GALLERY
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Images from Annette’s family archives, provided by members of the Hollowell, Nunnally, and Burton Families
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Images from Foxfire’s archives, provided by the Hollowell family, Jai Williams, free feral, and Justin Morris
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Commissioned works from innovative and inspired artists who happen to be long-time friends of the Hollowell family.
(Coming soon!)
Family Album
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Episode 3
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Family Album ✶ Episode 3 ✶
Three on three
Big Mama & Sayeed
Margarita
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Upon returning to the U.S. after a 2nd tour in Saudi Arabia, Bill Hollowell immediately did 3 things: he purchased a pickup truck, a horse trailer, and then he bought a horse! Our horse matriarch was Margarita, she was a 2-year-old voice-trained Spanish-Arabian mare from a long line of award-winning show horses. A few months after she joined our family, we were informed by her breeders that Margarita was likely pregnant, because, ya know, things happen. So we got 2 horses for the price of 1. Pictured here is Big Mama with Sayeed Bin Fahad, our first baby. He is now an ancestor, but in his prime, he was a silly, mischievous, and affectionate dude. We miss him every day. His sister Aaliyah is now the matriarch of our small herd.
Joseph Hollowell
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Joseph Clarence Hollowell was the 6th child of Albert and Wilma Hollowell. He was the baby of the family, and the only one of his siblings born in a hospital. He died tragically at the age of 38 in a trucking accident outside of Akins, Georgia, in 1998. He was a soft-spoken and peaceful man, cool as a cucumber, and a deeply devoted husband and father to his very young children. We’ll never stop missing him.
Wilmer the Ruffrider 1
Wilmer the Ruffrider 2
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On her 85th birthday, Ms. Wilma declared that she wanted to ride a horse! She put on a pair of pants, something she NEVER wore, and drove from her farm outside of Holly Springs to Waterford. Bill saddled Sayeed, pulled up a chair, and helped his mother mount. Bill insisted on carefully leading his mother and Sayeed up and down the road, despite her insistence that “ Wilma’s a ruff rider!” and that she could manage just fine on her own.
Foxfire Photos
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Episode 3
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Foxfire Photos ✶ Episode 3 ✶
The Pasture:
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This pasture greets all of Foxfire’s guests. Back when Bill was a kid, the family house stood here. Now, you’re likely to meet the Hollowells’ horse herd here.
On the Trail:
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Walking the trail in early Spring, close to the road.
On the Road
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From the road, we peer onto the Hollowells’ property.
Erosion:
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From producer free feral: There was a period when every time I walked at Foxfire with Bill, he’d lament over the never-ending battle with erosion on the land. Here’s a great example from the edge of the property.
Lost in Thoughts:
Jai Williams Photography
The Pass in Spring:
Jai Williams Photography
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Spring – Restorative and reprieve, the passing of the land to the Hollowells’ progeny, while the land continues to heal itself with the care of its guardians.
Uncharted Land:
Jai Williams Photography
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Fall – A period of rest, where the Hollowells envision cultivation of the land in experiential forms.
Winter Trekking
Jai Williams Photography
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Winter – The harshness of racial oppression did not prevent Albert Hollowell from becoming a steward of this land, but how many souls looked up to the stars for guidance beforehand?
Horses:
Running with the Herd:
A photo essay by free feral
The Hollowells have kept horses at Foxfire since they returned to the land in the year 2000. But Albert Hollowell also loved and kept horses and livestock in the first half of the 20th century. Currently, the herd includes five horses. Bill is their primary caretaker. These photos were taken in the fall of 2022.
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1 + 2: The herd is a little camera-shy.
3: Bill takes good care of his herd.
4: The horses are hoping Bill has alfalfa or oats somewhere on his person.
5: What’s in the bucket?
6: In my experience, Bill has always been a thoughtful person who mostly expresses his care through action. If I had to guess, I’d wager his love language is “acts of service.” His herd is clearly part of his community. He approaches them with a quiet sweetness, and they seem to feel an affinity for him as well.
7: This guy is pretty curious.
8: Who are you?
9: Up close and personal
10: A pensive moment
11: Heading off to graze. This pasture is where the old Hollowell house stood, where Bill and his siblings were born.
12: Hay, girl. Hay.
13: Food for thought: at the end of Episode 3, Bill explains that horses naturally replenish their grazing areas with their poop – the grass seeds, fertilized by the other components of the feces, root where they lie.
