OXFORD MISSISSIPPI

Ole Miss Cooks - Home

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Laura Reid

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Patricia Brown
Treber McGuirt
Ruth Miller

Kappa Sigma
Johnny Brown
Jean Foster
Sarah Frison

Sigma Chi
Willette Booker Mechille Ivy

Sigma Nu
Ethel Lockhart
Sandra Petties Georgia Wise

RETIRED
Verlean Caruthers
Fairy Bell Hewlett Mary Alice Lewis
Ollie Vaughn

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This project was made possible by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council

Project Contributors:
John Hunter Allgood, John T. Edge, Amy Evans, Mary Beth Lasseter and Kendra Myers

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Sorority House Cook: Mrs. Ollie Vaughn, Retired

“I cooked all the pies, all the cakes, all the rolls, the biscuits and stuff like that, you know. And I just, just stand mostly in one place. I would stand so long sometime I’d go to move and my leg be done got so stiff I’d holler.”

--Ollie Vaughn

What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited for length. To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.

SUBJECT: Mrs. Ollie Vaughn, RETIRED COOK
HOUSES WORKED: Zeta Tau Alpha, Tri Delta
DATE: July 27, 2004
LOCATION: Mrs. Vaughan’s home in Abbeville, MS
INTERVIEWER: Mary Beth Lasseter

Mary Beth Lasseter: Alright. I am here today – this is Mary Beth Lasseter interviewing Mrs. Ollie Vaughn here in her kitchen out in Abbeville, Mississippi…I want to find out a little bit about you so tell me how you got your start? Where were you born?

Ollie Vaughan: [Laughter] Well, I was born in Lafayette County, in Abbeville and – um – I’m 77 years old and I’ve been living here in Oxford all of my life [inaudible] and in Holly Springs three years and then I left there and I got married and then I had nine children and I worked in private homes for 16 years and I worked on the campus for 6 years and I worked – uh – at – uh – nursing homes for 19 years. And then I had to retire early on account of my condition. I have bad arthritis. And I’m at home now, trying to take it easy [Laughter].

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So tell me about working in the private homes. Who did you work for and what did you do?

I worked for Lawyer Smallwood. Uh, huh. I worked for them 16 years in Oxford. Yeah, I raised all their children.

And did you cook for that family?

Yeah…And so, uh, I worked for them 16 years.

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And so after you finished working for that family, is that when you started working in nursing homes?

No. After then I worked, I worked at a private home I reckon’ for about two years after then. I worked for Dr. McCullough. He was a veterinarian doctor. Uh huh. I worked for him awhile until they left. They moved from here to what they call Hot Coffee, Mississippi…And so they left and went to Hot Coffee, Mississippi and I worked for the Howorths. I worked with them for about a year.

Now which Howorths?

Dr. Howorth.

Oh, Beckett and Mary Hartwell?

Yeah, yeah…Yeah, I worked for them awhile. And then I finally left and went to campus. I started out there at the ZTA house the first year. I worked out there taking care of the dining room at the ZTA house. And then the next year, Ms. – uh – I’m trying to think of the house mother’s name – I can’t recall her name to save my life – but anyhow, she wanted to hire me over there the next year to cook because the second cook had quit and so she wanted to hire me over there for the second cook for the Tri-Delts. So, I went the next year, the following year, you know. And, uh, I stayed out there five years. But whenever I started having trouble with my legs, my knees. I said standing all day, cooking, you know, we never had a chance to break to eat.

Oh really?

Uh huh. We started off serving 200 girls and then we cut down to about 150. And then, uh, we cooked – right – we hardly wouldn’t get through with breakfast before we had to start lunch. [Laughter] That lunch is going away, get it going, and we’d get through with lunch and then have to start dinner. And it’s standing all the time, you know. Mostly, I was a pastry maker.

Oh, a pastry maker?

Yeah. And I cooked all the pies, all the cakes, all the rolls, the biscuits and stuff like that, you know. And I just, just stand mostly in one place. I would stand so long sometime I’d go to move and my leg be done got so stiff I’d holler Ooh… and then, finally after then I started having problems with my legs. I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t get out much, you know. And it went from there on to this arthritis. I got it so bad in my knees I can’t hardly get around.

So is your health the reason then that you quit working for the Tri-Delts?

Uh huh. Well, yeah. Well, no. Well, yeah – that’s one of the reasons I quite the Tri-Deltas because I was on my feet and legs so much, you know, that I had started hurting. So I went to the Golden Years retirement home. And that’s where I retired from.

Oh, okay. So what years did you work in the Tri-Delta house?

In the sixties.

Early sixties, or late sixties?

Uh, ‘bout – I worked there for five – uh – ‘bout the early sixties.

So were you working there when James Meredith integrated the university?

Sure was.

Do you remember that?

Yeah, I remember that. [Laughter]. Never will forget that.

Tell me what you remember.

Oh. Well, uh. The first day he came in there. Well he came in the day before he was supposed to come. We thought he was going to come one day and he was in there already. And so we went to the next day, we were gonna go to work out there. We couldn’t even get into the university. No sir. They had everything surrounded. We couldn’t even get to work that morning. They turned us around there at the gate, you know, as you go into the university…And, oh – I tell you – that was a horrible time. You talk about a war. Looked like it was a war right in Oxford. All over – airplanes, buses. Some of everything. Just throwing…throwing tear gas just everywhere. You couldn’t even get up on the Square. I tell you. It was a time. It really was. It was a scary time. [Laughter] Really, we didn’t get to work until about two days after then, before we got in to go to work. And then we had to have a pass.

