Born, Lexington, Texas, USA, 1935
Mother tongue, American English
Grandchildren, Nathan, Crystal, Ashley, Casera, Cody, Seth, Alaya, Alison, Harley, Peyton, Whiatt, Zoe, Cody Jr, Savannah
They call her, Mamaw
The recipes I use are hand-me-down recipes, I guess. It’s stuff passed on to me from people I’ve worked with. My husband loved beef stew. It was something he would like if I cooked it all day and the meat would just fall apart. We’re big beef people in Texas. When I was caring for my husband, I’d have to take him to see his cattle every day. Oh boy, he loved his cattle.
Losing him and my son three months apart was the hardest thing, but I have so many people around me to help me through. I have my barbecue family. It’s funny to think I came at the whole barbecuing world by accident. Many years ago, when I was a stay-at-home mom to three children, someone didn’t show up at my husband’s work one day, so he asked if I’d come and help out with the barbecue pit. I said, ‘ I’ll do the best I can. I’ve never done anything like that, but I’ll try.’
That was 1966. Now I’m a pitmaster and people drive here from all over Texas for my barbecue brisket. I put my briskets on, on Saturday morning at 2 a.m. in order for them to be ready at 8.30 a.m. for people arriving for a feed. By 11 a.m., everything’s gone.
