ceiling four-sided posts list the names of trip through the history of the state from its earliest days men, women and children who were victims of lynching, through the state’s role as ground zero in the U.S. Civil including the date of their lynching, the location and the Rights Movement. The museums opened their doors in crime or infraction of which they were accused.

Jackson in December 2017. Visitors to the MMH will see a The third gallery is the heart of the museum. It’s a 500-year-old dugout canoe discovered submerged in mud central space lit by a dramatic light sculpture featuring the on a lake bank. Visitors to MCRM will see the doors of the museum’s theme song “This Little Light of Mine” and Bryant Grocery, through which 14-year-old Emmett Till highlighting people who laid down their lives for the walked prior to the events that led to his murder in summer rights of others.

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The next four galleries focus on a 30-year stretch, from 1945 to 1975. The mug shots of every Freedom Rider arrested in Mississippi are on display.

Visitors can hear the stories of such Civil Rights veterans as Fannie Lou Hamer, Vernon Dahmer and Medgar Evers.

The final gallery is introduced with the banner “Where do we go from here?” Here visitors are challenged to consider their own communities as they reflect on their experience at the museum and observe how the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi has served as an example for like movements worldwide.

Many of the exhibits are interactive and immersive. Visitors sit in a mock segregated classroom, or in the back of a police paddy wagon or in a jail cell as they view images and video of significant moments in the state’s struggle with racial equality.

As we watched a short film on the Freedom Summer murders of three men in Neshoba County, a woman abruptly stood and walked out, tears streaming down her face. It was not the only time I was struck emotionally from the images I saw, the words I read, the voices I heard and the news footage I watched. The weight of our shared history was at times heavy.

This museum is the only state-operated civil rights museum in the nation. The state legislature provided $90 million for the museums, and another $19 million was raised through private donations. The museums share a lobby, auditorium, classrooms, collection storage, gift shop, cafe’ and exhibit workshop for a facility that covers 200,000 square feet. That’s the equivalent of three and a half football fields.

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The Museum of Mississippi History also boasts eight galleries and explores the many diverse peoples who contributed to the state’s history up to the present day from as far back as prehistoric times. Under the museum’s unifying theme of “One Mississippi, Many Stories,” the first three galleries cover the complex societies of Native Americans, the exploration and settlement of Europeans and enslaved Africans and the transition from a territory to that of statehood. The remaining galleries highlight the evolution of Mississippi’s communities, from the rise of slavery and cotton, to secession, Civil War and Reconstruction, and into the 20th century. Major modern events, advancements in agriculture and industry, social change movements and the dominance of arts and culture are all highlighted. Though the issues of slavery and civil rights are touched upon briefly in this museum, they are expanded upon greatly in the sister museum in the building’s southernmost half.

The MMH’s stories are given life through the world’s most extensive collection of Mississippi artifacts. Stone vessels carved by Native Americans thousands of years ago are on display.

We saw Eudora Welty’s own manual typewriter. A small recreated Delta juke joint shares the sounds of blues greats like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Bo Diddley.

We began our visit with the state’s history museum and committed three hours to our perusing. Following a break for lunch, we moved to the Civil Rights Museum where we remained until just a few minutes before closing time at 5 p.m.

I’m glad we moved in this order — though at a pace faster than we would have preferred, determined to take it all in during one day’s visit — because the CRM was emotionally draining, and we probably would have just called it quits for the day after touring it, saving the state history side for another date, if we had started in reverse order.

As we left the museums, we had the opportunity to write and/or video record our thoughts. My husband and I recorded ours, and our daughter wrote hers.

Once back in the car and on our drive home, we began to share our feelings and thoughts on the whole experience.

We talked about our favorite exhibits, the parts that bothered us the most, the ones that we thought were most beautiful or engaging, the ones where we learned something we didn’t know prior to the visit. We agreed we were glad we went, and we’d like to go back. We’d probably spend less time in some areas and more time in others. But one thing was for sure.

We wouldn’t try to do both museums in one day. |||||

Galleries 4-8 in the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum focus on 1945-1975.

Opposite page, the mug shots of every Freedom Rider arrested in Mississippi are on display.

Page 33: Some of the displays to be seen in the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum are prefaced with a warning that they may contain “offensive images and language.”

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shop MAY/JUNE 19

GARDEN SOIL RUNS IN THE FAMILY 36 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE

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ome families fish together. Or hunt. Or travel. But some, like the Malones, garden together. Ouida Malone, 49, is a Lincoln County native. She is a wife, mother and a business owner. She’s also a gardener.

Malone developed her love of plants when she started working with her mother-in-law, Dorothy Malone, at Lucky 7 Greenhouse when she was 24.

Dorothy, a mother of seven, had gotten interested in gardening after her late husband built her a greenhouse.

