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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: Southern Baking

ORAL HISTORY

Joye B. Moore

Joyebell's Sweet Potato Pies

Joye B. Moore was born in Goldsboro, North Carolina in 1965. Moore spent her first five years observing and assisting her second-great-grandmother in the kitchen, garden, and barnyard. This loving early education helped Joye to survive a tumultuous childhood and adolescence in Dallas, Texas. In 1987, she moved with her husband to Richmond, Virginia, where the couple made their home and raised three children.

In 2019, a career pivot led Joye to launch Joyebell’s Sweet Potato Pies, a commercial baking venture predicated on a family recipe of six generations. In barely a year’s time, Joyebell’s has developed a passionate local customer base and is gradually expanding into the broader regional market. As Joye continues to build her brand and bakes hundreds of pies a week, assisted by her sister and daughter. She remains committed, above all, to using her platform to advocate for causes related to mental health support and youth services.

Date of interview:
2020-07-22

Interviewer:
Sarah Adams

Photographer:
Julia Rendleman

Download Transcript

“

"Now, pies—sweet potato pies—represent happiness, freedom, freedom to be yourself, because as you can see, I'm a loud, cackling, which had to be contained every day in the workplace, you know what I'm saying? It had to be contained every day in the workplace. So, I feel free, I feel happy. I feel closer to my family than I ever been before. My daughter seems—I’m definitely not taking credit for her burst of movement and growth, but I feel like the energy is sharing and flowing positively. I know that I won't be . . . that older woman who's doing something she doesn't want to do just because she has to live. You know? I see an end, I see an alternate ending to that, and pies are that for me." - Joye B. Moore

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Ashley Ramirez

Ashley Ramirez owns Mason Dixon Bakery in Huntsville, Alabama.

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Laura Hester

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Ben and Ryan Ray

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