Winifred Green Cheney Collection (Z/1794)
Collection Details:
Collection Name and Number: Winifred Green Cheney Collection (Z/1794).
Creator/Collector: Winifred Green Cheney; and others.
Date(s): 1975-1976; n.d.
Size: 3 cubic feet.
Language(s): English.
Processed by: MDAH staff; Biographical sketch written by Will Pickering, 2022.
Provenance: Gift from Winifred Green Cheney, on May 27, 1976; Z/U/1976.028; Z/1494.000/S.
Provenance: Gift from Winifred Green Cheney, on May 27, 1976; Z/U/1977.037; Z/1794.000/S.
Provenance: Gift from Winifred Green Cheney, in 1998; Z/U/1998.033.
Repository: Archives & Records Services Division, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.
Rights and Access:
Access restrictions: Boxes 1-7 is open for research; Box 8 is restricted.
Publication rights: Copyright assigned to the MDAH. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to Reference Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the MDAH as the owner of the physical items and as the owner of the copyright in items created by the donor. Although the copyright was transferred by the donor, the respective creator may still hold copyright in some items in the collection. For further information, contact Reference Services.
Copyright Notice: This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).
Preferred citation: Winifred Green Cheney Collection (Z/1794), Mississippi Department of Archives & History.
Note to Researchers:
Separated material: Newspaper clippings of Cheney’s recipes and articles removed in 1977 to the Subject File, Winifred Green Cheney. Also removed to the Subject File are two photocopies of poems by Cheney, “The Rebirth of Alpha” and “Barbados,” as well as two original Oxmoor House press releases, two form letters from Southern Living, and one photocopy of a letter from Southern Living to Cheney dated April 10, 1980.
Processing Note: The archivist merged three collections into one collection because the provenance for all was Winifred Green Cheney and the contents all related to the creation and publication of the Southern Hospitality Cookbook. Series 1 contains what was originally the unprocessed collection (Z/U/1998.033); Series 2, 5, and 6 contain the previously processed collection (Z/1494.000/S); and Series 3, 4, and 7 contain the previously processed collection (Z/1794.000/S).
Biography:
Winifred Tunstall Green was born February 14, 1913, in Hinds County, Jackson, Mississippi, to Winifred Calhoon, (January 3, 1885-November 21, 1972), a former debutante, and Garner Wynn Green, Sr., (July 20, 1880-September 4, 1971), an attorney. She was one of five children; among her siblings were sister Louise Green Carlisle (February 16, 1916-January 9, 2007), brothers Marcellus Calhoon Green (June 5, 1908-December 27, 1959), Garner Wynn Green, Jr. (July 3, 1910-October 5, 1974), and Joshua Green (November 12, 1922-August 11, 2019).
Winifred matriculated at Millsaps College, graduating with honors in 1933 with a Bachelor of Arts. While a student there, she pledged and was initiated into Phi Mu sorority with several other members of the Jackson Debutante club, among whom included Ann Pullen, Elizabeth Warren, Charlotte Capers, Sallie Lee Hall, Catherine Jones (who married William Miller), Katherine Heidelberg, and Kathryn Herbert. Her other extracurricular activities included basketball, being on the Young Women’s Christian Association (Y.W.C.A.) Cabinet, Classical Club, Rambler’s Club, Woman’s Pan-Hellenic Council, Senior Invitation Committee, and President Woman’s Association. She was a former chaplain of the Daughters of the King at Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Cathedral as well as a member of the board of directors for the Old Ladies Home Association. In 1933, she was Queen of Carnival Ball Jackson. Winifred was also a member of the Jackson Junior League and Debutante Club of Mississippi. She also was an active member of Millsaps College’s alumni board, and taught French and Latin for many years.
She married Reynolds Smith Cheney, Sr., (October 17, 1910-February 11, 1993) an attorney, on October 25, 1934, at Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Cathedral. Children from their marriage were Reynolds Smith Cheney Jr., (July 19, 1936-July 10, 2017), an Episcopal reverend, William Garner Cheney (July 20, 1939-January 25, 2019), and Winifred Cheney Barron (b. ca.1945), also a graduate of Millsaps College (the Class of 1966), who married Patric Barron.
