STARKVILLE — Even though John “Bud” Milton Hall only had an elementary school education, he never let it stop him from taking care of his family or the Needmore community as an entrepreneur.

Starting out selling barbecue sandwiches out of the back of his car, he eventually was able to open his own cafe, which all of his children grew up working in. Now, Hall’s story is prominently featured in the Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum’s “Faces and Places of Needmore” exhibit – honoring the lives that made up one of Starkville’s earliest Black neighborhoods.

Two of Hall’s children, King Hall and Joanne Potts Hall, told The Dispatch his story Wednesday.

“It was such a remarkable story when we reflected on what all dad did, with basically no or very little formal education,” Potts said. “He was one of the few Black entrepreneurs in Starkville way back in the ‘40s, and really before then.”

Their father’s first cafe, “The Town’s Talk Cafe,” was located on Lampkin Street for about 20 years, Joanne said, directly across from the George Evans Shoe Shine Parlor.

Once the cafe’s lease ended, the cafe moved its operations across the street from the Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office on the corner of Washington Street and Jefferson Street, renamed “The Cozy Corner Cafe.”

All five of the Hall children were raised behind the counter of their father’s cafes, King Hall said. He remembers Joanne coming to the full-service restaurant for the first time while she was still in diapers, and how his father always made sure his family had jobs.

“When Joanne was born, I was working at the cafe,” King said. “I remember we used to bring her up there as a little baby. … All of us worked in the cafe. We grew up in it.”

“We did whatever was needed,” Joanne added. “It wasn’t like we had a specific task, it was just whatever was needed. We were the greeters. We were the waiters, waitresses. We were the cooks. We were the cleanup crew, cashiers.”

Joanne and King’s mother, Maggie T. Hall, was responsible for the cooking at the cafe. While her father was very business savvy, Joanne said her mother could never see anyone go hungry, with the “heart of a missionary.”

Impact on the Needmore community

Other notable stories from the Needmore community also began at her father’s cafe, Joanne said. Charles “LaLa” Evans met his late wife Louise – a cousin of the Hall siblings – while Louise was working at the cafe. Evans later went on to tell the story of their love and the umbrella garden he set up in her memory on The Ellen Show and in national publications.

John Hall also established his own janitorial business, which led to him earning contracts cleaning the Colvard Student Union at Mississippi State University when it first opened in 1964.

“Mom was there holding down the fort at the cafe, while dad was out multitasking in a sense,” Joanne said. “He was multidimensional. He was a visionary.”

Joanne said her father employed many of the young Black men who lived with them in the Needmore community at the time at his janitorial business, passing on his work ethic to others. He also passed on the value of education to those who worked with him, Joanne said, including the late James Smith, who became the assistant superintendent of the Oktibbeha County School District later in his life.

“One of the things that Dr. Smith told me when he was alive was that dad stressed to them that they had to get an education,” Joanne said. “If they did not get an education, he said dad would not even allow them to work for him.”

Maggie T. Hall’s cooking was also sampled by the entire Needmore community during the holidays, when neighbors would fill their kitchen and yard, Joanne said.

The Hall parents left marks on the Needmore community that have rippled out long since they passed away, Joanne said. But the Needmore community, and the way others also cared for their family, is also something the siblings remembered fondly.

“We were just close knitted,” King said. “Needmore was Needmore. It was all of us. Not one of us.”

‘Honored in every way’

The city demolished the old Needmore Community Center in George Evans Park, replacing it with a new building that opened in October. During the construction process, the city contracted a muralist to paint the exterior wall of the building featuring many of the prominent sights and people of Needmore.

However, John Hall’s impact was not included in the mural, which frustrated the King siblings.

“I just hate for him not to be honored in every way,” King said. “It just took a lot out of me.”

Mayor Lynn Spruill told The Dispatch on Friday that the city hosted several meetings with members of the Needmore community to pick what to include in the mural, relying on their knowledge and experiences in the community. However, she said she was sorry to hear of the siblings’ frustration.

“We did the best we could in terms of reaching out and trying to figure out who participated in what was important in the neighborhood and talked to all the people who had a long history in the neighborhood,” Spruill said. “I’m very sorry that they do not feel included. … I did not personally engage in it because I did not have enough knowledge to engage in it.”

Still, the Hall children said it felt wonderful to have their parents’ story brought to light and honored by the Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum.

“It’s an honor for us to have our father and mother honored at the museum,” King said.

Besides John Hall’s story, the Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum’s exhibit also includes historical newspapers and photographs of the Needmore community over the years. Visitors can flip through binders of stories from the community.

Attendees can also read lists of important businesses, professionals, churches and names of forerunners from Needmore, like William Fields – the city’s first Black policeman – or Charles “Lala” Evans – the city’s first Black postman who married King and Joanne’s cousin.

While Evans is in his 90s now, a photo of him as a child taken in 1943 hangs in the museum. Evans said the exhibit is “such an inspiration.”

“It makes me proud… for my family to be so represented in here,” Evans said.

Though the museum initially compiled the exhibit for Black History Month, museum Director Derek Aaron said he plans to leave the exhibit up through March and to possibly create a permanent version in the future.

“The museum had really never done anything to focus on the Needmore community, and I wanted to bring some faces and places that had not been talked about, just trying to put a spotlight on the community,” Aaron said.

The exhibit is available to view when the museum is open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Special viewings can also be arranged by calling the museum at (662) 323-0211.