The woman behind the pie
Arletta was born in 1939 just across the river in Maysville, Kentucky, from where she was raised in Manchester, Ohio — one of nine children on a tobacco farm, in a household that knew real hardship. Still living with a depression era mindset, nothing went to waste back then and you made do with what you had. In fact, it was a special day for the girls of the family (Shirley, Norma Jean, Arletta, Nancy) when it was time to buy flour for the kitchen. They took turns picking out the flour sack, as in those days, flour was distributed in cloth bags that normally had a fancy pattern on them. Their mother, Artie, would transform the flour sack into a dress, which was a highlight for them at the time.
She started working as a teller in a bank in Columbus, Ohio as a young woman, married the IBM technician that visited the bank, and gave birth to three children in Ohio. Because IBM didn't just stand for International Business Machines, it also meant, at least to the employees, "I've Been Moved" — she raised them in Florida for four years, and then settled down in Round Rock, Texas, where the kids completed their education and live to this day. Wherever she landed, the kitchen came with her. Gregarious, warm, and impossible not to love, Arletta carried that farm-kitchen resourcefulness across every state she called home. Although she passed away in 2017, the people who knew her still talk about her cooking — and this small corner of the internet exists to keep that conversation going.
The blue ribbon
Sometime in the 1980s, Arletta's crust helped take home a blue ribbon at Ohio's Perry County Fair — baked into a pie entered by her best friend, Linda Beaver. That's the kind of baker she was, and that's the kind of person she was — fantastic pie maker, wonderful friend, always willing to share and help, filled with love — a legacy that her family is proud of.
"It's the only pie my wife will eat." — her son, still true to this day.
Her pie business is in the oven
We're cooking up something real — Arletta's blue ribbon recipe, made the way she made it, coming to a kitchen near you.
Stay tuned for one of the best pies you've ever tasted — even if you don't think you like apple pie. We'll let you know exactly where you can get yours.
A small legacy
This site isn't a bakery — not yet, anyway. For now, it's a place to preserve a story: a woman who grew up with very little, baked with a lot of heart, and left behind a reputation for pie that her family still measures every other pie against.
If you knew Arletta, or you've ever had a slice of her pie, we'd love to hear about it.