The Elephant Graveyard:
A photo essay by free feral
Clearcutting is common practice in Mississippi and throughout the southeastern United States. Timber companies can offer landholders tens of thousands of dollars to harvest lumber from their land. The Hollowell family, like many Mississippi landholders, has taken the extra cash when the opportunity arises. However, removing so many trees from one area at once negatively impacts the ecosystem, including decreased biodiversity and increased erosion. The last time the Hollowells allowed a clear-cut at Foxfire was in 2018. Since then, Annette has dubbed that part of the property “the elephant graveyard,” in reference to the iconic scene from The Lion King, because the remains of the trees there resemble bones. These photos, taken in the early spring of 2023, show elements of decay and regeneration.
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1: It really does resemble a bone yard.
2: Mosaic heaps
3: of sun-bleached pine
4: with tiny mushrooms fruiting in the grooves
5: blinking blank-eyed at the too-bright sky.
6: There is no shade
7: just a wealth of young brambles who don’t know better than to claw at your clothes and beg for nothing in the ditch
8: where small trees gather, and water pools appear still until you catch the whisper of its movement in the corner of your ear, snaking through the dark of underground.
9: It is a sound that is not so easily detangled from the rush and splash of tall brown grass that licks your legs up to the hips, mimicking the memory of the ancient place this used to be
10: Back when the land here was submerged in salt water, and ancient leviathans soared above the dolomite like clouds.
Family Album
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Episode 2
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Family Album ✶ Episode 2 ✶
Bill & Annie
Glamorous Hollowells
Ain’t Love Grand
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Bill and Annie shined brilliantly at so many Officers Balls attended over his 24 years serving in the Army. Annie used to spend hours shopping for just the right gown, often purchasing 2 or 3 options for a single occasion. Bill always looked sharp in his dress blues and a big smile.
Foxfire Photos
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Episode 2
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Foxfire Photos ✶ Episode 2 ✶
The Main Pavilion Back in the Day
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The Main Pavilion was the first major piece of infrastructure (apart from the family home) that was constructed on the land. In 2007 the Hollowells were preparing for family reunions for both the Hollowell and Nunnally lines. Bill Hollowell, working with local carpenters and family members laid the 5,000 square foot concrete slab. Over the course of a month Bill drove a flat bed trailer to Alabama every weekend and hauled back the metal sheets and beams used to erect the roof. That fall over 400 people were hosted for the family reunions, essentially christening the space.
Photo Credit: Annette Hollowell
Main Pavilion Spring 2022
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Since it was first constructed in 2007, the Main Pavilion remains the center of life at the Ranch. It is an ideal location to enjoy the crossbreezes as they waft through, and to witness the sky as it fills with evening shades of pinks and purples.
Photo Credit: Jai Williams
OG Kitchen
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Miss Annie has been making magic happen in the kitchen since she was 8 years old. In the early days of the ranch there were no walls or stainless steel, there were just a few outlets, appliances and a little plumbing. But that was enough to feed the people and keep them coming back for her fried chicken, catfish, pulled pork, greens, cabbage, potato salad, yams, cornbread, sweet potato pies, cobblers…..Gawd is Goodt!
Original Hollowell House
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The original Hollowell home that Bill and his siblings grew up in was a simple tar and paper structure. It consisted of 2 bedrooms and a central common area often used to store dry cotton. The Hollowell children have difficult memories of picking cotton and fond memories of sleeping in the piles of clean cotton in their home. The relationship to this powerful plant-cestor for many Black folks is complicated and nuanced.
The First Cabin
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The Hollowells returned to Waterford in 2000, after Bill retired from the military. The land had lain feral for over 50 years; it was a jungle. It took months to clear an area to construct this small cabin and build a simple dirt road. Trees were cut, ditches filled, dirt moved by bulldozers, and lots of bush hogging. Bill, Annie and her brother Mark painstakingly erected a barbed wire fence to reestablish the property's perimeters. Our herd of cows was brought over from Ms. Wilma’s farm to eat down the underbrush. We lived many years in this cabin before the rest of the family house was built, back then there was no pavement or walkways. The chair and blue shoe barrel by the door is where we would sit to change our shoes when entering and exiting the cabin. Due to the rich, muddy red clay, we always needed at least 2 pairs of shoes at all times - the pair for walking to the car, a plastic bag to place them in, and the shoes that we wanted to wear to drive in and wear to our destination. Upon returning home, the muddy shoes would be put back on, worn to the door, and placed in the barrel. Later, all the shoes in the barrel would have to be thoroughly washed. This was also before we had clear pasture areas fenced off for the cows and horses, and there were many a day when Sayeed (our first colt on the property) would kick the wall right by the head of Bill and Annie’s bed to let them know he was hungry or ready for some attention….but that’s another story.
Photo Credit: Annette Hollowell
Wilma the Ruffrider (Part 1)
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On her 85th birthday, Ms. Wilma declared that she wanted to ride a horse. She then drove herself from Holly Springs to the Ranch, donning a pair of slacks (an extremely rare occurrence). Despite her insistence that “Wilma is a roughrider,” her son Bill placed a chair alongside Sayeed to mount from, and proceeded to lead her up and down the rock and tar road until she was content.
