(c)2009 NPT PHOTO BY DAVID POPIEL
Betty Bush, at right, is with her aunt, Zolla Ketner, sister to Betty's late father, Shan Bush. Apples in season are a favorite at the Farm Market off Knoxville Highway. Zolla likes to use Granny Smith apples for apple butter.

Early June is shedding some of the wet weather we have been accustomed to in our hometown, as thoughts turn to summer vacations, more mowing, and good food found along the highways here.
During April some of my newspaper associates and I ate some hearty meals at the Farm Market Restaurant located off Knoxville Highway. You've seen the signs, stones, shrubs and mulch for sale, too. We talked about the restaurant and its rustic innards where home cooked basic meals are sold. I mentioned that one of the owner's fathers started a construction company across the highway. That was Betty's (Bush) Dad, Shannon Bush. Betty and Marvin Keys had visited other similar restaurants in the area to get ideas to create the at-home kitchen style amid farm produce and food goods. One of my Greeneville friends asked if Shan Bush was related to the Bush Brothers cannery family. I did not know so the question went to Betty, who responded that she thought so but to get an accurate answer she deferred to Shan's sister, Zolla Ketner. There are in fact four sisters who survive the older late brother. Also deceased is James Bush. Mayme C. Hughes, of Dandridge, will be 90 in Sept. Priscilla Jane Garing lives in Anniston, Alabama, and Anna Russell is in the Jefferson Co. nursing home. Shan was 91 when he died in 2005. I remember him as a great supporter of the Newport Rescue Squad and the Cocke County Shrine Club.
Zolla, who lives near the Chestnut Hill Volunteer Fire Dept., said Dr. Neas delivered her on Sept. 15, 1930 and 15 minutes earlier Dr. Neas had delivered Burr Lewis. Jess Bush, married to Ollie Derrick, had six children, but one died at birth. "We were the poor Bushes." And here is the Bush Brothers connection. Jess's mother was Priscilla "Jenk" who was a sister to Sara Elizabeth, A.J. Bush's mother. All of A.J.'s children are dead but there are still four of the Jess Bush girls. He was a farmer who at one time lived in White Pine as a sharecropper. "We sat out tobacco" and lived near Highway 92, walking to school barefoot. "I quilt because my Mom taught me." And, as you will learn, cooks special dishes regularly at the Farm Market. Growing up, she recalled that Shan was protective of his sisters. "I couldn't date just anyone." Eventually, Shan approved of Harold Ketner of North Carolina. Zolla and Harold were married 10 years and had three children: Deborah Artrip married to Kenny of Big Stone Gap; Tommy Ketner married Kathy. He is an engineer with TRW at Cookeville; and Nancy Shannon is divorced. By the 1950s, she was raising kids, and then one of the first hired at Electro-Voice, the new plant in Newport in 1964. Two folks she recalls were Mark Johnson and Hattie Vinson. From there she worked at Jim Robbins seatbelt manufacturer of Knoxville, got laid off, and joined Vernco in the 1980s. Her work career included Bush Brothers where Jack Bush hired her. I find it notable that she has worked hard and continues to do so but also went on to college when most are retiring. She credits Shan with sending her to business college-but didn't stick-before entering Walters State Community College and graduating in 1986. She got a degree in nursing and spent 10 years between Baptist, Jefferson Memorial, and Morristown-Hamblen hospitals. After tasting Zolla's blueberry cobbler, I agree that her Mom did a good job teaching cooking. Zolla also prepares dumplings and other desserts, blackberry, peach, and strawberry cobblers. She also continues quilting and was proud to work with Norma Weeks, of Grapevine Hollow, on an Elvis Presley quilt presented to a friend, Sandy, at Bush Brothers. Along side the other cooks, she might make two to four large cobblers per week. "I talked them into selling ice cream too." Recollecting on Shan, whose photo is on the wall at Farm Market, she said, "He always helped the family." Once, Zolla needed a car to get to work so Shan and James bought one in the 1960s. There is also another interesting connection to the Bush cannery. A.J. Bush's wife, Sally Ketner, was first cousin to Zolla's ex-husband, Walter Ketner. By the way, the other folks cooking for you at Farm Market are Ann Watts, Martha France, Edith Douglas, and Wanda Rich.
In plain talk, sometimes a history with good food is built into a name like Bush.