Author: Ashley Fantz

Check out Ashley Fantz’s Salon.com feature story on Shelby County jails.

I won’t say what gym it was,” says Lisa Buckner, “but the guys who signed me up promised to help me. After I signed up, I walked in the door at 268 [pounds] and no one looked like me. It was a freaky experience. No one would help me; they didn’t know how to help me.” Looking at a “before” picture of herself, Buckner says, almost wistfully, “That used to be me. That ol’ girl is long gone now.”

In that ol’ girl’s place is a different Lisa Buckner, with 100 fewer pounds on her 5’6″ frame and sporting certifications in personal training and spinning. The memories of that gym experience drove Buckner, who co-owns the Cooper-Young gym InsideOut with partner Donna Issac, to create Ground Zero, an “intensive weight loss training project,” as she describes it, designed for those at least 40 pounds overweight. Though a person’s ideal weight is personalized to fit body mass, musculature, age, and sex, the principles of the program remain the same: The weight has to come off, sure, but more importantly, a person must be willing to change his or her life in order to be healthy.

Says Buckner, “I knew this had to be my life. I knew there was no way I could do this unless I made a lifestyle change.” In the 30-day program, each participant is required to complete at least six hours of cardiovascular training a week, weight train at least twice a week, and attend a weekly meeting to discuss the program, individual progress and eating habits, and one’s own personal hang-ups about weight.

Leading those sessions, Buckner plays part motivator, part physiologist, part trainer, part philosopher, and guru. Buckner keeps the groups small (maximum of six) so she can create a highly personalized atmosphere for each participant. In the current group, there are four women, ages 18 to 38, toting water bottles every one.

The topics members discuss vary greatly. One woman explains how she steered clear of the food spread at a party but drank red wine. Buckner responds by saying that the wine is just as caloric as the food. Then Buckner launches into a small diatribe pointed at another participant. “You’ve been living for someone else your entire life,” Buckner complains, though she follows this with a warning. “As soon as you start to change, everyone [you know] is going to freak out.”

The members of the group keep up this sort of conversation, sharing histories and deeply personal issues about their weight gain and loss. They tell each other things they cannot tell friends or loved ones. While Buckner doesn’t claim to be a psychologist, she is able to share her experiences firsthand with the group and help them face their own fat demons.

Buckner is realistic about the actual weight loss goals of the program. “They will not lose 40 pounds in 30 days,” she says. “They’ll be lucky to lose 10. The whole deal for the 30-day time period is to give them enough time to develop habits, to give them enough information, and to meet with them enough times so they are educated about fitness and the emotional issues that go with being overweight. Because this is a lifestyle [change], they have to take off on their own after the 30 days. I can’t hold their hands.”

During the program, Buckner is your typical nag. She calls the participants to check up on them, making sure progress is steady and that none misses a session. Her role also serves as a reality check for participants. In one instance, Buckner calls on one woman who was supposed to reveal an emotional secret that might be a key to her body issues. She told the secret to her best friend. “Isn’t that a cop-out?” Buckner asks, and tells the participant to tell someone else, someone who would be more shaken by that secret.

“Sometimes I get real put off by that whole ‘big beautiful woman’ thing because it’s just an excuse,” she says. “If you ask anybody on the face of the earth, ‘If you had three wishes, would you want to be normal-sized?’ I’d say everyone would.”

The Ground Zero brochure warns up front that “It’s not for everyone,” but it is for men too. This is Buckner’s third Ground Zero group — after running the program on an individual basis for the past two years — and in that time, she has not had a single male attend the group sessions. “I’m trying my darndest to get them in here,” Buckner admits. “But men don’t like to talk about it.” Buckner is confident, however, that Ground Zero can help men as well — “if they told the truth.”

Memphis Flyer investigative writer Ashley Fantz’s story on the Shelby County Jail is today’s lead story on salon.com.

