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                    "Evelyn McGee, left, speaks with her sister Linda Wade on Friday at the table reserved for their father, Henry \u201cBuddy\u201d McGee, at Pheba\u2019s Diner in Clay County. Henry McGee, 86, passed away earlier this month in his childhood home where he was born in 1940, which sits behind the diner. Braden Simmons/Dispatch Staff\t\n\t\t\tWhenever you walked through the wooden front door to Pheba\u2019s Diner off Highway 50, there was always one thing that remained constant.\nSeated at the head of a large table in the middle of the main dining room was Henry \u201cBuddy\u201d McGee, who would immediately greet you with a smile and an invitation to sit and swap stories.\nIt didn\u2019t matter if it was about his time working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Vicksburg, his latest fishing escapades or about everyone\u2019s family tree in Pheba; he always had something to share.\n\u201c(Patrons) came in, they\u2019d talk, they\u2019d order and sit down, and \u2026 they loved to listen to the different stories he had,\u201d said Linda Wade, McGee\u2019s oldest daughter. \u201c(They wanted to know) where he traveled, what he had done, who he had encountered. Dad had a tremendous knack for voices, and if you had talked to him a time or two, then he would know (you by your voice).\u201d\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tA picture of Henry \u201cBuddy\u201d McGee sits on the countertop in Pheba\u2019s Diner on Friday at the restaurant in Clay County. McGee\u2019s presence made the restaurant a local fixture over the last 14 years, and his passing on June 3 has left a void in the diner, Linda Wade, his oldest daughter, said. Braden Simmons/ Dispatch Staff \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\nIt was McGee\u2019s storytelling that helped form the identity of Pheba\u2019s Diner as a local fixture in the town since it opened about 14 years ago under the ownership of Wade and her husband. The diner sits cattycorner on the same plot of land where McGee\u2019s childhood home stands. That home is where McGee was born in 1940, and that\u2019s where he died June 3 at age 86.\nBernie White, a regular who has attended the diner nearly every Friday since it opened, said the diner and town have not been the same since his passing.\n\u201cMr. Buddy, he was really a true historian of Pheba,\u201d White said. \u201cHe was that generation who could go back a lot of years and remember things about people that I knew growing up as a child out here.\u201d\nA storied traveler\nIn family tradition, McGee was born inside the family home like his mother and both his older sisters, Wade said.\nBecause of those roots in the area, Wade said McGee made a point to try and help his neighbors with horsetraining, bush hogging fields or plowing land before graduating from Maben High School in 1958.\nMcGee, after school, moved to Texas and worked on several oil rigs for three years before taking a job as a driller with the Corps of Engineers. During his nearly 20-year career with the Corps, McGee and his wife, Mildred, traveled to countries like Greenland and the Marshall Islands and moved to more than 30 states.\n\u201cHe had a tremendous mind and imagination, so they would just go and go and go,\u201d Wade said. \u201cThey\u2019d see things, they\u2019d do things (and) they had a tremendous relationship, now they\u2019d fuss and carry on, and then next thing you know, they\u2019d be back on the same page, and they just kept on (traveling).\u201d\nThe family spent school years in states like Nevada, Utah and Colorado, but no matter where they went, Pheba was always on McGee\u2019s mind.\n\u201cHe always said that if you ever drank the water at Pheba, you would come back here,\u201d Wade said with a laugh. \u201cAnd he never had any intention to do anything else.\u201d\nAfter retiring from the Corps of Engineers in 1980, McGee and his wife returned to Pheba permanently and began renovations on Henry\u2019s childhood home.\nWade said about 14 years ago, when speaking with her parents about the closure of a nearby restaurant, they mentioned wanting to see a new eatery open in the town.\nWade took the not-so-subtle suggestion in stride by opening Pheba\u2019s Diner in her father\u2019s own backyard.\n\u201cI thought this place would be a way that we could all come and visit and be happy,\u201d Wade said. \u201c\u2026 I hope it\u2019s been a good positive asset to the community.\u201d\nBuilding an identity\nWade said that since opening, there has been a consistent base of dozens of regulars who come in daily to eat at the diner.\nThose regulars included Henry, who would make the short jaunt every morning from his front porch to the diner and set up shop with his signature Styrofoam cup full of Coca-Cola.\n\u201cEverybody knew that\u2019s where he sat, and if somebody would just come in and just randomly sit down \u2026 he\u2019d come in and they\u2019d be friends by the time they left,\u201d Wade said.\nAlongside an expanded patron base, the diner\u2019s physical building has also grown to add a secondary dining room area. Wade attributes a lot of the diner\u2019s success to her father\u2019s presence.\n\u201cHe wasn\u2019t monotonous or anything like that. He was a good storyteller (and) somebody you wanted to listen to,\u201d Wade said. \u201c\u2026 I\u2019ve had people come in and sit down for hours and listen to him tell the story. They\u2019d come in, if he wasn\u2019t real talkative they\u2019d ask him something and he\u2019d start.\u201d\nEvelyn McGee, his youngest daughter, said the family knew something was wrong when his demeanor changed earlier this year.\n\u201cWhen he got to not doing good, the one thing we noticed is he wasn\u2019t talking as much,\u201d Evelyn said.\nWade said Henry loved his hometown and its history, which is part of why even as he got closer to his passing, he wanted to stay close to town and in the same home where he began his life.\n\u201cI think it was just important to him,\u201d she said.\nHenry\u2019s funeral service at Pheba Cemetery on June 6 was followed by a celebration of life at the diner.\nMore than 100 family members and regulars stopped by the diner to pay respects, share stories and eat food. Wade said the family couldn\u2019t have imagined celebrating his memory anywhere else.\n\u201cIt seemed natural,\u201d Wade said. \u201cWe had done it for mother, we did it for his older sister and it was just his turn.\u201d\nKeith Yeatman, another regular at the diner, said his mother grew up in Pheba and Henry would share stories his mother never mentioned about her early years.\n\u201cHe\u2019d always talk about growing up there (near) Maben, him and Mom \u2026 they\u2019d go to Main Street in Maben, and somehow or another they\u2019d get on top of those buildings and they\u2019d go from roof to roof at night and because they were kids, it\u2019s no telling what they were doing,\u201d Yeatman said.\nFor Yeatman, it\u2019s still strange walking through the diner and not seeing Henry anymore.\n\u201cI still catch myself looking. I look at that chair, and I don\u2019t see Mr. Buddy anymore (and it\u2019s sad), but that\u2019s life,\u201d Yeatman said.\nEven after his passing, Wade said the diner still leaves his table reserved as a way of honoring his memory.\n\u201cNobody tells stories like he could, but we still tell what stories we\u2019ve heard,\u201d Wade said.\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n      \n      \n        Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.\n      \n    \n\n\t\t\t\n      \n      \n        Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community."
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