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October 27-28, 2023
Southern Foodways Symposium ⟶
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October 27-28, 2023
Southern Foodways Symposium ⟶

Oral Histories

The SFA oral history program documents life stories from the American South. Collecting these stories, we honor the people whose labor defines the region. If you would like to contribute to SFA’s oral history collections, please send your ideas for oral history along with your CV or Resume and a portfolio of prior oral history work to info@southernfoodways.org.

< Back to Oral History project: Doe’s Eat Place

ORAL HISTORY

Florence Signa, matriarch

Doe's Eat Place

Florence Signa was born in 1926 and grew up in the country just outside of Greenville. When she was a young girl, her family would travel to town, buy tamales from Doe’s, and eat them on the levee. Florence met her future husband, Frank “Jughead” Signa, Big Doe Signa’s brother, in 1947. After a few dates, she got a job frying potatoes at the restaurant, and for the next year, Frank courted her in the kitchen, through the open window that divided her potato-frying from his oyster shucking. In 1948, they married, and Florence has been a part of the place ever since. Frank passed away in 1988, just one year after his older brother Doe, but Aunt Florence is still at Doe’s Eat Place three nights a week, tossing salads and greeting the generations of customers who come for a steak and a hug.

Date of interview:
2005-09-15 00:00

Interviewer:
Amy Evans

Photographer:
Amy Evans

Download Transcript

“

Oh, [my husband, Frank Signa] loved [shucking oysters] 'cause he'd put two in the plate and one in his mouth. He'd always slip one and as a matter of fact, we still have people that were little bitty that come in now that are grown and married and tell that he started them eating oysters on the half shell when he--when they were real little. They'd go back on the back porch and watch him open those oysters. Yeah; those were the good old days. ~ Florence Signa

Other Project Interviews

Interview

Judy Saulter

Judy Saulter has worked as a waitress at Doe’s Eat Place since 1970. A native of Greenville, she enjoyed Doe’s hot…

Interview

Doe Signa, Jr.

His father had been in the business for eleven years when Dominick, Jr., Little Doe, was born in 1952. He grew up in…

Interview

Clarke Reed

He became a customer at Doe’s Eat Place soon after moving from Missouri to Greenville in 1950. In the ensuing years,…

Interview

Charles Signa

When Charles Signa was born in 1947, his family still lived in the building that houses Doe’s Eat Place. Mamie and Doe…

Interview

Barbara “Shug” Signa

Barbara “Shug” Signa, one of eleven children, is a native of Greenville. The Signas were neighbors and Doe’s Eat Place…

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