Kingsport's Most Famous Cook - Savanah Harris of Allandale

 

In 1927 Savanah Watterson left her home in the Stony Point community of Hawkins County (near Surgoinsville) to move to Kingsport for her first job. She was 16 and excited.

She had been hired by Ruth and Harvey Brooks as a live-in cook and housekeeper.

She cooked and kept house for the Brookses for the rest of their lives, moving in to their log house on Orebank Road (the house is still there) and tagging along with them in 1950 to Ruth Brooks’ dream home, Allandale, on U.S. 11W, just outside the western boundary of Kingsport.

“Mrs. Brooks always wanted a large house to entertain in,” she told the Times-News in 1981. “She gave teas and when anybody got married, Mrs. Brooks had a shower or bridal tea.”

Savanah couldn’t guess how many meals she prepared for Ruth and Harvey and their friends and guests, including the annual cattlemen’s get together that Harvey hosted. “Over 30-some years they entertained a lot, had a lot of parties.”

She had especially fond memories of the big parties Harvey would throw when the cattlemen were in town. “He always got me plenty of help. I’d start cooking the hams and the cakes in the morning.” Then in the afternoon she would tackle the tart shells that she filled with lemon or chocolate.

Savanah Harris cooked for so many of the Brooks’ parties over the years, preparing dinners for everyone from Mr. and Mrs. J. Fred Johnson to Mr. and Mrs. E. Ward King, that she became Kingsport’s Most Famous Cook, featured in numerous Times-News stories along with her recipes.

Her specialty, she would say, was just plain old country cooking. “Mr. Brooks just liked home country-cooked food, soup beans with fatback. Steak was his favorite food.”

She said for fancy dinners her menu might include sweet potato pone, chicken or baked country ham, French green beans and salad.

And dessert. Especially dessert. Her Peanut Butter Pie and her Coconut Cake were Harvey’s favorites.

She had her own way to cook country ham. “I cook it with bourbon. You bake the ham in brown sugar and bourbon the whole time. To go with the ham, we always had biscuits for dinner at night.”

Once when Harvey was ill and in the hospital, she remembered he asked her to bake one of her coconut cakes and bring it to the hospital for the staff.

She explained to Times-News staff writer Ellen Lyle that she cooked intuitively, a method that evolved from her childhood. Savanah was one of seven children, which kept her mother busy. So Savanah would stand on a wooden box and help prepare the family meals.

Even with all the renown for her cooking, Savanah remained modest. It took June Nottingham to praise her kitchen skills, telling the newspaper that Harvey Brooks wouldn’t eat anything that anybody else cooked, only Savanah. When she was taking time off, he insisted she prepare his meals ahead and put them in the refrigerator.

Savanah tried to retire several times over the years but each time Harvey would talk her into coming back.

After Ruth and then Harvey died, Allandale went to the city and Savanah finally got to retire.

At least retire from polishing silver and cleaning up the kitchen. But never from cooking.

She told the Times-News in 1981, “Robert (her husband) offers to take me out but I still like to cook.”

 

In the 1940 census she and her husband (at the time she was married to Charles Forney) were living with the Brooks family in the log house on Bristol Highway. Savanah reported that she worked 60 hours a week and earned $384 for the year (a little over $7 a week). Her husband Charles listed his occupation as “gardener.” He too was working 60 hours a week and being paid $384 a year. (Harvey Brooks reported he worked 70 hours a week as president of Brooks Sand and Gravel. He told the census-taker his income was zero. Ruth did not list an occupation or an income.)

 I have used the spelling of Savanah’s first name that appears in family obituaries when she was still living. In the 1920 census she was “Savana” and in the ’30 census “Savannah.” In newspaper stories she is sometimes Savanah and sometimes Savannah.

Savanah lived with the Brooks family for many years but in later years she had her own house on Maple Street.

Savanah Harris died in 1998 at age 86.

 Savanah’s younger brother Richard Watterson would also become famous as the first African-American elected to Kingsport’s Board of Mayor and Alderman, serving 14 years as Vice-Mayor. Richard died earlier this year at age 94. He too was a long-time employee of Ruth and Harvey Brooks, starting when he was 12.

 

Here’s what you’ve been waiting for, Savanah’s recipes.

Rather than retyping them, and risking introducing my own typos, I am using the original newspaper clippings.

There are no recipes for her pastries – only the filling - because she never measured the ingredients.

Savanah talked often in newspaper stories about her sweet potato pone and how it could be served as a side dish or a dessert but she never gave the newspaper her recipe. In fact in its 104-year history the Times-News has only published one recipe for sweet potato pone, in a 1949 syndicated story. So I have included that clipping at the end.  

(Click on each image to enlarge.)