Dr. Heber Simmons can’t remember exactly when he met Nancy King but when asked to describe the kind of person she was, he doesn’t hesitate: “She was a go-getter,” he said.
King was “a great lady who was not afraid to voice her opinion,” he added.
Simmons and King served for years together as members of the Rotary Club of Jackson. She was the first woman to join the organization.
Every year, when it was time for members to decide which committees they’d like to serve on, King always jumped at the chance to join the team responsible for awarding scholarships to Jackson’s college-bound high schoolers, he said. “They always asked what committees would you like to serve on. And there wasn’t a doubt in my mind where Nancy was going to be,” Simmons told the Mississippi Free Press.
He evoked the phrase “always leave the wood pile higher than you find it,” saying King embodied that attitude.
‘Wanted People to Feel Joy’
Nancy and Bill King married in Texas in 1969. After nearly a decade of marriage, raising their two daughters and supporting her husband’s business, she was ready to build something of her own.
“Jenny and I were in school, and my dad’s like, ‘What do you want to do,’” Emmie King, the pair’s youngest daughter, recalled in an interview with the Mississippi Free Press. “And she was like, ‘I either want to go back to school, or I want to start my own business.’”
Bill King’s work brought him to Jackson, and she fell in love with the city. Following the 1979 flood that devastated the capital city, she wanted to build a space that would help people make new memories.
As the couple rebuilt their home, she decided on opening a neighborhood candy store similar to Kegg’s—a handmade candy factory she’d worked at as a teen in Houston, Texas. “Candy brings people joy. My mom wanted people to feel joy,” Emmie King said.
To learn more about running the business, the couple reached out to her former employer in Houston. The children stayed with family members and attended summer camp there as her mother apprenticed, and their father attended candy school in Pennsylvania.
“They both did it together, but it was her loan and her business. And she’d helped him start his business, so they really were a team,” Emmie King told the Mississippi Free Press.
Nancy King thereafter founded Nandy’s Candy in 1980 at Colonial Mart in Northeast Jackson. Her husband Bill was often in the shop working by her side. They employed a small team—many of whom were teenagers—and taught them the business of candy-making, which included crafting handmade confections and treats like chocolates, caramel and fudge from scratch and serving the store’s many customers.
But the friends, family and former employees who spoke with the Mississippi Free Press about Nancy King’s legacy said it extends beyond the creation of the popular candy store.
In sharing their stories of her, they make it evident that equally as important as her business acumen was her devotion to mentoring young people about both business and having the confidence to go after what you want in life.
‘Gave Her Love To So Many’
Sitting inside the back office of Nandy’s Candy, Emmie King said that from a young age, she and her sister Jenny, shared their mother with the world. “I realize that she had not just Jenny and I. She loved us, but she gave her love to so many people,” she told the Mississippi Free Press on Oct. 6.
Allen Martinson was one of those people. He was one of the first employees the pair hired to work in the store.
It was his first time finding employment outside of his own family’s agriculture business, and he welcomed the change. He remembers spending his weekends and evenings after school, coating fresh strawberries in warm chocolate.
Those were always a popular item, he recollected during an interview with the Mississippi Free Press.
Each worker on the assembly line had to perform their role just right before passing a product down the line, he recalled. But what sticks with him more than four decades later, is the kind of work environment King fostered among the mostly teens and 20-somethings working with her.
He explained that while both Nancy and Bill King had high expectations for their employees, there was always a sense of camaraderie among everyone on the team, mutual respect for the role everyone played in the store’s success.
“We had some good times. Nancy trusted us with taking care of her business that she cared so much about,” Martinson said.
“We basically became part of the family,” he continued. “And that gave you the rein to mess up a little bit. I made mistakes, and they would sit down and talk to me like they would one of their own kids. The next day, it’s over, and we’re back to business.”
He said he employs that style of leadership in his own business today.
Former employee Rita Daniell is also a living, breathing testament to Nancy King’s legacy as an employer and mentor. Daniell worked at Nandy’s Candy for 10 years, starting at age 16.
She said it was King’s mentoring that helped propel her pursuit of a career in law. “I don’t think anybody that ever worked there thought they couldn’t go on and be whatever they wanted to be,” Daniell told the Mississippi Free Press. “She was very supportive, especially for young women.”
‘Keep Making Joyful Memories’
In the early 2000s, the couple moved the store to Northside Drive, where it remains today.
Nancy King’s love for crafting confections took her around the world, Emmie King said. She joined organizations like Retail Confectioners International and spent summers traveling with friends to Switzerland and Canada, touring candy factories and refining her craft.
“She made friends with chocolatiers all across the country,” King’s daughter told the Mississippi Free Press.
She became an active member of Jackson-based organizations like the Children’s Community Theater, Leadership Jackson and the Mississippi Craftsmen’s Guild. She got involved with Mississippi’s political advocacy too, working with the Hinds County Democratic Women and Jackson Election Commission.
“My mom had such a strong conviction. She wasn’t going to let anyone tell her, ‘No,’” Emmie King recalled.
After retiring from the business, she spent the last decade of her life with her four grandchildren, playing bridge, talking with friends near and far, dancing at weddings, going to physical therapy and relaxing by her pool.
Emmie King took over responsibility for running the store in 2019.
On Sept. 29, the day Nancy King died, her husband of 56 years, Bill King, sat by her side.
Through tears, Emmie King said she looks forward to continuing traditions as the store moves into its first holiday season without her mother. “My mom loved the holidays,” she said. “We’re going to have one heck of a Valentine’s Day without her. But we’re going to make it. I’m going to keep doing it. Keep smiling. Keep making joyful memories.”
In lieu of flowers, Nancy King’s family is requesting donations through tax-deductible contributions to support the Nancy V. King Rotary Club of Jackson Scholarship, which should be made by check payable to the following address.
Jackson Rotary Club Charities, Inc.
P.O. Box 3807
Jackson, MS 39207-3807
Please add a memo note on the check: Nancy V. King.
Know a Mississippian you believe deserves some public recognition? Nominate them for a potential Person of the Day article at mfp.ms/pod.
