She Taught Mama to Cook

 

She was just a child herself and she taught my mother Alice Wingfield Whitley Watson to cook. My grandfather, George Franklin Whitley was a banker in Suffolk, Virginia, and his bride Dolly Ann Bell, was a recent widow. Her job in the family was to be wife, mother and to be beautiful. She had someone to keep the house, cook and to clean. She did not have to lift a finger.

And so when my mother was old enough to want to cook, it was this young woman who cooked for my grandparents who was to teach her. I have my my mother;s first cook book, The Rumford Cookbook, and many of her recipes are hand-written in it. Mama later became a caterer, manager of the Dining Room at the Hotel Eliott, and later manager of the Shrine Club in Suffolk while continuing to cater weddings and other parties from home. My sister was a helper at most of these events. James Thomas, Thomas James, and others worked for her for years; some went on to have their own catering businesses. May they all Rest in Peace and be served as guests at the Supper of the Lamb.