Editor’s Note: Senior of the Month is a new, monthly profile on a senior citizen or senior couple based in Plant City. Any resident over the age of 55 who has left a lasting impact in the community is eligible for Senior of the Month. If you know someone who would make a great Senior of the Month, contact News Reporter Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com.
Plant City is in the middle of a growth spurt, but Dora Beveard remembers a time when the town was much smaller.
Beveard lived behind Mt. Zion Assembly of God for much of her adult life. Back then, there wasn’t a Starbucks or a Wawa that led into the city — just winding roads.
But for Beveard, Plant City was big enough.
Now 91, Beveard moved to Plant City with her family when she was about 12 from Opp, Alabama.
“Opp only had a sewing factory and a cotton gin,” Beveard, the oldest of six, said. Residents who didn’t work in the factories earned money by harvesting cotton, corn and peanuts.
“There were not that many public jobs for people. Opp was about like Dover. One red light,” Beveard said.
Beveard has been back to visit Opp often. She frequently went with her daughters, former City Commissioner Marsha Passmore and Plant City Entertainment Vice President Dodie White.
“Opp is a good place to go back and visit once in a while,” Beveard said. “But this is home.”
Cooking for a Crowd
If there are Plant City residents who haven’t met Beveard, it’s likely they’ve had her cooking — and loved it.
For years, Beveard was the cook at Good Times Café, a former eatery once located on Reynolds Street. Beveard was recruited to the position by café owner Edna Stimmer.
Beveard can still remember the meals she made at Good Times, from corned beef on Fridays to Shepherd’s pie,
which became a café staple.
If someone didn’t like what was on the menu, Beveard would cook them a special meal by request.
“Mama’s just a true old Southern cook,” Passmore said. “She always tailored it to what you like. We could invite anyone over, we always had food.”
The only thing more popular than her cooking was Beveard herself. She would mingle with the customers during the café’s breakfast and lunch hours, including members of a men’s morning coffee club.
But Beveard and her cooking were popular beyond the city limits. Reporter John Keasler from The Miami News visited the café whenever he was in town. He was so enamored with Beveard’s collard green sandwich, served on fresh cornbread, that he wrote about it.
He tried to convince Beveard to move to Miami, too, to cook for a bigger crowd.
“He begged me over the phone like a starved-to-death kid,” Beveard said.
But Beveard wasn’t interested. Her clients, paying or not, were in Plant City.
Besides working at Good Times, she cooked banquet meals for Plant City Entertainment and served dishes for Cork Methodist Church every Wednesday. She served as the president of the church’s women’s society.
“I have cooked a lot of meals in my time,” Beveard said. “Some of it I learned from my mother, but I took up cooking on my own. I just love it. I rather cook than do anything else I’ve ever done.”
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com.