MissPres is on vacation this week, but we’re sending postcards back from Mississippi’s past.
Categories: Edwards
Preservation in Mississippi
It ain't all moonlight and magnolias
MissPres is on vacation this week, but we’re sending postcards back from Mississippi’s past.
Categories: Edwards
Preservation in Mississippi 
enjoy the vacation. Love the photo.
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OMG – what a “blast from the past”!!! Miss Lou’s Candy Kitchen (owned by Miss Louise Williamson) sat directly across from my grandparents’ house on Hwy 80 as it runs through Edwards. In the days before I-20, this was the primary east-west artery across the state, and all the tourists as well as the truckers came right by here. This little shop was an air-conditioned oasis in the 1960s, and the fudge, pralines, and divinity were to die for!
In the rear of the photo you can see the now-lost brick Edwards school building, and the white “EDWARDS” letters that remain on the hillside in the curve. When I was in California last year I met a young woman at the University of California-Merced who was a 3rd generation transplant from Mississippi to California but said her grandfather helped build that sign.
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I posted this one just for you, Kathleen! Thanks for sharing the backstory.
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We stopped at Miss Lou’s for years when driving from Georgia to Texas. When we stopped in 1967, I had just become engaged. We were invited in to Miss Lou’s home where she gave me a china figurine as an engagement gift. A wonderful memory.
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Hey Cuz, fond memories of bygone days, eh?
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Looks like my kind of place! I can’t wait for more postcards!
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Thanks for the memories!
On every trip through Edwards I recall those sweet candy memories from childhood and ponder exactly where the tiny street-front shop was located. Thanks to you and Kathleen I now know that it must have been on the third driveway from the turn, or at least on the east side of the third power pole. I will look more closely on my next trip to Coker, and feel at home on highway 80 once more.
Bob Adams
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Between the “Lou’s Candy Kitchen” sign and the “Drive In” sign, is Miss Lou’s driveway that went to the back behind her house, as well as looped around the shop and came out on the other side of the light pole there. The person that took the picture had to be standing in my Memes’ driveway next door (see post below) to take the picture. The air conditioning in there was the first time I had ever been in the a/c other than the movies.
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Hi Ed. This is her grandson, John. I enjoyed immensely reading your’s and all of the other people’s recollections of my dear Mammaw and her shop. One very small correction. The driveway only ran down to the end of the house, where the door to her kitchen was and didn’t run behind the house. And the driveway didn’t loop around the shop…just a straight shot down and back. Thanks so much for the memories.
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My great grandmother worked for her. Emma Reagan. Before my time but my mom told me many stories about it.
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LOVE this photo!!!
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I just read a verse in Dr. Norman Vincent Peale’s, Positive Thinking Bible and in one of the “story” boxes, he mentions a story about a Mrs. Lou in Edwards, MS along route 80, etc. her humble beginnings, her losing her husband and her finding her courage and Faith picking herself up and recognizing her own abilities; making candy, Thanks for putting a photo to that story. Very, very cool…….
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Renee, if I could figure out how to upload photos here, I’d show you an award bestowed on her from the Chamber of Commerce of the U.S. citing her as a significant contributor to human progress under the American free enterprise system.
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Please do post it. In “You Can If You Think You Can”, by Norman Peale he mentions Donna that Louise Williamson also was awarded Woman of the Year in Vicksburg and also Woman of the Year in Mississippi. Also how Mr. Peale told her story to the President, the Senate, and Congress. It’s on page 162 if you want to read it.
