TASTE OF THE TREASURE COAST
RESTAURATEUR’S HISTORICAL LINKS GO BACK TO HURSTON, HIGHWAYMEN
BY CATHERINE ENNS GRIGAS
Although she didn’t realize it at the time, Hassie Russ
66
had a window into some historical events that figure
prominently in not only local history, but African-
American history.
Her teacher at Lincoln Park Academy was Zora Neale
Hurston, who had gained fame for her writing and her book,
Their Eyes Were Watching God. Toward the end of her career,
she came to Fort Pierce to report for the Fort Pierce Chronicle.
Although the students didn’t know she was a famous writer
at the time, Russ says she was mesmerized by her stories.
A few years later, the two met again when she spied Hurston,
who had moved in next door to her home on Avenue
I, where Hurston lived in a house owned by Dr. Clem C.
Benton.
“She was out working in her flowers – she loved flowers
– when we got reunited,” she recalls. “I was taking out
the garbage and I thought I saw someone who looked like
Miss Hurston. She said to me, ‘Oh, it’s my girl. Hassie, is that
you?’ ”
Russ would take her flowers and plants that her mother
had rooted for the writer and bring her meals, even as Hurston’s
health declined.
“She had found a couple of old fruit crates and had put
a piece of board across it to use as a desk,” Russ says. “She
had an old two-burner oil stove. She lived very simply. Even
when she was sick, she never showed it. She never complained,”
she says of Hurston, who died in Fort Pierce in
1960.
Her high school friend, James Gibson, was one of the
young pallbearers at Hurston’s funeral. Gibson was an artist
who painted landscapes and sold them door-to-door. He
later became known as one of the original Highwaymen.
Russ laughs when she remembers that her husband, Charles,
teased her that Gibson was her secret sweetheart.
“We would spend Christmas and Thanksgiving together
and go on family trips together,” she says. When her youngest
daughter received her doctorate, Gibson gave her one of
his paintings. Two of his paintings hung in the restaurant’s
banquet room.
Gibson died of a heart attack a year ago April.
Another Highwaymen painting that hung in the banquet
hall was a scene by Al “Blood” Black. Russ knew him as
a seasonal worker. He eventually ran afoul of the law and
spent 12 years in state prison. He became known for the
murals he painted on the prison walls.
“We were the first place he came to when he got out of
prison,” she says. “He told me he had something special for
me and he had a painting wrapped up like a gift. I was just
finishing the work on the banquet hall and when I finally
unwrapped the painting, the colors in it were exactly right for
the room.”
One painting that didn’t hang in the banquet room, but in
a special spot in her home, was a painting by the one of the
original Highwaymen, Alfred Hair. Her friend, Doretha Hair
Truesdell, who was Alfred’s wife, had gotten her name in a
Secret Santa gift exchange. Truesdell gave Russ one of Hair’s
paintings as a gift.
“It was still wet,” she says with a laugh, noting one of the
trademark characteristics of Highwaymen paintings, which
were done so quickly they didn’t have time to dry before
they went out on the road to be sold. Truesdell became an
artist in her own right and her son is married to Hair’s niece.
“It brings tears to my eyes,” Russ says. “There are so many
memories.”
Central High School students, came and told the
group, “We have to thank Charles and Hassie for
restoring the dignity of Avenue D.”
Artist Anita Prentice met Hassie in 2006 at the
first Zorafest, which celebrated Hurston and her
time in Fort Pierce from 1957 until her death in 1960.
Granny’s Kitchen was the last stop on the tour and
educators from all over the country gathered to talk
and feast on the Russes’ cooking.
“There is a renaissance in that part of town and I
really feel like Hassie led the parade,” she says. “The
closing is bittersweet because it is an iconographic
restaurant, but I know Hassie has been working so
hard for so long. I’m really proud of Hassie’s whole
story, to be a woman of color and start a restaurant
during that time.”
Sitting in the banquet room, where colorful paintings
by Prentice and the Highwaymen artists are
on display, Russ smiles when she thinks back to her
early days in Fort Pierce and the historical events
that have swirled around her.
FAMILY OF COOKS
She grew up in Brunswick, Ga., where her mother,
Helen Morris, was a boarding house cook. Her aunt >>
The banquet room of the restaurant was decorated with paintings by the legendary
Highwaymen, many them friends of the Russes. Above, a painting by Al Black.