HottyToddy Hometown: Greenwood, Mississippi

If you drive throughout the Delta in Mississippi, one of the towns that everyone knows and flocks to is Greenwood. Greenwood is the county seat for Leflore County and has had many great public figures and businesses.

Greenwood is home and headquarters to Viking Range Corporation, which is an appliance company that manufactures high-end professional kitchen appliances for residential and commercial use. It was established by Fred Carl Jr. in the late 1980’s.

The name Greenwood comes from the Choctaw Indian Chief Greenwood Leflore. The Yazoo River is formed by the Tallahatchie River and the Yalobusha River in Greenwood.

According to the 2010 United States Census Bureau the town is 9.5 square miles and has a population of 16,087 people. The racial makeup of the town according to the Census Bureau was 30.7 white, 67.2 black, .01 native american and those of hispanic or latino of any race made up 1.1% of the population.

Greenwood was where blues king B.B. King was first live broadcasted over radio in 1940. The radio station that broadcasted him was WGRM on Howard Street.

A good number of athletes have also come from Greenwood. Most notably those who played for Ole Miss that came from Greenwood were Stewart Patridge, Ole Miss starting quarterback in 1996-1997, and Jonathan Nichols, 2003 Lou Groza Award winning kicker for Ole Miss. Kent Hull, a Buffalo Bills Wall of Fame and member of the Buffalo Bills 50th Anniversary All-Time Team center, attended Greenwood High School before moving on to play football for Mississippi State.

Greenwood has had it’s dark past but also has had bright spots in it’s history. Civil Rights era scars will always be around but the town has made much progress over the last several decades by becoming one of the nicest places to live in the Delta.

–Justin Taylor, Associate Editor, HottyToddy.com