Enjoying a slice of hand-crafted pizza or a juicy burger with seasoned fries while listening to a live band at Proud Larry’s is a quintessential Oxford, Mississippi, experience. A gift from Lisa and Scott Caradine, who opened the restaurant and music venue in 1993, promises to help document and preserve such iconic Southern experiences.
“Our livelihood has revolved around the culture of the South in Oxford, Mississippi, and we understand the importance of that surviving,” Scott Caradine said. “We have had a lifelong commitment to the fundamentals of Southern Studies in areas of food and music.”
The Caradines’ gift will support several projects at the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture (CSSC) and Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) including the SFA Keeper of the Flame award, film residency program and stipends for graduate students. It also supports maintaining the online Mississippi Encyclopedia for the next five years.
The center, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2027, has a mission to document, interpret and teach about the American South through critical research and public engagement.
“This is the lead gift in supporting The Center at 50 Fund, which will help us celebrate and take stock of the role the center has played in the study of regional culture,” said Katie McKee, CSSC director. “This gift is delightful any way you look at it, but especially delightful because it comes from friends.”
The importance of family is also a significant factor for the Caradines, who met while taking a military science class together at Ole Miss. Several of their family members, including Scott Caradine’s dad, Emmett Caradine; Lisa Caradine’s father, Sonny Mitchell; and her brother, Butch Mitchell, as well as their daughter, Haley, also are Ole Miss alumni.
“I grew up among educators from a dad who was a university professor to mother and stepfather who taught at the high school level,” Scott Caradine said. “This gift is also in memory of my Uncle Jimmy, who grew up in West Point, Mississippi, and spent his entire career in New York and working around the globe.
“He loved Southern writers and Southern food. When we decided to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of Southern Studies and put money toward the continuation of the encyclopedia, those were all things that Uncle Jimmy would be proud we are helping to foster.”
Lisa Caradine, a Greenville, Mississippi, native, grew up attending Ole Miss football games with her dad and brother. She earned a degree in mathematics, which she used as the bookkeeper for Proud Larry’s, and continues today with an active role in the management team.
Lisa and Scott Caradine, who also support Ole Miss Athletics, probably crossed paths many times as kids hanging out with their families in the Grove.
“The lineage of our dads going to Ole Miss brought us both to Oxford,” she said. “My dad’s favorite thing in the world was attending Ole Miss football games, and I’m excited to be able to honor both family and friendships with this gift.”
Each fall, the SFA honors an unsung foodways tradition bearer of note with the Keeper of the Flame award and pays homage to their life and work through a documentary film. This aspect appealed to the Caradines.
“This gift ensures the stories of the unsung folks who make, grow and serve great Southern food will be told, and told well by the next generation of graduate students and emerging filmmakers,” said Melissa Hall, SFA co-director. “Transformative gifts like the Caradines’ fund SFA’s work and ensure that documentary field work is a part of the CSSC curriculum for years to come.”
Helping others is a key component of the Caradines’ ethos.
“The consideration of our daughter, Haley, eventually coming back to Oxford and taking over our family business gave it some resonance,” Scott Caradine said. “And the fact that our son, Miles, is learning to be a filmmaker at Loyola University in New Orleans gave us the idea of wanting to support anything that had to do with being creative on campus. We know from our son trying to raise money for his own projects that it’s hard, and if we could help filmmakers with that, then that was important.”
To support The Center at 50 Fund, send a check with the fund’s name written in the memo line, to the University of Mississippi Foundation at 406 University Ave., Oxford MS 38655 or online here.
To learn more about supporting for the Study of Southern Culture and Southern Foodways Alliance, contact Claire Moss, associate director of development, at claire@southernfoodways.org or 901-409-5991.
By Rebecca Lauck Cleary/UM Southern Studies