Now, decades after the opening of the original business, Lucky 7 is open again in a new location. Located on East Monticello Street, patrons can peruse every type of plant imaginable.

••• The story of Lucky 7 Greenhouse is long and winding like the vines of ivy. It starts with Dorothy Malone.

When she was 7 years old, her parents separated. This led to her and her mother, along with her two siblings, moving to New Orleans.

She worked an array of jobs in the city: secretary, crane driver, police officer, mechanic. She didn’t care for traditional women’s work and felt more comfortable in a job where she could get her hands dirty.

Dorothy met her husband Leonard in New Orleans. They

got married when she was 15. Their family associations.

Story & photos by Gracie Byrne blossomed with seven children. This is where Trial and error, along with determination and Lucky 7 got its name. creativity, led to new arrangements, both literal “I have seven kids, and I considered myself and botanical. lucky, so I called it Lucky 7,” Dorothy said.

The original Lucky 7 Greenhouse had humble beginnings off After Leonard was transferred to Brookhaven for work, the Hwy. 583 on Empire Lane in Bogue Chitto. On opening day, family packed up and moved to Lincoln County. For her family, Dorothy only made 36 cents. This setback didn’t discourage this meant moving to a different state and starting over. For her.

Dorothy, a Lincoln County native, this was going home.

“Life is like a shoe, you keep trying them one until one fits,” Once all of her children were grown and moved out, Dorothy Dorothy said. longed for something different to do.

They kept trying, and soon enough business took off. Lucky 7 “I couldn’t find anything I was happy doing,” she said. was thriving, and plant lovers were coming from miles around.

Her husband wanted her to stay home, and so she asked They even had customers come from other states to visit. for a greenhouse to spend her time in. He delivered, and so a “I just love plants, and I love sharing plants with people,” she greenhouse was built. said.

After spending time gardening, an idea grew — to sell the Dorothy had a complaint box for the customers to drop in plants they were growing. They went to surrounding areas anything the business could do to improve. In almost 30 years, selling plants to customers willing to buy. This was progress, the box stayed empty, nothing was ever dropped in. but they wanted to do more.

The original Lucky 7 stayed open for nearly 27 years.

The couple took certification classes from Mississippi State The only thing that made Dorothy close up the business was University to better prepare themselves for the gardening her husband’s diagnosis of COPD — the fumes from the business and held memberships in six different nursery greenhouse had negative effects on his health.

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Her husband Leonard was the one responsible for building and taking care of the greenhouse. Without his help, along with the fact that Dorothy needed to take of him, Lucky 7 shut its doors.

The original business closed and remained that way for several years.

The story continues with Ouida Malone. When Dorothy opened Lucky 7, she hired Ouida’s mother as her first employee. Ouida became the second, and during the life of the original business, they were the only employees.

Ouida didn’t have a knowledge of plants until she began working at the greenhouse under Dorothy. Everything she knows she learned from her.

“I learned a lot from her,” Ouida said.

“I couldn’t do it without her,” She already knew Dorothy, as she was married to her son Manny. The couple met in high school and dated. They have been married for 32 years and have three sons together, one of whom works at Lucky 7.

Before Ouida and her husband reopened Lucky 7, she worked as a housecleaner, and many of the homes she cleaned belonged to former customers of the greenhouse.

In 2018, Ouida and Manny approached Dorothy about reopening the greenhouse and using Dorothy’s former name for the new business. With her blessing, they pressed forward, and the new Lucky 7 was born.

“Back then she was my second man, now I’m her second man,” Dorothy said.

One reason that Ouida decided to reopen Lucky 7 was because of her son Austin, who was in a wreck two years ago that left him paralyzed from the waist down.

She wanted him to have something to do. The new greenhouse is right in his front yard.

Lucky 7 is reopened and thriving.

With plants of every color, cut and shape, the family-owned business has everything a gardener needs to make their green dreams come true.

Ouida hopes to see Lucky 7 grow even more. Plans for expansion are already being carried out.

“I wanna keep growing,” Ouida said.

Page 36: Dorothy and Ouida Malone, a mother and daughter-in-law duo, have worked together for years. Lucky 7 currently has one greenhouse, but plans to expand. The greenhouse has flowers of all colors and types available.

