Ida Henderson faced challenges she didn’t expect when she became a Cookie Lee jewelry consultant.

Few women in the Pensacola area were familiar with the line that is sold through a catalog and home parties. And many women just didn’t have time in their busy schedules to host home jewelry shows.
She expressed to a friend, Gloria Clay, her frustration and the need to create a means for small business women, like herself, to compete in today’s busy world.

Clay just happens to be one of those rare people who can take an idea and run with it. In October she created a networking group called Women Telling Their Business to resolve a dilemma shared by many women with small businesses: how to introduce their products and services to a wider audience with little or no advertising budget.

“I started the group because women were approaching me wanting to share information or host a gathering to tell about their businesses,’’ said the
44-year-old Clay, who is a job development specialist for Escambia County Community Services Department and a busy mother of two. “Knowing I didn’t have the time or room to host lots of people at my home, I decided to start a public forum where women could come and tell about their small businesses to groups of people.’’

Dozens of businesswomen so far have benefited from Clay’s entrepreneurial spirit.
The networking group started with three businesswomen — Henderson; Carolyn Kyle, a sales consultant for Warm Spirit Pampering Product Company; and Mona Riley, a distributor for XanGo, a health drink. In addition, Clay used the networking group as a springboard to start her own part-time business, GiftsbyGloria, a personal shopping service.

The group has since grown to 26 businesswomen and attendance at monthly meetings has swelled to 52 and is steadily growing.

Women Telling Their Business meets monthly at the Lucia Tryon Public Library. Each month four businesswomen are selected to give a 10-minute presentation about their products or services. In addition, they set up a display of their goods for on-the-spot shopping. The meetings are open to the public.

“I got sales and exposure,’’ said the 54-year-old Henderson of Pensacola. “That’s what I needed.’’
Riley, a flight attendant with U.S. Airways, said the group has helped her market XanGo during the limited amount of spare time she has. “I’m very grateful for Gloria giving me an opportunity to introduce my product,’’ said the 45-year-old Milton resident.

Forty-something Angela McMillan, who has expanded a successful gift basket business into a special events business, Extra Specialty Events on Creighton Road, participates in the group tap into a new pool of clients.
“It has great exposure and I’ve been able to get the message out about my business,’’ McMillan said.
Clay pointed out that there are other networking business groups out there, but none offer the same public exposure. “A lot of networking groups cost money to join. You go to a breakfast and hear one speaker,’’ she said. “To me, what’s the sense of being in a group like that if you’re not getting the information to the public.’’
Clay believes the public benefits because they are able to learn about the vast number of small businesses in the community that often go undetected.

She said the biggest impact of the group has been, “That women are uplifting one another in a positive, casual atmosphere.“I also feel it is giving other women and other people attending, the motivation to think about what small business venture they could start themselves.’’

Alyce Henderson remains ‘charming and sophisticated’

SLOANE STEPHENS COX
@BellaMagazine.com

Alyce Henderson’s first bed was a shoebox.
Born four months early, she was too small for a crib. Her family kept her warm by heating a brick in the oven and placing it in the shoebox.
Now, 93 years later, that low-birth-weight baby is a beloved woman with a list of accomplishments, including a college degree and extensive resume as a teacher and leader.
But most importantly, her friends and family say, she has extraordinary character.
“She’s a spiritual person; a sweet, peaceful person; a disciplined person with tremendous willpower,” said her daughter, Kay Henderson Adams of Richmond, Calif.
Adams cited examples.
“She was always gentle and nice,” she said. “She never yelled or raised her voice. She was a devoted sister who cared for her older sisters until they passed away, and there is nothing she wouldn’t do for her children.”
Henderson’s devotion extended to other areas in her life, including her college sorority. On Dec. 29, that sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, honored her for nearly 75 years of membership.
The only living charter member of the Pensacola chapter, Henderson made the long trip from California, where she was visiting her daughter, to Pensacola to attend.
“I took my vows to be a good member, and I stuck with it,” Henderson said.
Sorority sister Mamie Hixon commented about her long-time friend.
“She’s just so charming and sophisticated, a true Southern lady,” said Hixon, Writing Lab director and an assistant professor in the English department at the University of West Florida. “She’s kind-hearted and knowledgeable and has a remarkable memory for a 93-year-old.”
Henderson can recall vivid details of her childhood: no indoor plumbing, no electricity and few brick roads. Also, she remembers studying under leading American author, poet and activist James Weldon Johnson at Fisk University, where she got a bachelor’s in English.
“He was very distinguished, and he had a cane,” Henderson said. “I don’t know if he needed it or if it were just a fashion statement.”
After graduating, she taught high school and elementary in Pensacola for nearly four decades. While teaching, she married her high school sweetheart.
In 1941, maternity leave didn’t exist. So when she became pregnant with her second child, she kept her pregnancy a secret; she went to Michigan to give birth to her daughter and returned to work a month later.
“She was unwilling to give up her job,” Adams said.
Besides teaching, she often volunteered at her church, Talbot Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church. Also, she helped start a Brownie Scout Troop and is a charter member of the Pensacola chapter of Jack and Jill of America, an organization that provides cultural, social, civic and recreational activities for black children.
Now, nearly 35 years into retirement, she finds time for herself. Often, she watches “Deal or No Deal,” the popular NBC game show.
To what does she attribute her long life?
“My lifestyle. I never smoked or drank,” Henderson said. “The rest is the good Lord.”

