Christal
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@ Christal Ann Rice Cooper
Martha’s
Lima Beans Of Flavor And Faith
“Why, a fella from up Mississippi
ordered a bowl just the other day. He
was a big fella with a ruddy face and white suit, no stranger to eating I
guessed and suspicious at first at the bowlful of beans I brought him,
wrinkling his nose and wiping his brow like it was gonna take a lot of work to
choke them down. He forked up one,
tasted it, then he got this particular smile on his face, “Martha,” he said,
“these lima beans are downright luscious,” and he wolfed that bowl down and
asked for another. That’s the word he
used: luscious. I’ve heard my lima beans described as a lot
of good things before, but I ain’t never heard no one describe my lima beans as
luscious.
Those lima beans are on
my menu because I know how food can become more than just food. It’s what a body uses for change. Like crackers and grape juice passed around
at church, food can become what centers things when everything has gone
astray. You take something as poor and
lonely as a lima bean – on one hand it’s ugly and stupid and forlorn and
forgotten. Bu then you cook it just so,
and a powerful change happens. Lima
beans become something luscious – the food of delight and flavor of faith.”
Excerpt
from Finding Martha’s Place: My Journey Through
Sin, Salvation, and Lots of Soul Food by Martha Hawkins with Marcus
Brotherton, and published by Touchstone, a division of Simon & Schuster,
Inc. (http://imprints.simonandschuster.biz/touchstone)
Martha Ann Hawkins, proprietor of
Martha’s Place located on 7798 Atlanta Highway in the Somerset Shopping Center in
east Montgomery, Alabama was born on June 30, 1947 with her twin sister Mary
Ann, to Sallie Bell and Willie Hawkins Senior, a devout Christian couple, who
always seemed to be low on money but rich on love.
“I come from a good,
wonderful, loving family. I thank God
for my mom and dad.”
The two girls were named after the famous
sisters in the Bible – Mary and Martha – Mary sitting at Jesus’s feet relishing
in every word He spoke; and Martha preparing the day’s meal, but unlike the
biblical Martha, Martha Hawkins never complained. Mary Ann died at the hospital, but has never
been forgotten.
“I’m both of them
because now I got her spirit. I’m a
combination of Mary and Martha and I love to cook and I love my customers.”
As a little girl her parents taught her and her
ten siblings to love family, love their church home of St. James Baptist Church
(“We had to go to church. If you didn’t go to church you couldn’t go
anywhere else.”), and to cook.
“I always used to love
watching my mom cook. Back then they
didn’t let you in their kitchen to mess with their stuff, but she allowed me to help her make biscuits and put
them into the pan. One of my fondest
memories was when my mom went on vacation to Wisconsin to see my brother and me
and my other sister cooked. I remember
cutting up and cooking collard greens, making stuff for my dad and my family.
Martha learned to cook from her mother, who was
the matriarch of a household whose doors were open to anyone, where food was
always available, conversation was never boring, and love was always in full
supply.
“There wouldn’t anybody
who came to our house who couldn’t eat.
Everybody could eat. They were a
part of that community. Our friends
loved to be at our house. We played
games with each other. It was a family
environment.”
At the age of 16 she found herself pregnant and
married, and within the next six years she had four boys, was working at a
glass factory making $14 an hour, but something wasn’t right.
“I had this happy go
lucky spirit but I was just a time bomb waiting to go off and nobody knew about
it but me. I knew something was wrong
but I didn’t know what it was because of the way I felt. I think it’s something that at the time you
don’t recognize it and you don’t realize it.
It’s the stuff you battle with and not know. I was the type that I couldn’t tell them the
problems and the situations and the circumstances I was in.”
She got so depressed that she couldn’t function,
started hearing voices, seeing things that were not there, and there were times
she couldn’t recognize her own sons. She
went to see a psychiatrist, who prescribed her a variety of pills.