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 39

social scenes MAY/JUNE 19

“THE LITTLE MERMAID” BY BLT

Andy, Savannah and Brooklyn Maldonado

Jessica and Zoe McGuffie, Tanya and Emily Noble, and Rosalie and Lauren Rohrer

Ella Rose, John Tate, Ava Grace, Nathan and Lori Ann Case

Autumn and Shane Banks

Linda and Hiram Bailey

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Lucy Pierce and Ann Newell

Makenzie Jones, Karlie Patterson and Kayli Patterson

Michelle Glasson, and Ron, Avrie, Mandy and Carter Kessler

T.J. Smith, Lundyn Nations, Jennifer Smith, Laura Williams, Emma Rose Lea and Candi Polk At left, Bradi and Hayleigh Hearn

At right, Emily Perrett and Ava Parker

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 41

MISSISSIPPI SPRING FEST AND FAIR

Bella, Ty and Jagger McKee

Deandrea Franklin, Makayla and Jonn Trummer, Deandreal Davis

Above: Dustin, Ava Kate, Kenslie and Tonya Bairfield

Above: Kala Ward, Deborah and Gary Martin

Below: Kristen Wroten, Joseph and Harper Hart

Below: Stacy Barnes, Sandy Cunningham and Garrett Wallace

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OLE BROOK WIND SYMPHONY CONCERT

Bud and Fay Greer

Laney Brewer, McKenzie and Rob Loomis

Patrick and Sonya Phelps

Stephanie and Jordan Castilaw, and Tina Martin

Janice and Cy Hoagland, Becky Dixon and Mary Elizabeth Terry

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 43

ART RECEPTION AT THE LIBRARY

Dr. Kim Sessums and Helen Lynch

Esther Wilson and Sallie Williford

Janet Smith, Theresa and Don Perkins

John Lynch and Owen Carty

Judge Mike Taylor, Becky Taylor and Dr. Joe Moak

Melinda and Michael Said

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Serving your family with Christian values

• Honoring ALL policies and arrangements made and written by any other funeral service provider • Most experienced staff to serve your family • Most spacious facility offered in our area • Best priced and most thoughtfully arranged services • Offering the most affordable pricing on pre-arrangements or time of need services • Also offering monuments and markers for all cemeteries for any budget

Serving your family with Christian Values

US-51, Brookhaven, MS | 601-833-6680 www.riverwoodfamily.com • Honoring 76 ALL policies & arrangements • Best •priced & most thoughtfully arranged made & written by any other funeral service services. provider • Offering the most affordable pricing on pre• Most experienced staff to serve your family arrangements or time of need services • Most spacious facility offered in our area • Also offering monuments & markers for all cemeteries for any budget

76 US-51, Brookhaven, MS • 601-833-6680 www.riverwoodfamily.com

Find us online

www.dailyleader.com BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 45

MAGAZINE

MAGAZINE

BROOKHAVEN serving LINCOLN/COPIAH/FRANKLIN/LAWRENCE COUNTIES

‘Garden soil runs in the family’

MAY/JUNE 2019

FOOD

SCULPTOR CREATES THUNDER & LIGHTNING

AUTHOR OPENS THE DOOR TO REVISION

MAGAZINE

A WINTER WONDERLAND

‘We don’t make food, we make art’ REWRITING HISTORY:

JAN./FEB. 2018

BROOKHAVEN BROOKHAVEN

HISTORY

‘MY DEAREST JENNY’

Nurse is a ‘souper’ cook

MARCH/APRIL 2019

$4.99 COMPLIMENTARY COPY BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 1

$4.99

COMPLIMENTARY COPY BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 1

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 1

Why advertise in The Daily Leader’s Brookhaven Magazine?

“It’s the smart choice” GUARANTEED DISTRIBUTION Brookhaven Magazine is delivered to all Daily Leader subscribers and placed in racks, offices and retail locations throughout the area.

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

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

Brookhaven Magazine is created by locals for locals. Make the SMART move and

advertise your business where it matters ... right here at home.

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Kristi Carney - 601.265.5300 kristi.carney@dailyleader.com

Recruiting Plumbers, Pipefitters, Pipe Welders, & Apprentices.

EMPLOYING LOYING O OVER VER 2 2,000 000 S STATEWIDE! TATEWID

From Nuclear Plants, Power Houses, Hospitals, Paper Mills, and other commercial industrial industries.

Tommy Newell: 601-638-2546 • Chris Newell: 601-754-5363 Randy Hunt: 918-361-3699 www.uanet.org 3203 N. frontage rd. vicksburg, ms

Recycling in Brookhaven is successful and ongoing!

35 Gallon Recycling Containers still available at city barn upon request

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

For more information: www.brookhavenms.com This ad is sponsored by the MS Department of Environmental Quality.

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 47

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garden MAY/JUNE 19

Lantana’s bloom show is now underway

By Gary. R. Bachman

O

ne group of landscape plants that is really starting to take off with its summer show is the lantana.

These popular landscape plants are available in a dizzying variety of sizes and colors.

I really like lantanas’ spreading growth habit. They can act as ground covers and are full of nonstop blooms.

