NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — As NewsChannel 5 celebrates 70 years on the air, we're sharing stories of the people who helped build our legacy. Some are familiar faces, for sure. Others are people whose stories we want you to know about.
In working up these stories, staff has been going through the tape archive and old filing cabinets full of old promotional photoshoots. In looking through everything, something caught my eye. It was a particular minute and twenty seconds in a behind-the-scenes tour of the original WLAC studio. That was located at the L and C Tower annex building. Channel 5 began in this building in 1954 until its move to its current location in 1968.
"Now in progress is a rehearsal for one of our most popular daytime programs, Southern Cooking," an announcer said. "It features Nashville's leading cateress, Eudora Boxley. Every day, Monday through Friday, Eudora gives out famous southern recipes."
I wanted to know more about Eudora Boxley. What was her story? Luckily, there was someone out there happy to tell me about her. Waddell Frierson.
"I'm the only one who's living who knew her," Waddell said. "I was her grandson, and she raised me."
Waddell shared around the 1950s and 60s, his grandmother had a catering business run out of her home on Jefferson Street.
"It was completely Black," Waddell remembered. "It was all Black business. She could cook anything."
Eudora was serving her neighboring community and beyond. She was also serving the artists playing nightclubs a few doors down, people like Little Richard and Fats Domino.
"Fats Domino would sit on the swing," Waddell said. "We had a swing in the front yard. He would sit in the swing and sing to us."
Eudora's cooking was becoming known far beyond the Black community of Nashville.
"She did these parties for these rich people," Waddell said. "I remember first time I went to Belle Meade. I said, 'these people got their restroom inside the house!'"
It was Eudora's strong reputation that led to her own show on WLAC called Southern Cooking.
There are not a lot of surviving records from that far back, so it's been unclear the exact year Eudora went on air. My initial research showed 1961. Waddell said it was the mid-50s. Either way, it was a time Nashville was changing.
Beginning in 1956, Tennessee was seeing protests over integration attempts of schools. 1960 saw the Nashville sit-ins, efforts to end racial segregation at lunch counters. It was around this era, Waddell was proudly driving his grandmother through downtown Nashville to get her to WLAC. Eudora Boxley was a Black woman with her own show on Nashville TV.
"We'd all get around the TV and watch her," Waddell laughed.
About twenty years ago, Channel 5 employee Ann Rice wrote to Waddell's family about her memories of Eudora. She said in part, "Everything she did on air, she did live and easily. If she dropped an egg, she would laugh and go on. This talented lady was a joy to be with." Ann also remembered Eudora ended her savory dishes with the advice, "Be sure to add just a few grains of red pepper!"
"She was the only Black person we knew who was on TV at that time, only one," Waddell said. "Sometimes we used to cry cause we knew she was the only Black person we'd see on TV. Then, sometimes we rejoiced. It was emotional."
Eudora was diabetic and problems with her health ended her run on Southern Cooking.
"This is the last picture of her before she passed away," Waddell said, holding up a picture of Eudora with the family. "I loved her very much. She loved me, and she was the best thing to ever happen to me."
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