“I had a bag of all
these pills. One doctor gave me one
medicine and it was too strong so they gave me another medicine – and I had to
take it before I took that pill. How do
you remember to take this pill before you take that pill?”
Her depression became even more severe when, in
January 1975, while shopping in downtown Montgomery, she was kidnapped and brutally
raped and beaten by a stranger. After
doctor visits and police visits, her psychiatrist recommended shock treatments.
“They didn’t work. You don’t forget. The thoughts are still there. I think the only thing it helped me with was
to make me remember better. It didn’t
help me to forget the past. I had to
keep a wet towel to moisten my tongue because it was out and I couldn’t put it
back in.”
Soon she developed physical illnesses: burst appendix, blown kidney, hysterectomy, severe
chronic migraines and other ailments.
“I really believe that
me being mentally sick played a role in me being physically sick because I
believe that if you have a sick mind you have a sick body.”
She fell into a deeper depression and, at the
age of 31, tried to kill herself with tranquilizers. Her father and uncle found her and she was
committed to Greil Memorial Psychiatric Hospital, where she would stay for
three months. The first few weeks of her
stay she was withdrawn from everyone.
That all began to change when she reached for a
Kleenex and instead grasped the Gideons New Testament Bible and 2 Corinthians
1:3-4: Praise be to the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort who comforts
us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the
comfort we ourselves have received from God.
While in the activity
room at Greil she found the full Bible with the Old and the New Testaments, and
the pages fell to
Isaiah
61:1:
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me
to preach good tidings unto the meek, he hath sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the
prisons to them that are bound.
She would open up another Bible and always turn
to the same reference of Isaiah 61:1. Soon she was devouring the Bible, and in
the process ended up falling in love with Jesus and accepting Him into her life
as Savior and Personal Lord.
“I
got saved when I was in Greil Hospital, and that’s when my life changed and it
hadn’t been the same since. That’s when
I really found Martha. That’s when I
really found God in Greil Hospital. I
started to write love letters to God, to Jesus.
I started to write how I feel, and that way I get out my emotions, my
fears, and my doubts. I got so many
letters.”
Martha
no longer kept to herself, and ventured out, making friends with her fellow
patients, combing their hair, talking with them, and doing little tasks to help
them. She also opened up more with her
doctors, and, after three months, the doctors gave her a clean bill of mental
health and she was set to go home. The
only problem was she didn’t want to go home.
“I felt so good and comfortable there. I felt safe and secure. I didn’t have to worry about nothing. I didn’t have to do nothing.”
But
she did return home to the Cedar Park Housing Project, to be greeted by her
neighbor who had asked her where she had been.
Martha responded she had been at the mental hospital. The neighbor advised her to not tell
anybody.
“I
told her, “No, I’m not ashamed of where I’ve been. I needed help and thank God they had a place
for me to get help.” And that was the
first time I was confronted with it. I was
able to talk about it and I wasn’t ashamed.”
When she walked into her home, she
picked up the family Bible and it fell to the floor, opened to Isaiah 61:1. God revealed more verses to her, including Psalm
34:8: Oh Taste and See that the Lord is good. She started taking her Bible with her
everywhere she went, and reading it every chance she got.
“I’ve
torn up so many Bibles. I ruined them
out. I couldn’t just put it down. I’d read it two, to three, to four hours at a
time. I feel like I’m there in that
particular time, in that particular period.
It was so overwhelming just to read it.”
Through God’s word, and her passion for
cooking, and her childhood dream of one day owning her own restaurant, Martha
knew God had a plan and purpose for her, with Isaiah 61:1 becoming her life’s
verse.
“It was God telling me that He had put His spirit upon me and that I needed to realize how much He was gong to use my life and use me in the process. I knew God had given me the gift to cook. It revolutionized my life and that is when I started looking for a place to have a restaurant.”