In fact, I like to use these plants instead of flowering annuals. Once established, lantanas are reasonably drought tolerant, but during dry conditions like we usually experience in Mississippi summers, they require supplemental irrigation.

Perhaps the lantana I like best is an oldie but goodie. New Gold lantana, a Mississippi Medallion winner in 1996, has outstanding, bright golden-yellow flowers. It’s vigorous and low growing, with a dense, trailing habit. It has the potential of reaching 1 to 2 feet tall with a 3-foot spread.

Two selections closely related to New Gold lantana and with similar growth habits are Butter Cream, which has bright-yellow flowers that transition to creamy white, and Silver Mound, which has pure white flowers.

I’ve grown Butter Cream lantana in the past. The flowering starts out as a bright, golden-yellow and then, as the flowers mature, the edges turn creamy white until the entire flower is white.

During the summer, there is a beautiful blend of these sunny flowers on Butter Cream’s low-mounding growth. Silver Mound’s flowers open and remain a snowy white through the season.

In the early spring, cut lantana back hard to about 4 to 6 inches to make room for new growth. Light pruning through the summer helps retain size and tidiness, and it helps stimulate more flowering and a bushier structure.

It is crucial you maintain good nutrition for continued flowering through the summer. Flowering will seem to shut off if the plants get “hungry.” Fertilize once per week with

a water-soluble fertilizer to preserve flowering potential.

The only pest of any significance to watch out for is lantana lace bug, which produces leaf stippling on the tops of the leaves and tar-like frass on the undersides. Heavy infestations reduce flowering and even cause the plant to defoliate.

We’ve observed this problem in some of our lantana plantings at Mississippi State University’s Coastal Research and Extension Center in Biloxi. The lantana will leaf out and flower again, but it can cause some concern. Prune the damage back to help stimulate regrowth. It’s interesting that some selections seem more resistant to this pest.

If you confirm you have a lantana

lace bug infestation, apply a systemic insecticide to the plant root zone during May and July. Systemic insecticides include the chemicals dinotefuran or imidacloprid. Read labels to find which products include these chemicals. Allow several weeks for the insecticides to work, because they must spread through the plant to be effective.

If you can’t decide whether you want lantanas in your garden and landscape, remember this: You have to have lantanas if you want to attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

New Gold lantanta is an oldie but a goodie with gorgeous flowers and a vigorous and low-growing habit.

(Photo by MSU Extension/Gary Bachman)

BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 49

voices MAY/JUNE 19

Why I love Brookhaven I

love Brookhaven because of the people. I was born and raised here and am raising my children here. I have lived in a larger city, Birmingham, and a college town, Oxford, but nothing compares to Brookhaven.

I love downtown where I can get a chicken-on-a-stick from Janie’s or a flat hotdog from Bob’s. Where my kids can go see the “Avengers” at the same theater where I saw “Star Wars.”

I love the boulevard on Friday nights where my sister and I made endless loops stopping at the Pizza Hut or Perkins Hardware to visit with friends.

I love being a Brookhaven Panther. I love showing up to tailgate at Panther Park on Friday night before an Ole Brook football game with folks that I not only graduated with but folks my father and sister did as well. I love the continuity that creates. I am proud to watch my son play tennis for BHS and, next year, to watch my daughter stand on the sidelines as a BHS cheerleader.

Once a Panther, always a Panther.

I love that my son Sam played Little League baseball on the same field where I did. That my daughter Lucy played basketball at First Baptist Church just like I did. I love that both my children frequently come home from school with a story that one of their teachers or administrators has told them about their Aunt Julie, their great-grandfather Emmitt Allen or their grandfather Bob Allen.

I love that our library not only still sponsors the Summer Reading program like it did when I was a kid, but now houses

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art from internationally respected artists like our own Dr. Kim Sessums.

I love that on Sunday mornings I pass friends and neighbors as we go to worship Jesus.

Brookhaven is full of broken people like me who need God’s grace and seek out a community of like-minded believers. I love that there are choices and that those church communities are so welcoming.

I love our citizens who sacrifice time and, frankly, money to protect and serve us. From the mayor, police chief and Board of Alderman to the Board of Supervisors, Sheriff Rushing and our deputies, I know that I can make a phone call and they are ready to help me, my family, my neighbors and our town at the drop of a hat.

At family gatherings, we often play the “Question Game.” If you could vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go?

If you could gain admission to any college, where would you go? Frequently, someone will ask, if you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live? I love to snow ski, fly fish and bird hunt out West. I love to relax on the beach. But, I only love to do those things on a temporary basis. No matter what, I want to come back to Brookhaven. I want to return to Brookhaven and its familiar rhythms and its familiar smiles.

I love Brookhaven because it’s home.

Will Allen is an attorney with Allen, Allen, Breeland & Allen.

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