“I’m Chucky,” the man says, a broad, affable grin spreading like juicy gossip beneath his wispy graying mustache. He shook my hand and led me to an unoccupied table. This was, of course, no difficult task. Even though it was early afternoon on a weekday, the time when most restaurants are jumping, Chucky’s, the tiny cafe on Overton Park Avenue that once housed the storied Cuban restaurant Lupe and Bea’s, was totally empty.

I accepted a menu and began to peruse the list of mouth-watering soul food staples described therein: pork chops, baked ribs, Salisbury steak. It was, or so I believed at the time, an exercise in futility and frustration. Though the sign on the door clearly read “Open,” I was quickly informed that no lunch was being served. Not today. Maybe not tomorrow. In fact, nobody really seemed to know when lunch would be served on any kind of regular basis. But that hardly seemed to matter. I hadn’t come for lunch, per se. I had come to feed my not-so-secret addiction. I’d come for a fried pie.

After making doubly certain that I was comfortable, Charles “Chucky” Gammon disappeared into the kitchen. When he returned he had the goods. He carried before him one perfect cup of chewy black coffee and a fresh fried pie plucked from the hot grease. I didn’t know what flavor it was. I didn’t care. Anything to stop the terrible shakes, swimming head, and paranoia that any serious sugar junkie who has ever gone into withdrawals knows all too well.

The pie was of the peach variety, considered by most blue-collar connoisseurs (at least the ones I associate with) to be the tip-top of the fruit-pie heap. It was one-and-a-half times the size of my fist (huge as fried pies go), brown as an old fence-post, and nine-and-a-half months pregnant with a spicy fruit filling that was as hot and sticky as napalm. The first fork-prick sent up a cloud of steam like a venting nuclear power plant. One of the most interesting things about this particular pie was the distinct lack of grease. The pocket of crust surrounding the filling was thin, crispy, and flavorful, and if you didn’t know better, you would swear it had been baked. But it wasn’t baked, it was deep-fried to something quite beyond perfection. The crust is Chucky’s secret. And he’s not about to give it away. Not to me. Not to anybody.

“My grandmother started making the pies back in the ’30s,” Chucky says proudly. “She had the first chuck wagon in Memphis. In fact, she had three chuck wagons.” Indeed, Delia O’Kelly, Gammon’s grandmother, was quite an entrepreneur. She ran a small but popular diner in the Beale and Dunlap area in the ’30s and ’40s. Of course, OSHA rules were unheard of back then and when businesses limited their employees’ lunch breaks to only a few minutes, O’Kelly got a license to take her tasty wares directly to the workers. Years later Mamie Gammon, O’Kelly’s daughter, took her mother’s plan one step further. She opened Mamie’s, a cafeteria-style diner and catering service at 219 Madison in a building which has now been taken over by AutoZone Park. It quickly became a Memphis institution, and it was there in 1969 that Mamie’s son, Chucky Gammon, learned the fine art of frying pies. “I’ll make peach, apple, sweet potato, pineapple, cherry, lemon, you know — you name it, I’ll claim it,” Chucky crows. He’ll also make chocolate and vanilla on request.

The peach pie disappeared and was replaced by a sweet potato pie that was every bit the previous pastry’s equal. In spite of the sweet’s tooth-aching flavor and richness, Chucky swears up and down that there is no butter in his pies. “We’ve learned to do things a little differently than my grandmother did,” he says, claiming that absolutely no animal fat is used in his pies. You would never know it to taste it.

There is one exception. I asked if he ever made simple brown-sugar and cinnamon fried pies. “You mean like butter roll?” Chucky’s business associate Ann Jacobs asks, and my mouth began to water. Butter roll (sometimes called butter cobbler) is a Depression-era delicacy that was my grandmother’s specialty. I have never seen this dish outside of East Texas, and after my grandmother passed I was certain that I would never taste one of those thin pastries filled with brown sugar and cinnamon soaking in a sweet butter gravy ever again. Suddenly one appeared in front of me. It was just like I remembered it.