By
this time Martha had experienced burnout from her job at Brockway Glass
Company, and was now on welfare with her four sons, living in the Cedar Park
Housing Projects. At the same time, she earned
a G.E. D. from Alabama State University, and would continue visiting her
friends in Greil, combing their hair.
She supplemented her welfare income by cleaning
houses and selling cakes. One of her
customers was Montgomery Attorney Calvin Pryor, whom she confided in that she
would eventually want to own her own restaurant in an old house. In October of 1986, while delivering pound
cakes to his office, he told her he had the right place for her but it was
still being occupied and he would call her when it was available. Martha immediately drove to the house and
knew this was the house for her.
Two years later, in October 1987, Martha
received a call from Calvin Pryor. The
house was now available and he would give it to her for three months free rent
but that she had to be the one to fix it up. Martha moved out of the Cedar Park House
Projects and into what would become Martha’s Place.
For one full year she slept on the downstairs
floor, and during the winter months, would turn the oven on and the oven door
open to keep warm. When not sleeping, she painted, cleaned, went to yard sales
to buy plates, cups, silverware, and cookware.
“I had my nieces and they helped me make some draperies and some tablecloths. People came in and bought me trays and what nots. It was a labor of love.”
“I had my nieces and they helped me make some draperies and some tablecloths. People came in and bought me trays and what nots. It was a labor of love.”
Martha’s
Place opened his doors for the first time on October 17, 1988, located on 458 Sayre
Street, in historical downtown Montgomery, Alabama.
In February 29, 2012 she felt God
leading her to move to a different location on 7798 Atlanta Highway.
Martha’s Place serves 10,000 people a
month; about 3000 people a week. It
is now a restaurant known all over the world, not only for its southern
cuisine, but also for Martha Hawkins’ story of lost and being found.
“Since I left Greil Hospital, I never had to have any more shock treatments. I never had to take another pill, even for headaches. I‘m proud of myself and God.”
Famous customers come to Montgomery to taste her
Southern
Cooking and to meet the Martha of Martha’s Place: Angela Bassett; Nell Carter; Macaulay Culkin;
Clifton Davis; Phil Donahue; Kirk Franklin; Whoopi Goldberg; Evander Holyfield;
Freddie Jackson; T.D. Jakes; Ted Koppel (the host of Nightline did a show at
her restaurant); Walter Mathhau; Rosa Parks; Ty Pennington; Sissy Spacek; and
Mary Steenburgen.
She gets to Martha’s Place by 6 a.m.
when she cooks, prays with her staff, and finally at 11 a.m. opens the
doors. She talks with her customers whom
she refers to as her friends, moving from one table to the next, seeing how
their day is going, asking them if they need anything, and always giving hugs.
“I love to get up early
and I get up here and cook and I get out here and mingle and talk to the
customers. And love on them and talk to
them.”
When not at Martha’s Place, Martha
attends her local church, spends time with family: (she now has six
grandchildren ages 7 to 22), does charity work, and daily thanks God for all
that He has done in her life, but especially for what God has done for her sons: Shawn is an FBI agent; Quint is a Montgomery
lobbyist; Reginald is a loan officer; and Nyrone is an ordained minister. The most important thing of all is that all
of her sons are Christians.
“What God has done for
my sons means more to me than anythng in the world.”
PHOTO DESCRIPTION & COPYRIGHT INFO
Photo
1
Martha
Hawkins. Copyright by Martha Hawkins.
Photo
2
Jacket
cover of Finding Martha’s Place: My
Journey Through Sin, Salvation, and Lots of Soul Food.
Photo
3
Martha
Hawkins in 2010. Copyright by Martha
Hawkins
Photo
4
Willie
and Sallie Bell Hawkins 50th Wedding Anniversary in 1976. Sitting from left to right: Georgia Jackson, Alice Peterson, Alberta
Woodson, Sallie Bell Hawkins, Martha Hawkins, Willela Dawson, Rosalee Williams.
