Ricky Kelly, left, has been caretaker, hunting guide, dog trainer, quail raiser, and farmer
at Genteel Plantation for 27 years. Louise Spencer, right, has cooked at Genteel for the
past 10 years.
“I’ve been quail hunting all my life. As
a kid, I killed my first quail when I was
about 12,” he says. “Always fascinated
me; they scare you to death when they
flush, they make so much noise. Back
then, we didn’t have dogs, we’d just
walk around the field.”
“This place is not just hunted, it’s
a family place,” Harrelson says. “The
week of Thanksgiving is always kind of
the highlight week of the year. All the
family comes here.”
Harrelson, one of the region’s most
successful real estate developers, says,
“In my heart, I always wanted to be a
farmer.”
Inside the dining room of the old
house he restored and later enlarged,
Harrelson, his wife of six and a half
years, Estelle, and his caretaker, Ricky
Kelly, share fried chicken served with
white rice and brown gravy, charred
okra, cooked cabbage, butter beans and
homemade biscuits prepared by Louise
Spencer, Genteel’s cook.
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