Mamie Williamson, The Sweet Potato Pie Lady of Darlington
In a city where the sweet potato reigns supreme, there is one woman that holds the honor of baking the best sweet potato pies of all – Mamie Elizabeth Ross Williamson. Her dear friend Carrie Milling Lunn has been her friend since they were toddlers has seen to it that people know that this woman is so much more than just “The Sweet Potato Pie Lady of Darlington.”
On a visit to the Darlington Council on Aging “senior center” prior to Thanksgiving, Mamie agreed to be interviewed about her pies. She was unaware that her best friend Carrie had set the whole thing up. “She is so wonderful and so deserving of letting others know her talents. She cooks, she sews and she sings!”
Mamie Williamson, left, and her best friend, Carrie Lunn.
Photo by Jana E. Pye
The inspiration for those most delicious pies came from her own kitchen when she was a tiny child. “My mother taught me, and one other sister,” said Mamie with a smile. “I can make other pies, but that is my favorite to bake. It’s what I am known for.”
When asked what makes her pies so good, her daughter Wanda said, “It’s the taste.”
Ernest Dolford at the senior center agrees. He has been purchasing sweet potato pies from Mamie “Every time I get a chance for the last five years,” he said. “She has a hand for making them, she puts special ingredients in there. They are delicious.”
Fans of her pies even tracked her down last year when the S.C. Sweet Potato Festival was closed down due to heavy rain. People that knew Mamie shared her address with others, and by noon she sold every single pie she had baked- right from her home.
“They come back to buy them year after year,” said Mamie.
Daughter Wanda said that she told her mother that she should have some business cards made up, but Mamie shook her head. “No, no, I’d be even more busy.”
Mamie was born in Darlington County in 1944, the eldest of 15 children born to Leon and Daisy Ross. Daisy was known far and wide for her secret sweet potato pie recipe, and shared it with her daughter before her death. Daisy also taught her daughter how to sew on an old Singer treadle sewingmachine, an art that Mamie later perfected in Home Economics classes in high school.
When she married her husband Leo, they moved closer to Carrie’s parents house, allowing the friends to grow even closer. “I was not married at the time, so when Mamie and Leo went to work, I used to go over and get her babies and her sister that was babysitting and take them to my house.” said Carrie. “When she came home and saw they were gone, she always knew who had them!”
Mamie and Leo went on to raise 12 children, Chris, Leo Jr., Tim, Denise, Carl, Patrick, Wanda, LaPonsa, Silola, Katena, Kendall and Ezekial. Tragically, Denise was struck by a car at the age of eight and died. The majority of the children went on to college or trade school; Mamie herself went back to school after they got a bit older and became a nurse at Wilson Hospital where she worked as a nurse for 25 years before she retired to care for her ailing husband.
According to one of her sons, Patrick, “She never complained, and always showed strength and compassion like the virtuous woman that she is. She was our doctor, our nurse, a referee, a provider, protector, great caregiver and al all-around superwoman She was always proud of our accomplishments, and because of that, she made us feel rich. More than anything she was – and still is – a great example of a true Christian woman. Her example of how a Christian should live is the single most positive example she instilled in all of her children.”
All through the years when her children were growing up, Mamie baked the sweet potato pies for her family and others as tales of how delicious they were spread. In addition, her skills as a seamstress became well known, as she tackled increasingly harder patterns including coats with tails, cummerbunds and bow ties for her boys graduating from high school.
Mamie Elizabeth Ross Williamson
Photo by Jana E. Pye
“After I worked a 12 hour shift at the hospital, I’d come home and rest a bit, then wake up and do some sewing,” said Mamie. “I sewed all three of my daughters’ wedding gowns, and their bridesmaid dresses.”
Her perfection as a seamstress is another talent that makes people seek her out; she recently sewed four identical dresses for the Darlington High School 2016 Homecoming Court girls –without a pattern! – and often does alterations. “At the senior center, people bring her their clothes to have them altered,” said friend Carrie. “She never charges them, they have to insist she takes something for her work!”
In the fall of the year, however, Mamie rarely has time for sewing as she begins baking sweet potato pies for the S.C. Sweet Potato Festival, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Her technique in preparing the pie batter that she is known for has been cultivated in her kitchen by years of trial and error. She uses a roasting pan that she knows exactly how much to add for ingredients to make approximately 16 pies. She uses local sweet potatoes from the James Farm on Indian Branch Road. After boiling them, she dips them into cold water to remove the skins and puts them into the roaster and mashes them. After adding the other ingredients, Mamie uses a hand mixer to make sure the batter is smooth and perfect.
When asked about her spices, Mamie deferred as the best chefs do. “No, honey, I don’t give my recipe out!” Mamie exclaimed. ”If I tell someone my recipe, most likely I’ll leave a couple of things out.” She added with a twinkle in her eye.
Does she make her own pie crust?
“Oh, no, I buy them!” said Mamie. “If you are just making a few it makes sense, but when you bake as many as I do it’s just easier to buy them.”
Point taken for those of us who wrestle over getting pie crust to look right, not to mention the colossal mess that incurs when making pie crusts.
According to Mamie, it’s not just the taste of the pie that makes them special, it’s the look. “Some people just don’t cook them enough. In my stove, I can put four pies on the top rack, four on the bottom rack. I let them cook a certain amount of time- I don’t time them, I look at them. When they look a certain way, then I switch the ones on the top to the bottom. Because the ones on the bottom brown a little first, while the top one is cooking. Then I switch and put the top ones on the bottom let them brown. By that time, I look at the top ones and when they look like they are about ready, I’ll cut it off bake and put it on broil and let it brown just a little bit, just to bubble. But I watch them close, I don’t want to burn them.”
When asked if she loves eating them, she shook her head. “I sample the first pie to make sure it’s right, but then no more.”
She did, however, reserve one pie from the Thanksgiving pies. It lays wait in her refrigerator until this week, when she will pull it out in her finally quiet kitchen (well, until she starts baking for Christmas!) and have a slice.