How many people were working with you in the kitchen at that time, in the Tri-Delta house.

Three. A lady that made salad and take care of the dining room. Then I was second cook. I cooked all the cakes. And then Kathleen, she baked all the meats, vegetables, and stuff like that.

Were y’all very excited that it was going on, or was it something that was just so scary?

It was scary at first, it really was. Cause a lot of folks got hurt out there. They really did. A lot of folks got hurt and was sent to the hospital. On account of this tear gas and stuff. It was a rough time. I wouldn’t want to witness another time like that. [Laughter]

And did the year settle down? Were you able to go to work without problems later on?

After, after – uh huh – after all of that went over it kind of quieted down. And of course, they had all the troops and personal things all around out there, you know, and everything had to be kind of peaceful, you know. Policemens and, you know. It was kind of scary. [Laugther]

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Um, tell me a little bit about your cooking. How did you start cooking? And how did you make pastries your specialty?

I had a recipe to go by. And all we had was a recipe. Whatever they wanted to have, whatever – they made out the menus with whatever they wanted to have. We know breakfast food. We didn’t have to worry about that – bacon, sausage, and eggs and stuff like that. And some of the girls they would come and tell us about their eggs. Some of them want them over-light and all like that, you know, poached and all like that. Some of them were on diets, you know, and they wanted their eggs poached. All like that.

So did you cook breakfast to order, then, for 150 girls?

Oh, yeah. We did. Sure did. Of course, when it started off and they were pledging and all like that, it was 200. Uh huh. A little over 200. But, just on the – I’d say – after they…after school had gone on, I’d say, about six weeks or something like that, they’d – there wasn’t as many. I guess they pledged – I guess they didn’t hold them all or something.

Do you remember any favorite recipes that the girls enjoyed?

Oh, they loved the rolls. They loved the biscuits. They didn’t know my biscuits from my rolls. They called my biscuits rolls. [Laughter] They called my rolls rolls.

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So what was your biscuit and roll recipe? How did you do them? How do you do your biscuits and rolls?

Well, I had a recipe to go by. Uh huh. And then after I done them so long I just knew how to do them and fix them. But I couldn’t make them now. I said out of all the different kind of cookies I’ve made, the cakes I’ve made, the pies I’ve made – I just could not do any of them now. That’s true. I haven’t done them in so long.

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Um, so do you enjoy cooking or is it something you just did for a job?

Oh yeah, uh huh – I did. I enjoyed it. Sure did.

And where did you learn to cook?

Oh well, uh. I’m [inaudible] right at home. When I was small at home, you know, I was the oldest girl. Mama give me the kitchen cooking. And I’d be the one getting in there and helping. I’d get in there and, “Mom, let me fix this. Let me fix that.” And she showed me how, you know, take time to show me how to fix. And I was tired of it, too. [Laughter] Oh, Mama just turned that cooking over to me!

She liked your cooking…

Oh yeah, uh huh. I done the wrong thing when I said, Lord have mercy. I’ve done the wrong thing when I learned how to cook. [Laughter]

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Do you teach [your grandchildren how to cook]?

Uh-huh. Yeah. They help me. Come in and help me. But I forgot to do it this time. Yeah, I’ve kind of cut back on a lot of stuff I used to do, you know. Y’all come on now, while I’m living and I have a chance to try to help you – let me help you and show you all how to do this.

It’s important to pass that stuff on.

That’s right. It is. That’s right. So when I’m gone y’all will know how to do those things. It’s good to learn. A lot of these young ones now, they don’t believe in learning their girls and things how to do like we used to do, like I used to do with my kids and like my mother used to do with me. They’d rather just get in that kitchen and do what they gonna do and let them get on out of the way, you know. [Laughter] I say take time and let them learn how to do things. You don’t never know how long you’re gonna be with them. Don’t know what they’re gonna have to go through in life, you know. It’s good to learn. It’s good to know these things.

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Does any of your family work on campus the way you did? Do any of them?

Yeah, I have a sister – the one who lives across the road – she works on the campus at that Phi Mu house.

Did she? Does she still work there?

No, uh uh.

Now what’s your sister’s name?

Elsie Blake Elsie Blake. E-L-S-I-E.

How many years did she work out at the Phi Mu house?

Oh. She worked out there – mm – about twenty something years, I imagine. Yeah, she worked out there a long time. She worked out there – whew – she had been out there a long time before I started out there.

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Did y’all have to cook specially for girls that were on diets, or girls that had special eating needs?

Yeah, uh huh. Like a vegetable like beets – most times you cook the same stuff – that’s alright. But the vegetables that were so greasy. You know. Stuff like that. Stuff with fat in it. You just had a separate pot to boil it over there for it [inaudible] like greens or beans or whatever. You know. Those kind of things.

So you would actually cook two different pots of green beans – one you’d cook the good way with all the fat?

Yeah, yeah. Uh huh.

[Y]ou rolled out and cut biscuits for 150 girls?

Every day. Just about every day. Yes m’am. Sometimes we’ll have cornbread. [Inaudible] And sometimes – sometimes – I’ll tell you, we make dressing. I helped fix the dressing, too. Turkey and dressing. Chicken dressing. Whatever. And then the day they was going to have dressing they always wanted that lemon ice box pie. Oh boy! Whew! Fixing that dressing and those lemon ice box pies. Now that was a job! [Laughter]

To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.