But what about the restaurant? After all, man does not live by pie alone and it’s hard to build any kind of regular clientele when you aren’t open for lunch on any kind of regular basis.

“I just got a contract with Kroger,” Chucky explains. “I don’t have time to fill all the orders and do the lunches too.” Should his pies prove to be a popular item at the dozen or so Krogers where the product is being tested and should Chucky land a contract to supply an additional 189 stores, he’ll be forced to move his pie-making business into a larger facility. “But I’ll want to hang on to this place,” he adds. “We’ve got a three-year lease. Maybe then we can really get the restaurant going.”

Don’t let this daunt you. Food will be served at Chucky’s when time permits, but before making the trip it’s probably a good idea to call. And even if there is no catfish to be had, it’s well worth a visit just to sink your teeth into what may very well be the best fried pie in the known universe, while it’s still hot. After they have cooled down and been wrapped in plastic, the magical, seemingly greaseless pies can get a little greasy. In addition to Kroger stores, Chucky’s pies are also sold at the Cozy Corner (the perfect follow-up to a spicy six-bone plate) on North Parkway.

Will Hudson, general manager of the Memphis Area Transit Authority and his light Rail experts pulled into the Memphis City Council’s Transportation Committee meeting January 2nd. With funding from a million-dollar grant, the Regional Rail Steering Committee was appointed by Mayor Herenton to study two light rail transportation issues. The first was the selection of the best routes to link downtown to north, south, and east Memphis The second involved finding a source of funding for the light rail system.

Hudson began by saying, “We have gotten approval from the city council for the first leg of the light rail that goes out Madison to Cleveland. The second phase of the program will continue down Madison going out to Parkway. From there you can go either north, south, east, or a combination of all three.”

Tom Fox, director of capital improvements at MATA, added, “By the year 2020 we expect to have all three built.”

The corridors referred to have always been aligned with the major railroad tracks that traverse the city. These include the Canadian Northern/Illinois Central Lines on a north-south axis and the Norfolk Southern Line going out east. The north corridor extends through Frayser to Millington. The south potentially goes to Tunica. A newly combined, part-south and mostly-east corridor extends out through Germantown to Collierville and incorporates the airport. In presenting his group’s evaluation of the three corridors, Hudson said, “It is now time for us to select one.”

The Regional Rail Steering Committee identified a number of criteria that would be foremost in determining which areas would be established as corridors and ultimately which one would then be selected for initial construction. Access and mobility to jobs was ranked as the first priority. Parsons Brinckerhoff, a recognized transportation consulting firm, was then hired to see how each of the selected corridors measured up.

A detailed matrix summarizing each corridor’s characteristics demonstrated substantial differences regarding length in miles, movement to job centers, impact on low income areas, traffic congestion, and operating costs. Consultant Michael Eidlin stated, “One of our first challenges was to see if there were other alternatives to the railroad rights-of-way if for some reason we were not able to use their properties.” Previously, MATA had city council approval to purchase an abandoned railroad right-of-way to Cordova but those plans did not materialize.

A number of alignments that are essentially surface routes outside of the present rail trackage are possible if the railroads choose not to participate. However, defining the actual routing remains a part of the upcoming development phase once a corridor is selected.

Following these initial studies, significant changes in the region’s demographics have occurred. Two major factors have changed in the northern corridor. Staff reductions at the Naval Air Station at Millington — now Naval Support Activity Memphis — and decreased growth in Tipton County have greatly diminished the group’s attraction to that corridor. Furthermore, Council member Janet Hooks who chaired this meeting said, “In between the north and southeast corridors, where Highway 64 and Wolfchase are, there is an awful lot of growth. At some point we need to look at that as a potential corridor.”

The preeminent corridor, the Southeast, is the longest and would be the most costly. One proposed routing would involve 4.5 miles along or on city streets and another 21 miles of shared railroad right of way. The projected costs are expected to approach half a billion dollars.

