If you come across a brightly-colored window catching sunlight in Mississippi, whether it be in a chapel, a bathroom or even an Applebee’s, there’s a good chance it passed through Kathryn Davis’ hands first.
Davis, owner of Alley Kat’s Glass in Starkville, has been working with stained glass for more than 40 years. She has restored chapel windows across the state, designed pieces for about half the bathrooms in Starkville and crafted the signature magnolia flower awards for Starkville’s annual Magnolia Film Festival.
At 70 years old, Davis is among the few artists in the region still practicing the craft.
“I’m really the only one around here who does this anymore,” Davis said, laughing. “I guess I outlived them all.”
Davis runs her business from a small studio attached to her home in Starkville on a street aptly named Kathryn Cove. She shares the space with neat stacks of colored glass, a massive kiln and a rotating soundtrack of jazz and HGTV.
Originally from Ackerman, Davis has called Starkville home for more than four decades. She moved to town after teaching elementary school in the Delta and Memphis for three years, which began after earning a degree in elementary education from the University of Mississippi.
“I actually wanted to major in art, and my mom and dad talked me out of it because you can’t make a living doing it,” Davis said. “Of course, that was the ’70s.”
In 1984, while living in Jackson during her first husband’s medical residency, her parents gifted her a beginner’s stained glass course. A decade later, she turned the hobby into a full-time craft and opened a shop in downtown Starkville.
Inside her studio, shelves are filled with sheets of glass in every hue, sourced from Memphis, Louisiana and even Germany. While Davis once dabbled in mosaics, clocks and decorative tiles, today she focuses mainly on windows and cabinet fronts for clients in the Golden Triangle and throughout the state.
Her current project, dubbed “The Grapes of Wrath,” includes three windows surrounding a front door. The background is a translucent sea-green glass that’s no longer in production, pushing Davis to get creative with her design.
“It didn’t start out to be this intricate,” Davis said, gesturing along the many lines of copper and lead decorating the glass. “But whenever I didn’t have enough green glass, I had to keep adding more leaves and then more leaves and grapes and vines.”
The piece has taken more than two weeks, and Davis is already thinking about what comes next. After the grapes, she’s booked through October.
“That’s what I’m always excited about,” Davis said. “The next thing. Thinking of something else I can do, or thinking of some other way to do something I’ve seen done.”
Other projects of Davis’ have tested her ability to do this. About two decades ago, she worked with a wood carver from Columbus on a line of fourth-grade social studies textbook covers for McGraw Hill and National Geographic. Davis designed the state flower; the carver created the bird.
Another project came after a tornado imploded 10 windows at a church in Louisville more than a decade ago. To restore them, Davis had to look through old wedding photos at the church to see what scenes were depicted in the stained glass. Another church in Corinth was set to be torn down after a fire. Members of the congregation sent Davis pieces of its windows, and Davis crafted about 30 glass crosses for its members.
“Some of it is so sentimental to people,” Davis said. “… People don’t always pay attention, but they do miss them when they aren’t there.”
‘There are no secrets’
Since transitioning to full-time craftsmanship, Davis has completed hundreds of commissions across Mississippi and has mentored dozens of apprentices along the way.
“I’m still teaching people all the time,” Davis said. “… There are no secrets. Some people think that there are, but my gosh, it’s been going on for thousands of years.”
One of her apprentices, Ken Willeford, is a retired Mississippi State University professor of biochemistry. Willeford took up the craft about a month ago to create a piece to display above the door of his home office.
“There’s stained glass here, but there’s very few people that actually do it, and there’s less people that teach it,” Willeford said. “… I didn’t know Alley Kat, but I had heard of her. I found a phone number, and she was just so welcoming. She’d never met me, but she still said, ‘Sure, come on down.’”
In addition to formal apprentices, Davis has also taught all five of her children and several grandchildren how to cut glass and solder metals. She’s also taught her mother, who at 93 years old, still helps Davis with design work.
After four decades of catching sunlight across the state, Davis has no plans to retire.
“My husband keeps saying, ‘You need to retire,’ and I say ‘Why?’” Davis said. “I like it. I’m having fun. … I’ll do it until my hands don’t work.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
