Willie James McCoy the Barbecue Man of Amite, Louisiana.

I grew listening to the grown folks in Amite, Louisiana talking about "Will McCoy" barbecue, Beside my own cousin W.K. Gordon, Jr., there wasn't anyone that could come close to out cooking these men who specialized in barbecuing, especially barbecue goat.

Willie James McCoy was born October 24, 1907 to Joseph and Julie Hart McCoy in Amite, Louisiana. He was the third child of eleven children. Mr. Will as everyone called him was  hard working man. As a very young man he and his brother went on the only job he ever had in Texasarkanana, Texas. At the age of 17 years old, he met and married Sadie Ricks, Sadie was the daughter of Annie Hutton and Claune Ricks. Mr. Will farmed. He raised strawberries and Mrs. Sadie would walk all through Amite to sell them. She was also a seamstress. She seed for whites and black. People came from all over to get her to sew for them.

In the 1940s they build a two room bar and kitchen. Mr. Will was known for his barbecue. People couldn't wait to get their hands and mouth around those delicious barbecue goat sandwich. On the weekend, people would travel from the surrounding area to buy his barbecue goat.

Although Mrs. Sadie was running the kitchen, she still made time to sew. She raised her two oldest children in the kitchen. They were little infants, so she would have them in a bread box or clothes basket, while cooking and taking care of them.

Mr. Will organized a male baseball team. He sponsored baseball games every Sunday. He was known for having everyone 's children in the neighborhood on the back of his pickup truck. The truck never did leave home without a truck load of children. He also loved to hunt and he owned numerous  Beagle dogs. He and his wife was the parents of five children. He taught his children how to barbecue and to make that famous BBQ sauce. When their oldest daughter Joyce Ann married, Mr. Will taught her husband the trade. Mr. Will died on December 19, 1973, his wife Sadie died April 9, 1997. They left their traded to all their children and they are still carrying their profession on to this very day.


Source: Reprint from Gracie Walker's Legacies of Color Scrapbook, Amite Genealogy Library Archival Room

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