Initially, the most viable option involves a spur to Memphis International Airport. It would begin with the existing downtown trolley system and the planned Medical Center segment down Madison Avenue. “Getting to the airport was most important”, according to feedback Eidlin and his associates received from a series of public meetings held last October and December. The consulting firm also identified some of the benefits of a light rail system with infrastructure improvements, accessibility, and travel convenience. Concerns were expressed over funding, construction delays, safety, and the impact the final routing could have in revitalizing a depressed area by new growth within the corridor.

Dexter Muller is chair of the subcommittee within the Regional Rail Steering Committee that handled the final corridor selection. “The subcommittee essentially recommended that the first thing to do is connect to the airport,” he says. Alternatives such as going out Cleveland instead of Parkway were one of other options taken into account.

“The airport area is the biggest employment center in the entire county,” says Muller. “The airport area is quite spread out, but number-wise there are substantially more jobs [in comparison to other areas].”

Muller concluded by saying, “We have to begin with one corridor in order to make progress within thefederal system for getting funds.” The airport segment is about five miles long. “This is what the federal government typically likes to fund,” added Muller.

The final selection will require coordination and approval between the MATA board of commissioners and the city council.

For the third time in their careers, many Memphis obstetricians are making plans to deliver babies at a new Baptist Hospital. Located on the opposite corner from Baptist East at Walnut Grove Road, the new Women’s Medical Center fronting on Humphreys Boulevard is scheduled to open May 6th.

At a recent organizational meeting of the medical staff, Dr. Larry Johnson assumed, for his third time, the position of Medical Staff President. More than 130 physicians (80 of whom are obstetrician-gynecologists) are credentialed for the stand-alone facility devoted to the care of women. Neurosurgery and orthopedic cases will continue to be done at the Baptist East facility. Cardiovascular care will soon be performed at the new Baptist Heart Institute.

Labor and Delivery will be the first department transferred at the opening of the new hospital. Surgical procedures involving one day and major surgeries will commence May 7th. Geared to being a full-service hospital for the female patient, all of the ancillary x-ray, lab, and support services will be contained within the 140-bed building. Pediatricians, anesthesiologists, pathologists, plastic and general surgeons will also be on the staff. Dr. Christine Mroz, a noted breast surgeon, will be among those using the seven available operating rooms.

Typically these freestanding specialty hospitals are designed as the place a woman can see her OB/GYN, get a mammogram, receive infertility treatment, give birth, have breast reconstructive surgery, and take stress management classes — a full spectrum of women’s health services available under one roof.

A female-specific inpatient hospital is a new concept for this community, which Dr. Larry Johnson feels is “the right template that will create a great resource for women’s health care in the Mid-South.” The oldest hospital of this type was Boston Lying-in, founded in 1832. Nearby, in Baton Rouge, is another Women’s Hospital that is similar in size and demographics. Baptist officials have actively incorporated a number of positive aspects of the Louisiana structure into the new building. Working closely with their administration, Anita Vaughn, Baptist Women’s administrator and CEO, studied the many positive aspects such an entity could provide. “Our primary focus will be on preparation for emergency situations,” Vaughn stated. A high proficiency in Advanced Cardiac Life Support by nursing and medical personnel will be continually maintained.

While Baptist will own and manage the new hospital building, the adjacent Physicians Office Building is being built by Healthcare Realty Trust. Staffing with nurses and surgical technicians is almost completed. The new hospital will have about 475 non-physician employees, many of whom were previously employed at the recently closed Baptist Medical Center.

Unlike a number of other institutions which have rehabbed a wing of their hospital and called it a women’s center, the Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women will be a full-service, tertiary care facility. Although it will not have its own Emergency Department, hospital officials feel that it will be prepared to handle the 6,000-plus deliveries projected for the near future. Expansion planning is on the drawing board when future growth trends emerge.

Two perinatalogists will provide consultation care for high-risk pregnancies while four newborn specialists will supervise the neonatal intensive care unit. Intensive care for the mother or gynecological patient will be provided in a specialized area with specialty trained ICU nurses. Access to more involved care is “four speed bumps away at the Baptist East building,” says Vaughn.

