For most of us, the idea of working well into retirement age doesn’t sound all that great. However, when you’ve been working at the same bakery for nearly seven decades, it’s a different story! Plus, Mary Woodruff is no ordinary human. This incredible woman not only started her own pie shop, she still helps run it today! Over the years, she’s also passed on her love of pie to her daughter and the local communuity…
One Historic Pie Shop
You know that old saying “age is just a number?” Well, Mary Woodruff is proof! She first opened her amazing pie shop, Woodruff’s Store: Café & Pie Shop, in Monroe, Virginia, back in 1952! At the time, when the now 103-year-old opened the location along with her husband, it was incredibly uncommon for black people to own their own businesses. However, believe it or not, this wasn’t anything new for Mary and her family. Incredibly, Mary’s own grandfather had become a free slave and opened one of the first blacksmith shops in America! In fact, it was was one of the first-ever black-owned businesses, making it an important part of history. Even better, it sat right across from where the pie shop is today!
Back in the ’50s, Woodruff and her husband lived in a little apartment over the pie shop and ran their business with a whole lot of love. “We were happy. We were just getting ready to do something together. And we did. And I’ve been blessed,” Woodruff shared in a recent interview.
The American Dream
Over the years, running Woodruff’s Store: Café & Pie Shop wasn’t always easy for Mary and her family. Woodruffs’ daughter, Angela, discussed the most difficult moments in a recent interview. “They had a couple bricks thrown through the window,” Scott said. “And then my sisters integrated the schools in Amherst County. And as soon as that happened, there were a lot of (white) people who didn’t like that, so they stopped patronizing the business.”
Unfortunately, at one point, things became so bad, that the store closed down in 1982. Thankfully, just a few years later, Angela insisted the family not abandon the pie shop. So, the family reopened the place in 1998, with Scott running it alongside her mother. “I just really do think it was a God thing. It was the legacy that I wanted to carry on. This is what I’m supposed to do” shared Scott. Still, there was a long road ahead…
Perfect Pie
Reopening the shop in the late ’90s wasn’t easy. The family found it difficult attracting customers, and they mostly sold sandwiches. “It was off the beaten path. It had been closed for so many years. There were days that we didn’t have a customer, maybe one or two,” the business owner admitted. “But Mama just kept going, ‘Angie, you gotta have faith, it’s gonna be fine.’ I think if it hadn’t been for her, I probably would’ve closed.”
So then Scott realized: pies. It was the pies that made the place so unique, familiar, and beloved. And indeed, business bloomed. Today, Woodruff’s Store: Café & Pie Shop sells around 75 handmade pies every day. Scott is inspired by cookbooks, family dishes, and of course – her mother, who still helps runs the business. She knows the customers, the recipes, and the feel of the place. “Pie is love. When you bite into a piece of pie, it just makes you feel loved,” her daughter said.
Sources: HashtagChatter, MSN, WRCB TV.