With a familiar smile and a wry sense of humor, “Miss Helen” Prescott greeted customers and friends to Ruben”s Fish and Steakhouse for 56 years.
Prescott, who started the local landmark with her late husband, Ruben Prescott, in 1955, died Monday morning at Northwest Medical Center in Winfield, Ala. She was 92.
When Ruben Prescott returned from World War II, he brought back a purple heart, a love of cooking and a secret hushpuppy recipe. The Prescotts used the money his frugal wife had saved from his military paychecks to start a catfish house in a one-room cabin, which is now Ruben”s entryway.
Helen Prescott, the “face of Ruben”s” ran the restaurant while her husband served up fish and hamburgers for 26 years. Even though she no longer owned the Ruben”s, Prescott lived above the restaurant until a few weeks ago and still helped out regularly in the restaurant.
Their daughter, Brinda Martin, said her mother lived and breathed Ruben”s.
“Ruben”s was everything to her,” Martin said. “It was her life. Everything centered around it.”
Until her death, Prescott was a pleasant contradiction: Shy but friendly, humble but independent, generous but frugal, opinionated but quiet, Martin said.
“She”s like the shadow in the background,” Martin added.
Prescott”s niece, Caledonia resident Joan Mouchett, said a word that defined Prescott was “devoted.”
“She was devoted to her husband, devoted to her restaurant, devoted to all her family,” Mouchett said.
Prescott is survived by her three sisters, Evelyn Heath of Spring City, Tenn., Penny Conley of Rockwood, Tenn., and Lillion Vance of Madisonville, Tenn. Besides Martin, who lives in Atlanta, she is also survived by her two sons, John Prescott of Ohio, and Jack Guinn of Sylvia, N.C., seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Visitation for Prescott will be from 6 to 8 p.m. today at Gunter and Peel Funeral Home in Columbus. Her funeral will be at 2 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home chapel.
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