Winifred published her first article, “The Etiquette Game” dealing with children’s table manners, was published in Marriage Magazine in May 1962. She was a freelance contributor of articles on cooking for such publications as the Christian Science Monitor, National Observer, the Rotarian, and Southern Living. Oxmoor House later published Cheney’s Southern Hospitality Cookbook in 1976, where it was praised as the “‘Gone with The Wind’ of cookbooks.” Her other cookbooks include Cooking for Company, The Singing Heart, and Singing His Song. She received the Women of Achievement Award from the Mississippi Press Women Association in 1980. She was known for her culinary contributions to St. Andrews Cathedral and the Old Ladies Home Bazaars. She was an instructor for the state-wide Mississippi Arts Festival in 1974, demonstrating her homemade bread. Winifred attended a school on French cooking in Seattle, Washington conducted by Carole Leichter.
Winifred Tunstall Green Cheney passed away in her home on June 19, 2000 at the age of 87 from heart failure. She was interred in Cedarlawn Cemetery, Jackson, Hinds County, with a memorial service dedicated to her at Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Cathedral on June 24 of that year.
Scope and Content:
This collection contains three typescript versions of Cheney’s Southern Hospitality Cookbook. The typescript was originally entitled “Kissin’ Don’t Last, Cookery Do” and all three versions include revisions. These differ substantially from the publication. There is also a blue-line first draft of the Southern Hospitality Cookbook, published by Oxmoor House in 1976, as well as a copy of the December 1975 The Rotarion in which an article by Cheney is published, and several printed recipe cards. A printer’s proof of the book jacket for Southern Hospitality Cookbook is included.
Series Identification:
Series 1: Typescript. [ca. 1975].
This series contains a very early typescript version of Cheney’s Southern Hospitality Cookbook. The typescript is entitled “Kissin’ Don’t Last, Cookery Do” and includes many handwritten revisions. The manuscript includes an essay by Mary Alice Bookhart, wine suggestions, a primer on buffet preparation, and tips on cooking or entertaining. This early version differs substantially from the publication.
Box 1, folders 1-29
Series 2: Typescript. [ca. 1976].
This series contains a typescript version of Cheney’s Southern Hospitality Cookbook, possibly a second draft. The typescript is also entitled “Kissin’ Don’t Last, Cookery Do” and includes some revisions. It does not include Bookhart’s essay and other tips on entertaining.
Box 1, folders 30-34
Box 2, folders 1-9
Box 3, folders 1-6
Series 3: Typescript. [ca. 1976].
This series contains a photocopy of a third typescript version of Cheney’s Southern Hospitality Cookbook. The typescript is still entitled “Kissin’ Don’t Last, Cookery Do” and includes very few handwritten revisions or notes. Most pages are in a format provided by Oxmoor House. Only a few items are original typescript pages, particularly the frontis materials.
Box 3, folders 7-13
Box 4, folders 1-6
Box 5, folders 1-4
Box 6, folders 1-5
Series 4: Blue-line galley proofs. 1976.
This series contains the blue-line first draft of the Southern Hospitality Cookbook, published by Oxmoor House in 1976. The galley proofs contain some handwritten corrections.
Box 7, folders 2-4
Series 5: Printer’s proof of book jacket. 1976.
This series contains the one printer’s proof of the book jacket for The Southern Hospitality Cookbook.
Box 7, folder 1
Series 6: Printed materials. 1975; n.d.
This series contains The Rotarian, published December 1975, which contains one article by Winifred Green Cheney starting on page 29. Also included are eight printed recipe cards with color images of prepared dishes.
Box 6, folders 6-7
Series 7: Audio-visual material. December 4, 1975. (RESTRICTED)
This series contains a 14 minutes and 30 seconds videotape of “Lyn’s Notebook” taped December 4, 1975, by WAPT television in Jackson, Mississippi. Lyn Smith hosts the television show and interviews Cheney about cooking and preparing a mushroom casserole. Due to the fragile nature of this videotape and its obsolete format, this item is not available for viewing in the media room.
Box 8