LaReeca Rucker
The Clarion-Ledger
From the archives Sept. 26, 2010

Jamie Smith grew up playing in clay at his aunt and uncle’s pottery shop in Merigold.

“My first sculpture piece was Moby Dick,” he said. “I took a big block of clay and hammered on it. I beat a tail into it. Then I put some little teeth in it. They dried it slowly for well over a month.”

Today, Jamie and his brother, Stephen, help run McCartys Pottery, a hidden Mississippi gem nestled in the foliage in this tiny town outside Cleveland.

Lee McCarty and his wife, Pup, who died last year, founded the studio, which remains one of the unique features of the small Bolivar County community, population 608.

“That probably includes a dog or two that was added as a dependent,” said Jamie Smith.

You have to know where to look to find the business that opened in 1954 inside an old mule barn. It’s surrounded by trees and plants with a small rustic entryway.

They met at Delta State University in the 1940s and married while Lee McCarty was pursuing an education degree from the University of Mississippi. While there, Pup McCarty became interested in art.

“The story she told is there were a lot of football players taking pottery classes, and she wanted Lee to be there with her. She felt a little uncomfortable with all these boys,” said Stephen Smith.

“So Uncle Lee went, and they took pottery together and loved it. They worked on a number of glazes while they were there in the late 1940s.”

The Smiths say William Faulkner introduced the couple to native clays, showing them a site behind his barn. Now, they use clay from a site near Shuqualak.

Today, their Merigold studio houses pottery in signature shades of nutmeg, jade and cobalt. Lee McCarty designed the serene outdoor retreat that surrounds the property. It features a swimming pool, shaded fountains and water gardens with Brazilian water lilies.

“They struggled through the ’50s, ’60s and even in the early ’70s,” said Stephen Smith, “and through word of mouth, the business grew.”

Jamie Smith agrees.

“Today, when people go to the Delta, they say, ‘Go pick me up a piece of McCarty,’ because you are getting that Delta soul,” he said. “It is a connection to the Delta and our region.”

Their pieces are displayed in the Smithsonian Institution, Museum Hameln in Germany, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization offices in Paris.

The Smiths are fourth-generation Merigold residents. Stephen Smith said their great-grandfather came to Merigold around 1892 and worked as a depot agent for the railroad. The town, named after Capt. Frank Merigold, was incorporated in 1903, he said.

Stephen and Jamie moved to Georgia after college, where Jamie worked for IBM and spent several years taking pottery classes at Chastain Arts Center in Atlanta. Steven practiced law in Athens, Georgia, for almost eight years.

“We both moved away and both came home in 1998,” he said.

Today, Stephen handles much of the business side of things, while Jamie helps create pottery pieces with Lee McCarty, who he describes as thrifty.

“They never took out any debt,” Jamie said. “Uncle Lee had us taking nails out of boards so we could straighten them and reuse them.”

As classical music plays inside, Lee McCarty comes downstairs to offer an official tour. He points to the black squiggly line on a platter in the back showroom.

“Do you know what that represents?” he asks. “That’s the Mississippi River.”

The traditional symbol is on almost all McCarty pieces.

Among other unique elements of Merigold, Jamie Smith recommends dropping by Po’ Monkey’s Lounge. The former sharecropper shack sits on a dirt road (Po’ Monkey Road 2 1/2 miles west of Merigold) in the middle of a cotton field.

The Delta icon is known as one of the last authentic juke joints in the South.

Thursday night is known as family night to some. Willie Seaberry, who founded the establishment in 1961 and lives inside, welcomes visitors. People from all over the world have stopped by.

“A few months ago, Eric Clapton came through,” said Jamie Smith.

Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz photographed Po’ Monkey’s in 2000, and numerous articles have been written about it in papers across the country.

“Come in,” insists Seaberry, as guests enter the lounge decorated with Christmas lights, stuffed monkeys, tinsel and photographs.

The locals say Seaberry often changes clothes multiple times throughout the night to keep things lively.