"You Can't Separate McCartys from Merigold"
The internationally-renowned pottery that is quintessentially Mississippi
There is a scene that plays out from time to time—where someone at some social gathering somewhere (as far away as San Francisco, New York City, or even overseas) recognizes a piece of McCartys Pottery, with its patented glaze and signature, trademarked black squiggle, a symbol of the Mississippi River.
“They don’t say, ‘What a lovely piece of art’,” said Stephen Smith, who manages his family’s iconic pottery shop in Merigold. “They say, ‘What’s your connection to Mississippi?’ That usually starts a whole process of ‘Where are you from? Who do you know? Who are your people?’ It’s no longer about the art. It’s about the connection.”
Together with his brother, Jamie, Stephen spends his days keeping that connection to the region alive—forged some seventy years ago with two penniless artists in a mule barn-turned-pottery studio in the sleepy Delta hamlet of Merigold, Mississippi. But, in truth, it began long before that—when Lee McCarty was being raised within the self-sufficient pioneering culture of the early twentieth century Delta, his childhood shaped by the hardships of the Great Depression. Raised by a single mother, Lee's second parents were family friends Albert and Margaret Smith. Years later, he and his wife, "Pup," in turn became like second parents to their godchildren, Stephen and Jamie Smith (Albert and Margaret’s great nephews) who now carry on the McCartys legacy.
Lee and Pup fell in love in the early ‘40s at Delta State University, just before Lee volunteered to join the army during World War II. When he returned, Pup had graduated. They married and went together to Ole Miss where Lee completed his education degree, before acquiring his Masters at Columbia University. They then returned to Ole Miss so that Lee could gain teaching experience at the on-campus high school, teaching chemistry. In the meantime, Pup convinced Chancellor J.D. Williams to let her audit a pottery class. When she showed up for class the first day and realized her classmates were mostly Ole Miss football players, she entreated Lee to join her. This is how they discovered their shared love of pottery. Already painting and jewelry making, they invested in a foot-operated potter’s wheel and a small kiln for their home, eventually establishing a small studio in their garage. All they needed was clay.
Lee mentioned this to his high school class off-handedly one day, and one of his students said, “Mr. Lee, if you call my dad, I’m sure he’ll give you some clay.” That child was Jill Faulkner, and her father was William. McCarty called him and “Mr. Bill” told him, “Come on. I’ll show you where the shovels are, and you can dig all the clay you want.” Thus, the mythic reputation of McCartys pottery was sparked, with some of the couple’s earliest works created from the clay found in a ravine at William Faulkner’s famed Rowan Oak. Those and other early pieces can sell now for more than thousands of dollars a piece.
“They slept upstairs just above the kilns. On sweltering summer nights, they’d put a mattress on the floor in front of a set of French doors, and that’s where they slept. During the winters, even with the heat from the kiln, they slept in their coats and sweaters. If you want the definition of a starving artist, that’s it.” —Stephen Smith
The reason the business is called “McCartys” and not “McCarty’s” can be attributed to Margaret Smith, Lee’s foster mother and a woman ahead of her time. “Aunt Margaret sold life insurance,” Smith said. “She was the first female member of the Million-Dollar Round Table in the 1940s. She told Aunt Pup, ‘When you open this business, you call it McCartys, not McCarty’s, or everyone will assume it’s Lee’s business. You are equal members of a team.’”
When they returned to Lee’s hometown of Merigold in 1953 to officially open McCartys Pottery in August of 1954, that’s exactly what they did. “Just like those pioneers before them, when Uncle Lee and Aunt Pup began their studio, they didn’t want to be beholden to anyone,” Stephen said.
When family and friends offered to help the couple financially, they always turned it down. The one thing they did accept was Albert and Margaret's old mule barn, which hadn't been in use since mechanizing their farm. That became the McCartys’ pottery studio.
“They had no air conditioning,” Stephen said. “They slept upstairs just above the kilns. On sweltering summer nights, they’d put a mattress on the floor in front of a set of French doors, and that’s where they slept. During the winters, even with the heat from the kiln, they slept in their coats and sweaters. If you want the definition of a starving artist, that’s it.” What mattered to the McCartys was not creature comforts but the independence to pursue their art any way they chose. They expanded the footprint of the barn little by little, as they could afford to add onto it. “They lived life on their own terms, and they were perfectly happy whether they made it financially or not,” said Stephen.
"It took the two of them together, right here in Merigold, in the Mississippi Delta, to create everything that is McCartys.” —Stephen Smith
Today, McCartys is still housed in that same old mule barn, known to collectors simply as “the barn”. In 2012, with the help of the Greenville Garden Club, the gardens surrounding the barn were inducted into the Smithsonian Archives of American Gardens, quite an honor for Merigold, a hamlet of just over 500 people. Even though it takes up two acres in the middle of a residential neighborhood, it can be hard to find, unless you know where you’re going. There’s no sign—and never has been. “Uncle Lee believed that, if you create something of quality, people will find you,” Stephen said. And find them they do, traveling to Merigold from all over the country, and even from abroad.
For almost seventy years, McCartys wheel-thrown stoneware pottery has been sought by collectors all over the world, but nowhere more than in the Delta. Just as a couple isn’t considered truly married in New Orleans until they’ve second lined at their wedding reception, a couple isn’t considered truly married in the Mississippi Delta until they’ve received a piece of McCartys Pottery off the registry. It’s a rite of passage for many young women to visit the studio with their mother or grandmother to select their first piece of McCartys. And although neither of the Smith brothers know their way around social media, fans of the pottery have set up Facebook and Instagram pages with tens of thousands of followers.
Jamie, who showed promise at the wheel as early as age five, returned to Merigold in 1998. He had been working in business in Birmingham, Alabama, before ultimately heeding the call to return home and apprentice with his godparents as they got older. He quickly realized he needed someone to help him run the business end of things, while he concentrated on the art. His brother Stephen accepted the call, too, retiring from his law practice in Georgia at age thirty-two and returning to his roots.
“When I left Merigold, I swore I’d never return,” Stephen said. “But that’s the pull of this area. Even when I lived in Georgia, I was still a Mississippian. That’s Uncle Lee and Aunt Pup’s legacy. They showed others you can stay in Mississippi and still pursue your dreams. If they can take a dilapidated mule barn and create a business that’s known worldwide, if they can create beautiful gardens with their own hands that are now part of the Smithsonian, if they can make something from nothing, you can stay in the place you love and live life on your own terms, too.”
It looks like that McCartys legacy is destined to continue on. Even as Jamie sits at his Uncle Lee’s pottery wheel and recreates his godparents’ designs, even as Stephen delights the next generation of artists with tales of the heart and soul his godparents put into their creations—Jamie’s youngest child, Elizabeth McCarty “Carty” Smith has taken her own place at the pottery wheel, excited to learn from her dad how to carry this art form into the next generation.
“You can’t separate McCartys from Merigold and you can’t separate Merigold from McCartys,” Stephen said. “Uncle Lee and Aunt Pup were going to be successful artists whether they met each other or not, and they could have found that success in New York or California—or anywhere. But it took the two of them together, right here in Merigold, in the Mississippi Delta, to create everything that is McCartys.”