We are blessed to live in the home my husband grew up in…a home with a history. Our baby, Brooke, came home from the
hospital to a nursery that was once her grandmother’s walk-in closet, not fancy, but certainly convenient for a nursing mother. 

Joel Wardlaw Ramsey and his family

Joe baby on Herring Street	Joe Cub Scout	Joe at Dead Lakes	Joe with his Mom and Dad	Joe on the Tennis Team at DHS
Joe and newly pinned Sharman	Pi Kappa Phi Riverboat at the Uof A	Joe and Sharman wedding rehearsal dinner	Reception Line November 8, 1969, Dr. E. G. Burson, Sr., Eunice Gillis, Joe and Sharman Ramsey, Dr. E. G. Burson, Jr., Hilda and Robert Ramsey, Jean Burson, Elkanah Burson III
Lucy, Joe and the Sharman I	Citadel	Joe and Spencer Bacchus get law degrees at the U of A 1972	Sharman, Drew, Cecily and Brooke	Joe and Brooke Ramsey
Sharman and Joe at Pinnacle Port	New son, Drew, and proud father Joe	Joyce, Bill, Hilda, Cathy, Phil, Ed, Matthew, Joe, Drew, Sharman and Brooke at 800 N. Cherokee
	Drew at a Citadel party

We often comment on how fortunate we were to have been born when we were and where we were.
We grew up in homes where our parents loved each other. We were educated in good public schools. Joe had
cousins close by who were as dear as his brothers and friends so special that time and distance has not diminished the bond.

He went off to The Citadel with his buddy, Tommy Spann (now known as Charles Spann, owner of 11
McDonald’s who lives in Guntersville), but after two years he left for the University of Alabama where
he eventually graduated from Law School with his friend, Spencer Bacchus (now U.S. congressman). There
 he pledged Pi Kappa Phi and got "pinned" (syruped and feathered and taken on a drop), engaged, and finally
married to a Tri Delt who had grown up only three blocks away. He came home to practice law with his father

.A.C. Ramsey's nephew, brother William J. Ramsey's son, James Polk Ramsey

After we married it was necessary, as part of my wifely initiation, to visit Charleston and The Citadel. I have come to share my husband’s love of the old city and especially its food. The Loralie, a restaurant he especially enjoyed when he lived in Charleston, no longer stands. But I still remember the best She Crab Soup I have ever eaten. I am working on finding that recipe. This one is close:

1 cup (8 ounces) fresh cooked crabmeat, remove cartilage and shell fragments

¼ cup unsalted butter

4 cups milk, at room temperature

¼ cup heavy cream, at room temperature

4 green onions, thinly sliced

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

½ teaspoon ground mace

½ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

¼ cup dry sherry

10 ounces crab roe (may use 3 hard cooked eggs sprinkled on the bottom of the bowl before ladling in the soup)

1 teaspoon paprika for garnish

Place the crabmeat in a small bowl. Fluff the crabmeat, but do not cut, into bite size pieces.

Melt the butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour forming a roux. Cook for 3 minutes but do not let it brown. Add milk and cream. Let the soup thick, whisking constantly, about four more minutes.

Reduce the heat to low and stir in the crabmeat, onions, salt, mace , Worcestershire sauce and pepper until well blended. Cook, stirring often, just until the crabmeat is heated through, about one minute.

Before serving, stir in the sherry and crab roe until well blended. Serve in shallow bowls garnished with paprika.

I guess it was inevitable, considering the military education tradition in the family, that our son would also wind up at The Citadel. It was his opportunity to experience the culture of Charleston, the training of The Citadel…and for us all to get more of the best She Crab Soup in the world!