Morning comes early for Edna Bartlett, the Baptist Student Center hostess at the University of South Alabama. She “rises while it is still night,” a characteristic of a virtuous woman, according to Proverbs 31:15.
Four thirty a.m. is considered “still night” by most standards, but “Mrs. Edna” (as she is known by college students) finds it necessary to rise early, especially on Wednesdays.
Each Wednesday she serves three meals for students at the Baptist Student Center. They call it: “The Best Stuff Café.”
“This is the only home-cooked meal I get every week,” said Jerome McGee, a junior from Biloxi, Miss. “And Mrs. Edna always tells me it’s not about her, but it’s for the Lord.”
Bartlett begins each day with a cup of coffee and her morning devotion. She tries to get to the student center by 6 a.m. on Wednesday.
“I don’t like to be rushed. I like to get here before the students do and have things lined up,” said Bartlett, who started this ministry in 1989.
Bartlett has lived in Mobile since 1947. After graduating from high school in Coffee County, she moved to Mobile to find a job. Shortly after her move, she met Jimmie Bartlett at a restaurant on the way to a circus with friends.
“I guess it was love at first sight,” she said. “I wrote a friend that night and said I’d met the man I was going to marry.”
Jimmie and Edna Bartlett were married when Edna was 21. They attended Toulminville Baptist Church in Mobile. The congregation later changed locations and formed Woodmont Baptist Church. Because Woodmont recently disbanded, Bartlett is now a member of Cottage Hill Baptist Church, Mobile.
At Woodmont, Jimmie and Edna Bartlett developed the ministry they are best known for — cooking.
Jimmie was a merchant seaman and chief steward on a ship for 42 years.
“He was a wonderful cook,” Bartlett said.
During this time, Bartlett worked 40 hours a week in the credit/layaway department at J.C. Penney.
Later, she decided to spend Wednesdays — her day off — cooking the family meal for members of Woodmont Baptist.
Charles Matthews, former associate pastor of Woodmont, said, “She cooked family meals and catered weddings. Her ministry is to feed people not just the Word of God but food.”
Feeding the flock
Bartlett served as hostess at Woodmont for nine years. A few years later, Jimmie Bartlett retired from his job as chef and took his wife’s old job as church host.
“My mother came from a long line of good cooks,” said Cindy Clayton, the Bartletts’ daughter. “She taught me how to cook, and I cooked my first meal at 13.”
Both of her brothers are good cooks as well, Clayton said, noting one brother owns a restaurant franchise.
Jimmie Bartlett continued cooking at Woodmont for 13 years, and the passing years did not diminish the love he had for his wife. In March 2000, they celebrated their 50-year wedding anniversary.
“We still walked around holding hands because we were so close,” Bartlett said. “If you keep the Lord as the center of your life, you can have a marriage like that.”
When Jimmie Bartlett passed away July 14, 2000, his family was not alone in grieving their loss.
“It was the biggest funeral I had ever participated in,” Matthews said. “He was dearly loved not just by his family and the church but by people in the community. They missed the man who wouldn’t just write “corn” on the menu at church, but he would write “succulent corn.”
After her husband’s death Bartlett continued the ministry she had started at the Baptist Student Center. “A friend of mine used to cook here, and she needed some help. I had retired, so I did that. I never intended to stay this long.”
Students at the Baptist Student Center said they are glad Bartlett stayed.
Melanie Langston, a senior from Gulfport, Miss., said, “She’s like my grandma. It’s easy to come to her with problems. She gives good advice because she’s been through every experience imaginable.”
Bartlett said she is glad she stayed, too.
She said she is able to have good relationships with the students, “because I have always had such good relationships with my children and grandchildren. All you have to do is show them the love of Christ, and let them know they’re important.”
Besides the meals on Wednesday, Bartlett prepares soup and cornbread each Tuesday that is served to the students free of charge. This is made possible, she said, because of a donation received from a student’s father.
Matthews said Bartlett is “humble, cheerful and reverent to her Lord.”
Because she fears the Lord, Bartlett’s friends and family “praise her in the gates” (Prov. 31:31).
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