Reverend H. D. and Margaret Dennis
Reverend Dennis is the first to rise--with some effort--from his chair to meet new visitors. His costume involves a pair of oversized dress pants, pulled up over his thin frame with a pair of good suspenders and a large velvet belt beset with a sideways golden crescent and tiny beads. His checked cotton dress shirt is thin enough to allow for air in the hot Mississippi sun, while his military-style hat, trimmed in cheetah-print and velvet fabrics, shields him from its rays. The hat is beset with a large faux jewel, maybe 3-by-two inches, that centers on the preacher's forehead like a knowing third eye. Some days, he substitutes his formal headgear with a foam-and-mesh number that reads, "World's Best GRANDPA." Around his neck hangs always a long string of brightly-colored plastic beads, and around the middle finger of his right hand is a ring beset with a large black square. It is a Freemason's ring, and he will unsteadily hold it up for inspection if asked: a compass with a bricklayer's square and embossed letter "G."
He is always prepared to spread the gospel. He's often on his feet and preaching by the time visitors shut their sedan doors. Because his chapel is situated so close to the gaggle of third-rate casinos clogging the Port of Vicksburg, the evils of gambling often provide the basis of his sermon. He delivers his words with a kind of polyrhythmic certainty and utter drama, interspersed with the labored breathing of a ninety-one-year-old man.
"You do wrong things? You whoop your wife? You go to the gambling boats? Six pack? You know it's wrong to drink that stuff. That stuff will go to your head. We will never be able to keep this country with the sin that we got. We got more sin and evil...
"I want you all to know I ain't bulljivin'. Young people today, they bulljive. You see, I cannot charge you, but I can accept donations, according to the law. I can have manners and respect. Yes, sir, yes, ma'am. We done lost that today. It's that gambling boat."
To Reverend Dennis, the use of a vessel such as a boat for self-destruction might seem antithetical. His salvation and inspiration have come to him by way of a lifelong series of sea vessels, trains and automobiles. His life story reads like a classical myth recast in the Mississippi Delta. H. D. Dennis, raised by his grandmother, a former slave, moved north by train as a child and was adopted by a white planter family. At age 20, he enlisted as a military shipman for the WWII battle with Japan, where he began to preach actively to his fellow troops. Once home, the government provided him with a paid apprenticeship with German cabinetmakers and masons located in Georgia.
Movement is a cultural theme throughout this part of the country, with vast fields of cotton providing a buffer for the highways, rivers and train tracks by which Southern history has swirled. The Home of the Double-Headed Eagle is situated on old Highway 61, the arterial route of the Great Migration dubbed "The Blues Highway." Throughout the first half of the 20th Century, millions of impoverished African Americans passed this patch of land en route to the northern Promised Land. The Mississippi River that runs beneath Vicksburg's sudden bluffs is a site of mass transportation as well, linking this deeply Southern place to the greater world through exploration, commerce, and Civil War.
Ninety-two-year-old Margaret Dennis, the Reverend's wife of 26 years, wears a bright calico housedress and ephemeral rickrack apron, her long, wavy hair in two looped pigtails. Her skin is a delicate light brown, a reflection of her multiethnic heritage, which includes African American, European and Native American ancestry. She has always been and always will be firmly situated on the rich Delta silt. "I was born in Mississippi, I've lived here all my life, and I'll die in Mississippi," she repeats when asked about her home. Miss Margaret has owned this little wooden building for sixty-four years, first with a husband who was shot by robbers on site and later with a second husband, who passed away. Until a decade ago, it functioned as a little roadside grocery with an old steel cash register and a counter lined with cans and brightly-colored ice cream freezers off to the side. The store burned down in the 1970s and was rebuilt on an even smaller scale with the insurance money Margaret collected. Eventually, she and her second husband moved into the spare room behind the dry-goods shelves. When he passed away, Margaret was surrounded by a number of adoring nieces, nephews and friends.
As a young woman, Miss Margaret began to teach Sunday school at the tiny Missionary Baptist church set in the leafy low ground behind her store. She continues to do so occasionally today, in the same little church, rising each Sunday to share time with the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of former students. When she sings in her clear, perfectly-pitched voice, she prefers the old spirituals" "Amazing Grace" and her favorite, "I am on the Battlefield for my Lord":
"I was lost in sin, 'til Jesus took me in.
I heard a voice from heaven say there is work to do.
I took the Master's hand, and I joined the Christian band,
I'm on the battlefield for my Lord.
I am on the battlefield for my Lord; I am on the battlefield for my Lord.
And I promised Him that I would serve Him 'til I die,
I'm on the battlefield for my Lord."
In 1980, Margaret met Reverend Dennis through goods distributors at her store. The attraction was immediate; the two shared both a deep connection to the Lord and a creative spirit.
"I met this man Reverend Dennis. I met him 24 years ago. I had this little store here 42 years, and some mens was trading me, and they told me one day, "Miss Margaret." Said, "We know a man in Vicksburg, he's a nice man, he's a preacher." And says, "He needs a wife, and you need a husband so we're gonna bring him up here to meet you."
I told them, "Okay, bring him on."
So they did, and he came on Sunday. He talked with me for a while, my sister-in-law was up and we talked for a while. When he got ready to go, I said, "Come back to see us."
He said, "Oh, no, you got me wrong, child, I won't be back."
I said, "Oh, you're not comin' back? We’ll, anytime you feel like it, you can come back!"
That was Sunday--on Monday morning he came back. That Monday mornin' he be back out there. He kept a-comin'; and talking to me, and started askin' me about marriage.
I said, "I don't know--you really want to get married?"
He said, "Yeah!"
I said, "I don't know."
He said, "If you marry me, I'll turn your little grocery store into a little castle if you marry me."
I said, "Well, okay, we'll think about it."
And that was like after February. He wanted to marry me in March. I said, "Don't rush it. Let's wait until June to get married." So he agreed, but he didn't want to wait that long.
After that, he got to working, and to changing up things around here. He did pretty good at it. He caused me to meet so many nice people and good people. We hear so much on the TV about bad things happening. We don't realize how many good people we have in this world. We have some good people here. Some nice people. And so we've been doing pretty good, getting along all right so far."
Reverend Dennis began the transformation of the store immediately after moving into Margaret's Grocery. He did the carpentry and the expert bricklaying in accordance with the visions visited upon him by the Holy Ghost while Margaret handled the painting, executing her work by climbing high into the open rafters of her exquisite new castle. The project began with a series of red-and-white biblical signs and small brick embellishments and then flourished.
The Dennises do accept donations toward their power, water and medical bills. Checks can be sent directly to them at: 4535 North Washington Street; Vicksburg, Mississippi 39183-9498