Photo Credit: Annette Hollowell
Big House In Progress
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Big House in Progress: The Hollowell family home was built over the course of about 2 years, working with local carpenters and skilled family members. Bill served as the general contractor.
Photo Credit: Annette Hollowell
Wilma the Ruffrider (Part 2)
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In the distance, just beyond the gum tree, Wilma rides atop Sayeed, led by Bill.
Photo Credit: Annette Hollowell
Proud Proprietors
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Bill and Annie, the proud proprietors of Foxfire Ranch, are joyfully working and sweating in the summer heat as Cedric Burnside and Lightnin’ Malcolm - the Juke Joint Duo - perform in the background.
Photo Credit: Annette Hollowell
The Juke Joint Duo
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Back in 2008 the Juke Joint Duo played every Sunday evening for a month and a half to help get our blues series up and running. Since that time Cedric Burnside has gone on to win a Grammy Award, the first for the Hill Country Blues genre! Lightnin’ Malcolm has toured the world playing with the likes of Robert Plant, Jimmy Buffett, Robert Cray, The Black Keys, Wide Spread Panic, the North Mississippi Allstars and Gary Clark Jr. Thanks to their love and support Foxfire Ranch has been going strong ever since!
Photo Credit: Annette Hollowell
Cedric Burnside
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Grammy award winner. World class musician. Stand up guy.
Cedric Burnside stands tall in the lineage of his Big Daddy R.L. Burnside, one of the architects of the Hill Country Blues genre. He started touring the world with R.L. at the age of 13. His drumming is ancestral, his guitar strumming is hypnotic, and his vocals are resonant of the elders that have poured into him.
Be sure to enjoy his growing catalogue of music and get yourself some “Hill Country Love.”
Lightnin' Malcolm:
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Lightnin’ Malcolm shows up BIG whenever we call, ready to offer his endless talents and keen insights to what we’re dreaming up at the Ranch. Lightnin’ is a prolific songwriter, an anointed guitarist, and a student of R.L. Burnside, T Model Ford, Big Jack Johnson, and Robert Belfour, among many others. He is also a contributor to the scoring for this podcast, offering up a clip from his original song “Foxfire,” which he blessed us with many years ago. When he plays this song, you can feel the toil, blood, sweat, and tears that the Hollowells and so many others have poured out as an offering to the land.
Photo Credit: Annette Hollowell
Gettin’ Down with Howlin’ Madd
Howlin’ Cadillac
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For nearly 20 years now, Foxfire Ranch has provided a venue for legendary musicians to take the stage. Here you see some of the kitchen crew, Miss Annie and Darrell, cutting a rug to the stylings of the epic bluesman Bill Howlin’ Madd Perry backed by local band Cadillac Funk, when they were still students. The Perry family and their band played for many years at the ranch, including serving as the house band for our Hill Country Harmonica Music Clinic. May Mr. Perry’s legacy continue through his catalog of music and his talented children, and may he rest in peace always and forever!
Photo Credit: Annette Hollowell
Family Album
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Episode 1
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Family Album ✶ Episode 1 ✶
Annette & Her Girls
(2024)
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A family photo shoot in New Orleans with Annette, Selah (11), Ida (8), and Ruthie (2) on a rare occasion where the big girls had their hair flatironed. Each of the girls was born and raised in New Orleans, but has a strong connection to the land and vision for Foxfire Ranch.
Just like their mother, they too are their ancestors' afterlife.
Photo Credit - Mel Cardona
Albert Hollowell
(Restored Image)
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This is the only picture we have of Albert Hollowell, born in Waterford, MS, in 1892.
In so many ways, he laid the groundwork for Foxfire Ranch when he filed his written intention to purchase these 80 acres in 1918. He worked at a sawmill, sawing logs to be used for making railroad ties. He was also a community veterinarian of sorts, carrying his medicine bag to tend to his neighbors’ livestock. He was a sharp dresser, pictured here in a pinstripe suit, with a tie clip and a Stetson hat.
He enjoyed a good cup of hot coffee and his tobacco snacks. He passed away in 1962 at the age of 68.
Foxfire Deed
(January 13, 1919)
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In December 1918, Albert Hollowell paid Ruth Alvis McVey $550 to secure an 80-acre parcel in Waterford, Mississippi. This represents a purchasing power equivalent to just over $12,000 in 2026.
The Hollowells
(2023)
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Here are Annie and Bill Hollowell, the proprietors of Foxfire Ranch, sitting on a pew under the main pavilion.
