Carrie Stewart and Gerald Stewart, Louisville, Winston County. Interview recorded June 1981.
Gerald Stewart came from a deeply rooted family potting tradition. By 1888, his father Homer Wade Stewart established a pottery in Louisville, Mississippi. All five of Homer's sons, worked in the pottery as children.
Of the five brothers, Gerald, Tom, and Winfred excelled in the family tradition. Before long, Gerald established his own pottery nearby and continued to turn until his death in 1993.
In 1930, Winfred married Carrie and they ran the family pottery while raising fourteen children. Two of their sons, Bill and Frank, would continue in the potting tradition. Today, Bill has left the pottery business, but Frank and his son Keith continue to turn pots.
Winfred and Gerald’s sister, Hattie Mae Stewart, married into the Brown family and moved to Alabama, joining together two of the most prolific potting traditions in the region. Her husband, Horace "Jug" Brown worked for a time in the Stewart Pottery in Louisville. The Brown family tradition continues today in the work of Jerry Brown.