The past seven days have shown just how crime-ridden Memphis can be. Here’s a wrap-up of some of the more violent cases:

* Admitted Gangster Disciple Marquez “Lowdown” Winters was convicted in Judge W. Fred Axley’s courtroom last Friday for aggravated kidnapping and attempted murder in the first degree. The trial lasted two days, with dramatic testimony from Natalie Bolton, another gang member who had offended Winters’ girlfriend, who acts as a sort of Gangster Disciple governess.

Winters and other gang members snatched Bolton from her Whitehaven apartment in May 1997. Bolton was then taken to a house nearby, beaten, and then cut with a broken glass when she refused to drink a mixture of bleach and ammonia. The gang then put Bolton in the trunk of a car and drove to Rose Hill Cemetery on Elvis Presley Blvd., where they marched Bolton up a hill at gunpoint and shot her. Bolton feigned death and heard the members saying, “Yeah, she dead” as they walked away.

During her time on the stand, Bolton identified Winters as the man who tried to killed her. Used to seeing him “thugged out” in baggy clothes and gang colors, Bolton stared at Winters dressed in a suit, paused for a moment, and said, “That’s him, but it don’t look like him. I’ve never seen him in a suit.” Winters could face 37 years in prison. He will be sentenced on January 9th.

* In another criminal court decision Friday, Perdido Cook was found guilty on three counts of aggravated — meaning he had a weapon — burglary. Cook and co-defendant Henry Johnson wore masks when they entered the Memphis home of Sara Collier in 1999. The burglars struggled with Collier and another person at the home, David Shorter, who was shot in the back and remains permanently paralyzed from the waist down. The defendants will be sentenced January 5th and could receive 12 years in prison.

* Other shootings came to trial last week. William Garrett was pronounced guilty for shooting Carlis Parker in the elbow when he showed up at the victim’s home, pointed a cocked gun in Parker’s face, and demanded a $20 debt that Parker owed Garrett. Parker has lost the use of his arm. Garrett will be sentenced January 12th and is looking at up to 15 years behind bars. Last Wednesday, the district attorney’s office won another case — against Joe Scott, who had robbed April Herd at gunpoint. Both had known each other for years.

* Another corrupt Memphis cop was outed last week. Officer John Edmiston was indicted on 29 separate counts Friday involving 11 Hispanic victims whom he was assigned to serve and protect in the West Precinct. Those charges include five counts of robbery, nine counts of extortion, 11 counts of official oppression, three counts of misconduct, and one count of sexual battery stemming from accusations involving a Hispanic woman.

As is the policy of the Memphis Police Department, Edmiston was relieved with pay until an administrative hearing can be held to weigh the department charges of misconduct. He turned himself into authorities on Friday, but was released on $10,000 bond.

* Though it received little play in The Commercial Appeal, published on the last page of the Metro section next to the obituaries, a story about children staying for days in their home with the body of a dead parent sounded similar to an incident that happened last year in Memphis. In December 1999, a friend found 10-year-old Travis Butler in a Memphis apartment with the body of his mother, Crystal Wells, who had died of natural causes. The boy told authorities he was afraid to let anyone know his mother was dead because he didn’t want to be put in a foster home. Travis lived for a month with the body, preparing his own meals, taking the bus to school, and living off money left in the house.

Sunday evening, authorities found three children, ages 5, 3, and 2 in their South Memphis home with the body of their 27-year-old diabetic mother Sybil Powell. It’s unclear how long the children, who are now with relatives, were in the house.

* Hip-hop night spot Club 2001 has experienced few altercations in the year it’s been open. But early Monday night, a shooting that resulted in the death of one young man has darkened the club’s clean reputation.

Another teen was seriously wounded when, at 2:30 a.m., 23-year-old Lorenzo Taylor was shot as he sat inside the club. A security guard was wounded, but the wounded teen’s name is not being released.