Standing left to right: Uncle Henry Harvest, Henry Hawkins, Willie Jr, Willie Hawkins Senior, Tommy Hawkins, Howard Hawkins, Scott Hawkins, and Uncle Willie C Hawkins. Copyright by Martha Hawkins.
Standing left to right: Uncle Henry Harvest, Henry Hawkins, Willie Jr, Willie Hawkins Senior, Tommy Hawkins, Howard Hawkins, Scott Hawkins, and Uncle Willie C Hawkins. Copyright by Martha Hawkins.
Photo
5
Johannes
Vermeer’s largest painting: oil on
canvas of Jesus visiting Mary and Martha.
Painting made between 1654 to 1656.
Public Domain.
Photo
6
Market
of St James Baptist Church. Public
Domain
Photo
7
Southern
Food at Martha’s Place. Copyright by
Christal Cooper.
Photo
8
Sallie
Bell Hawkins, Martha Hawkins, and Willie Hawkins Senior. Copyright by Martha Hawkins.
Photo
9
Martha,
Shawn, and Quinton. Copyright by Martha
Hawkins.
Photo
10
Martha’s
four sons: Sean, Quinton, Reginald, and
Nyrone. Copyright by Martha Hawkins
Photo
11
Pills
for depression. Copyright by Christal
Cooper.
Photo
12
NaNa
and Martha. Copyright by Martha Hawkins.
Photo
13.
Martha
Hawkins with Quint, Reginald, and Nyrone in 1983. Copyright by Martha Hawkins.
Photo
14
Willie
Hawkins Senior. Copyright by Martha
Hawkins.
Photo
15
Green
cover of Gideons New Testament and Psalms.
Public Domain.
Photo
16
Gideon
Bible of the Old Testament and the New Testament. Public Domain.
Photo
17
Jesus
Christ according to the traditional iconography of the 17 to the 18th
Ethiopian Church. Public Domain.
Photo
18
Phillis Wheatley, as illustrated by
Scipio Moorhead in the frontispiece to her book Poems on Various Subjects. Public Domain.
Photo
19
Martha
Hawkins and son Sean in 1987. Copyright
by Martha Hawkins.
Photo
20
Isaiah
61:1 highlighted in yellow. Copyright by
Christal Cooper.
Photo
21
Inscription
of Psalm 34:8 at Martha’s Place at 7798 Atlanta Highway. Copyright by Christal Cooper.
Photo
22.
Martha
Hawkins. Copyright by Martha Hawkins.
Photo
23
16th
century oil on canvas of Jesus visiting Mary and Martha by Jacopo Tintoretto.
Public Domain.
Photo
24
Martha’s
Place on 458 Sayre Street. Copyright by
Martha Hawkins.
Photo
25
Sign
for Martha’s Place on 458 Sayre Street.
Copyright by Martha Hawkins.
Photo
26
Martha
Hawkins in front of Martha’s Place on 458 Sayre Street. June 1997.
Copyright by Christal Cooper
Photo
27
Martha’s
Place located at 7798 Atlanta Highway in Montgomery. Copyright by Christal Cooper.
Photo
28
Decorative
Bible from Martha’s Place on 7798 Atlanta Highway. Copyright by Christal Cooper.
Photo
29
Martha
Hawkins. Copyright by Martha Hawkins.
Photo
30
Martha
Hawkins with Clifton Davis and Nell Carter.
Copyright by Martha Hawkins.
Photo
31
Martha
Hawkins with Ted Koppel and Ty Pennington.
Copyright by Martha Hawkins.
Photo
32.
Martha
and her customers. Copyright by Martha
Hawkins.
Photo
33
Early
Martha Hawkins family photo of her four sons, their wives, and children. Copyright by Martha Hawkins
Photo
34.
Martha
and her four sons: Sean, Quint,
Reginald, and Nyrone. Copyright by
Martha Hawkins.
Photo
35.
Sean,
Quint, Reginald, and Nyrone. Copyright
by Martha Hawkins.
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