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Oct. 12, 2019
John Egerton Prize at the Southern Festival of Books, Nashville
Oct. 24-26, 2019
2019 SFA Fall Symposium, Oxford ⟶
Dec. 9, 2019
SFA Celebrates Jenni Harris, Atlanta History Center
March 28, 2020
2020 SFA Spring Symposium, Birmingham
Oct. 8-10, 2020
2020 SFA Fall Symposium, Oxford
Support
the SFA
Support
the SFA
Oct. 12, 2019
John Egerton Prize at the Southern Festival of Books, Nashville
Oct. 24-26, 2019
2019 SFA Fall Symposium, Oxford ⟶
Dec. 9, 2019
SFA Celebrates Jenni Harris, Atlanta History Center
March 28, 2020
2020 SFA Spring Symposium, Birmingham
Oct. 8-10, 2020
2020 SFA Fall Symposium, Oxford

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.

ORAL HISTORY

Charlotte Bowls

Charlotte's Eats and Sweets

By six in the morning, Charlotte Bowls and her staff are hard at work in Keo, Arkansas. A carefully choreographed routine ensures that all the pies will be made on time, and during the five hours before the restaurant opens, the staff will roll, fill, and bake nearly two dozen pies—coconut, chocolate, caramel, and various seasonal pies—while also preparing a full lunch menu. Charlotte personally fills each pie and sculpts each tower of meringue.

In 1993, Charlotte founded Charlotte’s Eats and Sweets as a weekend business while working her day job keeping books for a grain elevator. Naysayers predicted that she would be out of business within six months. In the two decades since, Keo, a small town about thirty minutes southeast of Little Rock, has become known for Charlotte’s pies, especially her meringue-topped coconut.

Date of interview:
2013-08-01

Interviewer:
Sherri Sheu

Photographer:
Sherri Sheu

Download Transcript

“

When my children were young, I didn’t cook very much sweets, but I always took a coconut pie when somebody passed away. I mean, it’s hilarious. My kids would get off and come in from school, and they would see me cooking a coconut pie and they would go, 'Uh, who died?' ~Charlotte Bowls

Other Project Interviews

Interview

Mary Thomas

Mary Thomas began cooking at an early age. After many years making pies for a local restaurant, Mary opened The Family…

Interview

Loretta Tacker

Loretta Tacker was teaching kindergarten when she and her husband John decided to buy the local Tastee Freeze in 1977.

Interview

Kim & Vivian Barnhill

In DeValls Bluff, Vivian Barnhill and her daughter Kim carry on the legacy of Ms. Lena, their mother and grandmother.

Interview

Deana Willhite

Deana grew up cooking in her mother’s café. After marrying a Jenny Lind native, she began a career at the local…

Interview

Aileen Forman

In Mountain Home, Arkansas, seeing a handmade sign for fried pies set out by the road is cause for celebration.

WORKING TOGETHER

WE CAN CULTIVATE PROGRESS.

The Southern Foodways Alliance drives a more progressive future by leading conversations that challenge existing constructs, shape perspectives, and foster meaningful discussions. We reconsider the past with research, scrutiny, and documentation.

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