The other day after I shared What I've Been Reading, I did a bit more 'research' to learn more about the author of the cookbook that I've been reading. I guess it started with idle curiosity and wound up to be more like an old-fashioned research paper for me. (Remember, I was an English teacher in years past...) So, after a call to my Mama and sharing some of what I'd learned with her, I decided to just devote a post here to capture my findings. So, here goes...a summary of information gleaned from my deep dive down the rabbit hole to learn more about Miss Daisy.
Miss Daisy King is referenced by multiple sources as "Tennessee's First Lady of Southern Cooking." Martha Sundquist, Tennessee's First Lady at the time of publication for the cookbook celebrating Tennessee's 200th state birthday, states in the forward of Miss Daisy Celebrates Tennessee that Miss Daisy King was nationally known by that title. The cookbook combines southern recipes with historical facts about Tennessee's people, places, and counties making it a cultural and culinary guide to Tennessee. The historical content was researched and contributed by James H. Crutchfield, a historian and Winette Sparkman, a teacher and heritage consultant. The book was released in 1995 and was inspired by Daisy King's experience as one of several people tapped by then governor, Lamar Alexander, to travel throughout the state in a year-long traveling celebration involving a twelve-car passenger train, the Homecoming '86 Special. King served as editor of The Original Tennessee Homecoming Cookbook, that was sold during that 1986 celebration. The book cover tells us that when it was announced by Alexander that there would be a giant state-wide celebration, "people from all across the state contributed more than 3000 recipes," and the Homecoming Cookbook features "the best of those recipes as selected and edited by Daisy King." So, in essence, a cookbook inspired the author to write another cookbook which includes historical content and information. Inspiration comes from all sorts of places doesn't it?
- Just a little side note, I wonder what states are doing this year to commemorate the 250th birthday of our nation? I have read about a few different things that are happening but nothing like a whistle stop train tour of the state to inspire folks patriotically.
Neither of these were King's first foray into authoring a cookbook, however. Catering was King's entry into the food business. She and a friend hosted a French-inspired picnic in observance of Bastille Day in 1974. At the time, evidently, this was not an ordinary event for the small town of Brentwood, Tennessee, and a writer for The Tennessean, Nashville's daily newspaper, crafted a full-page spread, complete with color photos and recipes. The expose caught the eye of developers Calvin and Marilyn LeHew who were building a small shopping center just a bit south of Daisy King's home in Franklin. Calvin had visions of a tearoom serving as the centerpiece of the shopping center and convinced King to "bring it to life." Miss Daisy's Tea Room became a popular spot for ladies-who-lunch and she was consistently asked to share her recipes. King was always generous and would even scribble recipes on the back of receipts for patrons to the point that LeHew "told her he would start charging the customers 10 cents a recipe, and urged her to pen a cookbook." So, with the help of Marilyn LeHew, King created Recipes from Miss Daisy’s, her first cookbook.
The original cookbook shown above was followed up by
Miss Daisy Entertains. By the time this little cookbook came out in the early 1980s, King had opened a full-service restaurant in the Green Hills area of Nashville that enjoyed success for ten years. "Outposts subsequently launched in Bellevue and Church Street malls failed," however. Miss Daisy said, “You learn by your mistakes,” and was instrumental in the start of an entirely different sort of restaurant in Nashville.
Miss Daisy King wrote a total of fourteen cookbooks and served as a consultant for companies such as Swift Meats and Pillsbury over the years as well. She and a friend were founding members of a local chapter of Les Dames d'Escoffier International, a non-profit dedicated to supporting women in food and hospitality through scholarship and mentorship. “It’s our job to lead the way for women,” she’d say.
King led the way for many women in the middle Tennessee area by embracing change. She pivoted her own business from restaurant to 'store-within-a-store' in 1992 offering prepared-to-go appetizers, soups, casseroles, dressings, and desserts within Grassland Foodland. Later, her business moved closer to where she first began meeting, greeting, and feeding customers in Franklin and is still known as Miss Daisy's Market, a charming take-out spot known for heartwarming southern cuisine.
Daisy Mae Pass was born in Buford Georgia and was only six years old when she made her first pound cake with her grandmother. Her parents passed away before she reached the age of six, so, she was raised by her grandparents in Gainesville, Georgia. They are credited with teaching her to appreciate the freshness of ingredients by gathering vegetables from their large garden and performing other farm chores. Her grandmother taught her to cook and instilled a love for the culinary arts within her.
In high school, Daisy made an impression on visiting Belmont University President, Herbert Gabhart, who invited her to come to Nashville to take a look at Belmont’s offerings. She did and majored in home economics and minored in speech, communication, and journalism. As a senior at Belmont, one of her professor's died and she took over teaching two classes, one was planning food budgets for the month, and the other was family and child care. Later, she also taught at Saint Bernard Academy, a private girls' school in Nashville. Before graduating Belmont in 1967, she met the man who would become her husband shortly after graduation, Wayne King. She was a devoted wife and mother of two sons, Kevin, and Patrick, who was born during the early years of the tearoom at Carters Court.
Daisy Mae Pass King's love of Tennessee, Williamson County, and the folks of Franklin grew fonder and fonder. She said, "they embraced me as their very own and made a Georgia girl feel right at home!" Despite the heartbreak of outliving her husband and children, Miss Daisy remained ever-optimistic, gracious, and endearing and will always be Tennessee’s First Lady of Southern Cooking living on through her cookbooks and many shared recipes for good southern food.
I really enjoyed learning more about this cookbook author and her life. I fondly remember dining at Miss Daisy's Tearoom as a young woman, seeing her on television sharing her cooking skills, and have enjoyed so many recipes from her cookbooks over the years. I look forward to stirring up some dishes from the cookbook I have and will be on the lookout for a couple more. Plus, I am learning more about the history of my home state as a result of reading Miss Daisy Celebrates Tennessee!
