Dave Franks has left us for the great beyond, but I still think of him often. His tales and his cooking need to be saved.

James David Franks told me he started cooking at age 5. His grandmother taught him to cook and would let him stand in a straight wooden chair and stir the pots on a wood burning stove. Although re-calculating her directions–a spoonful of this or that, a pinch of this or that–not to mention the “handful” since Dave’s hand is three times the size of his grandmother’s hand–has been quite a challenge; nonetheless, Dave has published two cookbooks, Foods of the Southland and Bar-B-Q Beans and Tater Salad. He was working on a third book, Sweets of the Southland. I do not know if the book got published before Dave died.