Whenever you walked through the wooden front door to Pheba’s Diner off Highway 50, there was always one thing that remained constant.
Seated at the head of a large table in the middle of the main dining room was Henry “Buddy” McGee, who would immediately greet you with a smile and an invitation to sit and swap stories.
It didn’t matter if it was about his time working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Vicksburg, his latest fishing escapades or about everyone’s family tree in Pheba; he always had something to share.
“(Patrons) came in, they’d talk, they’d order and sit down, and … they loved to listen to the different stories he had,” said Linda Wade, McGee’s oldest daughter. “(They wanted to know) where he traveled, what he had done, who he had encountered. Dad had a tremendous knack for voices, and if you had talked to him a time or two, then he would know (you by your voice).”
It was McGee’s storytelling that helped form the identity of Pheba’s Diner as a local fixture in the town since it opened about 14 years ago under the ownership of Wade and her husband. The diner sits cattycorner on the same plot of land where McGee’s childhood home stands. That home is where McGee was born in 1940, and that’s where he died June 3 at age 86.
Bernie White, a regular who has attended the diner nearly every Friday since it opened, said the diner and town have not been the same since his passing.
“Mr. Buddy, he was really a true historian of Pheba,” White said. “He was that generation who could go back a lot of years and remember things about people that I knew growing up as a child out here.”
A storied traveler
In family tradition, McGee was born inside the family home like his mother and both his older sisters, Wade said.
Because of those roots in the area, Wade said McGee made a point to try and help his neighbors with horsetraining, bush hogging fields or plowing land before graduating from Maben High School in 1958.
McGee, after school, moved to Texas and worked on several oil rigs for three years before taking a job as a driller with the Corps of Engineers. During his nearly 20-year career with the Corps, McGee and his wife, Mildred, traveled to countries like Greenland and the Marshall Islands and moved to more than 30 states.
“He had a tremendous mind and imagination, so they would just go and go and go,” Wade said. “They’d see things, they’d do things (and) they had a tremendous relationship, now they’d fuss and carry on, and then next thing you know, they’d be back on the same page, and they just kept on (traveling).”
The family spent school years in states like Nevada, Utah and Colorado, but no matter where they went, Pheba was always on McGee’s mind.
“He always said that if you ever drank the water at Pheba, you would come back here,” Wade said with a laugh. “And he never had any intention to do anything else.”
After retiring from the Corps of Engineers in 1980, McGee and his wife returned to Pheba permanently and began renovations on Henry’s childhood home.
Wade said about 14 years ago, when speaking with her parents about the closure of a nearby restaurant, they mentioned wanting to see a new eatery open in the town.
Wade took the not-so-subtle suggestion in stride by opening Pheba’s Diner in her father’s own backyard.
“I thought this place would be a way that we could all come and visit and be happy,” Wade said. “… I hope it’s been a good positive asset to the community.”
Building an identity
Wade said that since opening, there has been a consistent base of dozens of regulars who come in daily to eat at the diner.
Those regulars included Henry, who would make the short jaunt every morning from his front porch to the diner and set up shop with his signature Styrofoam cup full of Coca-Cola.
“Everybody knew that’s where he sat, and if somebody would just come in and just randomly sit down … he’d come in and they’d be friends by the time they left,” Wade said.
Alongside an expanded patron base, the diner’s physical building has also grown to add a secondary dining room area. Wade attributes a lot of the diner’s success to her father’s presence.
“He wasn’t monotonous or anything like that. He was a good storyteller (and) somebody you wanted to listen to,” Wade said. “… I’ve had people come in and sit down for hours and listen to him tell the story. They’d come in, if he wasn’t real talkative they’d ask him something and he’d start.”
Evelyn McGee, his youngest daughter, said the family knew something was wrong when his demeanor changed earlier this year.
“When he got to not doing good, the one thing we noticed is he wasn’t talking as much,” Evelyn said.
Wade said Henry loved his hometown and its history, which is part of why even as he got closer to his passing, he wanted to stay close to town and in the same home where he began his life.
“I think it was just important to him,” she said.
Henry’s funeral service at Pheba Cemetery on June 6 was followed by a celebration of life at the diner.
More than 100 family members and regulars stopped by the diner to pay respects, share stories and eat food. Wade said the family couldn’t have imagined celebrating his memory anywhere else.
“It seemed natural,” Wade said. “We had done it for mother, we did it for his older sister and it was just his turn.”
Keith Yeatman, another regular at the diner, said his mother grew up in Pheba and Henry would share stories his mother never mentioned about her early years.
“He’d always talk about growing up there (near) Maben, him and Mom … they’d go to Main Street in Maben, and somehow or another they’d get on top of those buildings and they’d go from roof to roof at night and because they were kids, it’s no telling what they were doing,” Yeatman said.
For Yeatman, it’s still strange walking through the diner and not seeing Henry anymore.
“I still catch myself looking. I look at that chair, and I don’t see Mr. Buddy anymore (and it’s sad), but that’s life,” Yeatman said.
Even after his passing, Wade said the diner still leaves his table reserved as a way of honoring his memory.
“Nobody tells stories like he could, but we still tell what stories we’ve heard,” Wade said.
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You can help your community
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 33 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