Bill was born via midwife on the land and is 1 of 6 children to his parents, Albert Hollowell and Wilmer Guinn Hollowell Faulkner Jones. Annie is number 11 of 14 children (7 boys and 7 girls) born to Mark Nunnally and Connie Mae Sanderson Nunnally in nearby Holly Springs. She is the daughter of sharecroppers and bootleggers.
Together they have 2 daughters and have been married for 51 years.
Photo credit: Jai Williams
Foxfire Sunset
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I (Annette Hollowell) like to think of her as Big Sky Mississippi. In this part of the Hill Country, not only do we sit under the migratory trails for thousands of birds and insects, but the sky is also a gorgeous spectrum, particularly in the latter half of the day.
Part of the Foxfire experience is sitting under the main pavilion, with a Sunday blues band providing the soundtrack, as the sky shows off hues of pink, purple, blue, and gray.
Stick around until 10 or 11 pm, and the sky becomes the perfect planetarium for star-gazing and moon-bathing. Big. Sky. Mississippi.
Photo credit: free feral.
Family Album
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Episode 0
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Family Album ✶ Episode 0 ✶
Allen Bonet
(February 13, 1935 - November 8, 2018)
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Allen Bonet (February 13, 1935 - November 8, 2018), is pictured here in the spring of 1985 with his fourth child, free feral. Born in Houston, TX, Allen spent much of his childhood in foster care.
After a brief stint in the military in his late teens, Allen moved to California where he met his first wife; they had one child together. He discovered his love for classical music in his thirties. He then studied in San Francisco and pursued a career in opera which gave him the opportunity to travel in Europe. He eventually settled in the Bay Area with his second wife Deborah; together they owned a florist business throughout the 80’s and 90’s and raised seven children. Allen taught vocal technique from his living room throughout the nineties, as well.
He recorded Schubert’s Schwanengesang (Swan Song) in 1995, in an effort to revive his career in classical music, which had ended abruptly roughly two decades prior. While a handful of his live performances were documented, Schwanangesang was his only studio recording.
Allen is survived by his wife Deborah, his eight children, and six grandchildren.
Myra Orphy Handy
(April 18, 1905 - July 26, 1961)
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Myra Orphy Handy (April 18, 1905 - July 26, 1961) known by some as Mary, was the daughter of Héloise and Victor Orphy. She and her twin brother, Milo, were raised by their older sister after their parents died.
At some point, the twins moved to Houston, where Milo worked as a carpenter and handyman and Myra as a seamstress, laundress and housekeeper. Myra was the mother of 10 children, of which Allen Bonet is one. She suffered a “nervous breakdown” when her youngest children were still small, resulting in several of them entering the foster system.
Despite the difficult dynamics of their upbringing, her surviving children all speak highly of her. A talented amateur musician, Myra played several instruments and spoke English, Spanish, and Creole.
Héloise [Eugene] Orphee
(Dates unknown)
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Héloise [Eugene] Orphee (dates unknown). Very little is known about Héloise; aside from this photograph, her certificate of marriage to Victor Orphee, and her DNA, which continues to sustain her descendants, there is little documentation of her life.
She lived in St Martinville, Louisiana, where she had three children, including the twins, Myra and Milo. She died when her twins were still young, possibly of rheumatic fever, though at this time, we have no death certificate or obituary to confirm any element of the story.
Reverend Samuel Murray Boney
(October 28, 1896 - August 26, 1979)
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Reverend Samuel Murray Boney (October 28, 1896 - August 26, 1979) was a minister who owned real estate in Houston, TX. He is the father of Allen Bonet. The reverend was married and raised three children with his wife; he also sired six children with Myra Orphy Handy, who rented her house from him. Aside from his children with Myra, and those he raised in wedlock, it is rumored that Samuel fathered children throughout the properties he rented to women in Houston, though this has not been confirmed. After Myra suffered a severe episode with her mental health, some of their children went into foster care; later on, some went to live with their father. He is remembered with mixed emotions; his surviving children with Myra maintain a strategically tight lip about their father as a show of respect.
Marriage Certificate for Victor Orphee & Héloise Eugene
(May 9, 1881)
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Marriage Certificate for Victor Orphee and Héloise Eugene (May 9, 1881)
This marriage certificate commemorates the bond of matrimony between Victor and Héloise Orphee, the parents of Myra Orphy Handy, grandparents of Allen Bonet, great-grandparents of free feral.
They were wed in St. Martin’s Parish, nearly 25 years before the birth of their twins, suggesting that at least Héloise was rather young at the time. While none of their living descendants ever met them, the force of their love lives on in legend.
It is said that after Héloise passed away, Victor fell into such a depression that he neither ate nor drank for days; thus, he followed his wife swiftly beyond the veil, leaving his oldest daughter to raise her two youngest siblings.