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Wow, never thought I would see a picture of that place. My Meme (my grandmother, Miss Daisy Belle) helped miss Lou cook and sell candy. She lived next door to the east. I would sit with her while people would stop and buy candy. I never really understood how popular the place was until later on. I was in second grade and went to the Edwards school that is in the background on the hill where it says “Edwards”. We had the third and second grade in the same room. We ate in the white cafeteria building which would be to the right (in the picture) of the school building on the south side of highway 80, just at the curve. Meme used to work there too, and drive the school bus. I was passed around to be held by the students while “Miss Daisy” drove the bus. Miss Lou had some buildings behind her house (west of the little shop) and that is where the candy was cooked and made. The pecans came from Miss Lou’s yard and Memes’ and I’m sure from other places as well. My brother and I would pick them up and “sell them” to her. This is one of the things where when you look back on it, at this age, you understand that it is “the journey” and not the trip. Miss Lou had a book of photos of people that had stopped by and where they were from. I remember Meme showing me the book, it was kept in the shop, and telling me where all these folks had come from and how “far away” they were. I can’t stop crying. Meme is gone now, for a while, Miss Lou too, she passed long before Meme. Someone bought her house and “restored it”, course that was 30-40 years ago. Memes’ house had a driveway on both sides and was the next door house, just east of Miss Lou’s and the shop was just next to the driveway on the west. I loved to safety pin a towel onto my shirt and play Superman and jump off Memes’ front porch to the ground…it was a thousand feet high, and I felt super. Mr Ed Bryant Sr was Memes’ husband and he owned the Gulf service station on the corner of Main St and highway 80 just past the second curve into town past the JP’s office. Oh my! OMG….I just thought about it a few minutes ago and “Googled” Miss Lou’s Candy Kitchen….wow. Such wonderful memories of life and living…with people that loved you and you loved back. Oh my.
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Hello, I purchased her home in 1989 and to this day still reside there. We love the home and all it’s wonderful stories. Yes the pecan trees do put out a lot of pecans. Thanks,
Jim Holt former Mayor (1997-2001) Edwards, MS
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Mr.Holt, hello..I’m John Williamson, Miss Lou’s grandson. I left a post below.
We passed thru Edwards in 2014 on our way back to California, and I was taken with how great Mammaw’s old house looked. We wanted to stop and meet the owners, but we were a little hesitant.
I assume the little shack out back is long gone. My dear old aunt Susie, a black lady, lived there ’til her death. She did most of the cooking for Miss Lou, and sis and I got a kick out of her.
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Really enjoyed you post. Miss Lou, mammaw to me and sis, was a truly delightful grandma.
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Hi, Ed, you must be related to my old classmate, Tommie Gwen Bryant.
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While making supper of potato soup on a snowy day in East Tennessee, I thought of what we called Lou’s Candy Kitchen. In the very early 50s, we made several trips back and forth from Brandon to San Diego during one year, My brother and I were never satisfied until we stopped for candy. What a treat! I guess the candy kept us quiet for a little while, at least. The post card pictured above refreshed my memory of the little shop in front of Miss Lou’s house. TFTM!
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I found a postcard of Lou’s Candy Kitchen with my parents memories. On the postcard my Mom wrote we stopped here on the way to Birmingham, AL from Shreveport, LA I was born in 1956 in Shreveport and we moved to Birmingham appox. one year later. I never tasted any of Ms. Lou’s treats, but I’m sure they must have been great. Attached to the postcard is a business card with the words, “Sweetest Spot on Highway 80”. On the back are the prices which include postage and insurance. 1 lb box of mixed candy $2.45, 2lb box of mixed candy $4.50, 1lb box of Pralines $2.50, 2lb box of Pralines $4.55, 1lb Can Peanut Brittle $1.80, 1.5lb Can Peanut Brittle $2.50. So cool, it makes my mouth water right now!
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Omigod!! I don’t believe this. I was bored so I googled Miss Lou’s Candy Kitchen, and lo and behold this came up. Miss Lou was my grandmother, whom I loved so much. She was quite a person. Norman Vincent Peale called her ‘One of the Ten Most Remarkable Women I’ve Met’. My family and I would visit every summer after school let out. A lot of my time was spent in the Kitchen lightening her inventory of peanut brittle…my favorite, fudge and everything else except for the date nut loaf candy.
What a joy to see the postcard, and to read your post. Take care.
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I was just reading today about this remarkable woman in Norman Vincent Peale’s “Positive Living for Every Day” and googled the information which brought me to this inspiration! People caring for people. Heart warming and memorable. Love lives on and Dr. Peale’s positive message resonates through time. Thanks for posting this information and had so much fun reading all the comments. Imagine giving a figurine to a customer as an engagement gift! Kindnesses received along life’s journey bless ongoing….
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Is this the same Miss Lou that Vicent Peale talk about in his book?
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