Cooking with heart and soul

SHANE HOFFMAN
@BellaMagazine.com

Gloria Wiggins is helping people, one pot of gumbo at a time.
The mother of two, grandmother of eight and inspiration to many has a motor that doesn’t stop. That might be because she fuels it with food so good, it wins awards. But she doesn’t need awards to know how good it is.
“When you know it, you know it,” she said. “You know how some people know different things? I’m not being ugly, but I say if you’re going to do it, do it right.”

She’s about as competitive a cook as there is. When she won the Seville Quarter gumbo cook-off last year, she enjoyed the cutting up and trash talking as much as she enjoyed serving up her authentic, Creole gumbo.
But she gets the most satisfaction out of her cooking when it helps others.
For instance, after Hurricane Ivan, when she wasn’t clearing debris from the neighborhood, she was cooking. She cooked a big pot of gumbo for a work crew that was in town from Lafayette, La. It was like a little bit of home for them.

“I felt so good. You know how you feel so good about things?” she said.
And ever since Hurricane Katrina, she’s visited Louisiana about every other week to volunteer. She spends much of her time in Franklin, where she lived when she was young. There she helps people clean, paint, haul furniture, hang molding — you name it. And she cooks. Barbecue, gumbo, ettouffee — whatever it takes to feed the neighborhood.
Her hard work earned her the recognition of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

“They were needing help all over, and he was asking for help” she said. So she drove down to the 9th Ward. “And this lady would see me pull up in my son’s truck, and I would have things in there; I was just cleaning out. I came ready with boots and everything, ready to work, and she took a picture, and then finally she said, ‘Where you from?’ I said Pensacola. She said, ‘You have any people here?’ I said no. She said, ‘You getting paid to do this?’ I said no. I said I’m from Franklin right next door, and you needed help. And she said OK. And she wouldn’t say no more. And I cooked a big pot of gumbo for them, and the next day I cooked red beans and barbecued chicken for them. And they sent me that,” she said, pointing to an official certificate of recognition signed by the mayor.
“Every time I would go down, I was just crying and working, crying and working, because I remembered how it was,” she said.

Wiggins is an adventurous spirit, always up for a challenge. She quit her teaching job in 1980 and joined the Army on a dare from her sister. She served 12 years as a personnel clerk until she was discharged as an honorary colonel, after being seriously injured in a training accident. But before her discharge, she was aiming high. She had the opportunity to meet then Defense Secretary Robert McNamara when she was awarded Soldier of the Month, and she told him to watch out.

“He inspired me,” she said. “I told him I was going to take his job. He said, ‘I’m waiting for you!’”
Last November, she ran for the District 5 seat in the Pensacola City Council. But her newest adventure plays to her greatest strength. She’s launching a cooking show on Channel 39, where she’ll feature her famous Creole recipes.
“I named it ‘Dare to Be Me’ because I felt everybody has something special within them that they can do but won’t give it a shot. So I took a dare and I went out and did it,” she said. And she’s also working on a product line called Miss Glo’s Creole Sauces, which will include her roux, fettuccine sauce and others.
Through all this, she keeps making the drive over to Louisiana, often with furniture or drapes in the back of her car for someone in need.  “I just love helping people,” she said.

GLORIA WIGGINS’ RECIPES

Florida State Key Lime Pie

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Ingredients:
1 pkg pistachio instant pudding
1 cup cultured buttermilk blend (powdered)
1 cup lemon juice
1 cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
½ cup melted margarine
1 can condensed sweetened milk
½ cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup regular sugar
1 cup flour (sifted or self-rising)
1 cup gin (optional)
1 small frozen margarita mix (optional)
1 lime processed whole (grounded)

Bake at 375, if ready made pudding, 30 minutes.
Bake at 400 for regular pie dough, 30 minutes.
Add tsp of baking soda to mix if desired.
Mix ½ cup sugar, then sprinkle over cool whip after placing on pie.
For Graham crust, brush a butter egg white on crust and bake for 5 minutes at 375 degrees.

Miss Glo’s Creole Gumbo

“Roux”
This special blend of oil and flour makes the best gumbo, “Creole-style.”

Ingredients
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup flour

Set the stove to medium heat.
Pour oil into skillet.
Gradually add flour to your taste: thin, thick or medium-thick gravy. Stir. This flour mixture is your “roux.”
As the flour turns brown and gets darker, you’re ready for the gumbo ingredients. Add them to your roux, and you have a quality gumbo.

Gumbo

1 lb oysters (optional)
Crawfish
Chicken
2 pounds deveined shrimp
1 lb beef sausage
1 tsb file
1 pound crab meat or crab claw meat
1 filet catfish, grounded
Okra
3 quarts water

Blend in above ingredients, plus these seasonings:
Onion, celery, bay leaf, 1 bell pepper and ½ jar roux.
These items can be prepared in a food processor.
Boil all items together, adding black pepper, red paper and salt to taste.