POWERGRAMS

26 political favorites such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump but Williams received complaints about their comical looks so he doesn't make them anymore. "The only political figure I have le is Sarah Palin," he says, standing near an old church bench where six boxes from the Alligator Clay Co. are stacked awaiting Williams' hands. Aer decades of shaping clay into bowls, vases, boles, pitchers and what-nots, Williams says he "can make prey much what anyone wants." He seldom prices anything over $100: "If you don't overprice your work, you can sell it. If you've got an ego, you can put high prices on it, but it won't sell." Customers are oen surprised to learn that Williams shot off part of his right hand in a shotgun accident when he was 13. "I knew an old poer in Robertsdale who didn't have any fingers," he says. "You can do what you need to do without all of your hand." Which is what he did as a walk-on fullback at Presbyterian College, where he became the team's leading rusher in the three seasons prior to earning a biology degree in 1966. Williams was a Vanity Fair traveling lingerie salesman for many years, held a couple of other executive positions before retiring, and says he would probably just grow feeble and die if he weren't so active making poery and decorative gourmet meals each day. "You've got to have somewhere to go, something to do in retirement. I'm not any good at golf, I don't fish anymore; all that stuff gets to be too much like work," he says. "I may not have become the preacher my mother wanted me to be but I thoroughly enjoy what I'm doing. Life is great!" Catfish are Jumpin' Many of Monroeville's residents thank their lucky stars for the used car salesman who periodically passed through Waynesboro, Mississippi and encouraged the owners of a restaurant there to bring their fried catfish and coleslaw 91 miles east to his hometown in Alabama. "Mom and Dad took a look around Monroeville, liked what they saw and the rest, as they say, is history," says Karen Hare. Thirty-one years ago, Sadie and David Ross closed the doors of one David's Catfish House and opened the doors of another, never dreaming it would become a favorite of a world-renowned writer. Harper Lee liked the broiled catfish – "that's what she ate every time" – but the state tourism bureau prefers the cheese grits it named to the 100 Dishes to Eat Before You Die. On a May day just aer noon, graduates in cap and gown begin streaming into the main dining room where walls are half-wood, half-ribbed-silver-metal- siding, and windows are covered by burlap sack curtains. Shipping pallets painted with Alabama, Auburn and Ole Miss logos and colors hang alongside a trophy deer mount, rods and reels and six 2-foot- tall metal leers spelling DAVID'S. Widescreen TVs at either end of the room are tuned to ESPN as six servers seat a steady stream of family and friends in old-fashioned, ladder-back chairs around vintage wooden tables. Wearing a "Promote Catfish – Run Over a Chicken" T-shirt, a young woman takes an order for the combination plate of two catfish filets and a half- dozen oysters, grits and tea, which is poured from a personal pitcher. The catfish almost melts in one's mouth. The creamy grits run out far too soon. Many customers have no room for dessert. It's easy to see why David's Catfish House is almost always the first place locals recommend. Hare says part of the secret separating David's from its competition is fresh, quality ingredients. They've used the same Mississippi catfish supplier since they started. The shrimp, crab claws and oysters are straight out of the Gulf of Mexico. The baer and breading is made from scratch each day. The other part is that the dozen kitchen workers use Sadie Ross' original recipes. Both of the founders check in each day to make sure the ship runs smoothly. What brought Lee into the restaurant "at least once a week" also brought in people who wanted a bigger piece of David's pie. There are franchises in Andalusia, Atmore, Brewton, Crestview, Florida and Milton, Florida, which has been voted the best catfish restaurant in the Pensacola area for six straight years. Hare's brother, Benson Ross, manages David's Catfish House in Thomasville and her son, Ross Hare, runs Williams enjoys creating face jugs. Wendy Hinnant serves customers of David's Catfish House.

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