Charlene Pigg

Miss Pigg was born in Wheel, Tennessee. A dot in the road in rural Tennessee. She, and her 5 sisters grew up without electricity or running water. Daddy was a preacher and farmer and known in the region for his most excellent smoked hams. He had one of the best smoke houses in Wheel.

The girls grew up hauling buckets of water from the well, located precariously in the middle of the field where the bull roamed the land, lending to many a funny story of water buckets being thrown into the air and little girls running to the nearest fence.

Miss Pigg, the eldest of the Pigg daughters, learn to cook early. Helping her mother in the kitchen and with the little ones that came after her. Cooking from scratch is just what you did in those days, especially when you lived in a rural area 20 miles from the nearest town.

Around the age of 9, Miss Pigg’s daddy started picking up the newspaper when in town to get whey for the pigs, pick up supplies, or a rare trip to the county bank. Miss Pigg relished the many recipes shared in the newspaper and began clipping all that she could. When she turned 16 she started acting as an aide to the area school teacher and when she was 19 the teacher married. Miss Pigg applied for the position and got it!

It wasn’t long before she was offering a cooking class after school for the girls and to the older young ladies on Saturdays.