Jackson Free Press

Willie Harmon, 65, founder and patriarch of the Hot Tamale Heaven family, is at first skeptical about talking over the phone. But once he realizes we are talking tamales, he lights up the phone with anecdotes and the kind of laughter that carries well from Greenville to Jackson.

The elder Harmon has been making tamales since he was 30 years old. "To be real truthful, my brother-in-law had told me about this bail bondsman, Fred Howard, who told him that if you learn to make hot tamales, you can make a good living. Now, that really stuck with me, so I learned to make them and now been making 'em for 35 years!" Harmon says about his humble beginnings.

Harmon opened Hot Tamale Heaven in Hollandale, Miss., after learning how to make them from Miss Evelyn in Lake Village, Ark., just slightly north and across the Mississippi River from Hollandale.

Once he knew how to make them, he took the technique home and practiced until he felt comfortable making the tamales that would become his livelihood.

"Listen, I went 'round the neighborhood and told all my neighbors to come buy these hot tamales," Harman says. So I stayed home all day the next day and my wife went to work. Well, I only sold about two or three dozen that day, but I made five dollars and 50 cents that day, and I was so happy about it and showed my wife when she got home.

"I was tickled pink, and I'm black!"

That day 35 years ago began the Harmon family's tamale business. His home operation led to a cart, which led to two carts and then a stand. He now operates the wholesale business, selling to restaurants all over Mississippi and has a retail spot on Highway 82 in Greenville.

"That's my own recipe. Miss Evelyn gave me hers, but I wanted mine to be different, to be mine," Harmon declares about his tamales. He left work in Copper Steel the plant because he wanted to work for himself. Harmon successfully started a homegrown business that is now a family operation, where he works alongside his son, Aaron.

"My son and his children will never have to work for anyone but their family," Harmon says.