In 1974, when dining choices in the Nashville area were scant, Daisy King arrived on the scene brimming with fresh ideas for Southern food and hospitality. She had already made her mark as a caterer, but her renown came after opening Miss Daisy’s Tea Room in historic downtown Franklin. At the time, there was no place like it. Guests reveled in her sherry-laced creamed chicken over cornbread, shrimp aspic with horseradish dressing, spiced peach salad, Sally Lunn muffins, Millionaire’s pie, and tea punch. But it wasn’t just the fare that captivated them. It was Daisy herself, a generous, hospitable spirit who never met a stranger.

“My philosophy is simple,” she’d say. “I love people and I love food.”

An up-and-coming caterer in the 1980s, I followed Daisy’s career. She was a force. She expanded Miss Daisy’s Tea Room to a full-service restaurant in Nashville’s Green Hills neighborhood. She authored cookbooks. (And of the fourteen, eight are still in print, her first selling over one million copies!) She demonstrated her tried-and-true recipes on television. She consulted for Pillsbury. In 1986, Governor Alexander tapped her to participate in his Homecoming Tennessee project, for which she edited the “Homecoming” cookbook and traveled with Alex Haley to communities throughout the state. That experience inspired her to write “Miss Daisy Celebrates Tennessee” for our 1996 bicentennial, relating our state’s history through regional recipes, customs, and stories. In conjunction, she brought together seven of Tennessee’s First Ladies for a special luncheon at The Hermitage, a feat that remained a great source of pride.

Unafraid of change, she pivoted her business from restaurant to “store-within-a-store.” Since 1992, Miss Daisy’s Kitchen has purveyed her customers’ favorite prepared-to-go appetizers, soups, casseroles, dressings, and desserts. 

Our paths crossed in 2014 when we became founding members of the Nashville chapter of Les Dames d’ Escoffier International, a non-profit dedicated to supporting women in food and hospitality through scholarship and mentorship. I had shifted from catering to food writing, but Daisy, 10 years my senior, was still in the thick of it. We bonded over our common love of food, service, and Les Dames’ mission.

“It’s our job to lead the way for our women,” she’d say.

2024 marked a milestone: five decades since the launch of the beloved tea room. Last fall, I visited Daisy in her home for a local story. We combed through cookbooks, magazines, newspaper articles, photographs, and awards: testaments to the life of this ebullient, accomplished person. She had touched the lives of so many and planned to keep going.

“I’ve got one more cookbook in me,” she confided. Sadly, we won’t get that last one. But we have her legacy. 

Here’s to Daisy Mae Pass King, raised on a Georgia farm by grandparents from the age of 6 after losing both parents, who found her way into the kitchen and our hearts. A toast to this devoted wife and mother who had the heartbreaks of outliving her husband and two sons, and remained ever-optimistic, gracious, and endearing. Daisy will always be our grande dame, Tennessee’s First Lady of Southern Cooking.